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iPolitics By Kelsey Johnson. Published on Apr 23, 2021 11:19am (Karolina Grabowski/Pexels photo)
Good day and welcome to the Sprout, where it’s National Cherry Cheesecake Day – a Johnson staple and a recipe that brings back memories of this pandemic moment in Ontario politics last May. It’s also National English Muffin Day and National Picnic Day – socially distanced this year, of course.
Now, here’s today’s agriculture news.
The Lead
Amazon, Maple Leaf Foods and Maple Lodge Farms will host COVID-19 immunization clinics for their employees as the Ontario government expands its vaccination strategy to target hot spot neighbourhoods in Peel Region. The move was announced by Peel Public Health on Thursday.
The provincial government recently announced changes to the cumbersome and restrictive regulations surrounding livestock slaughter.
The Small-Scale Meat Producers Association (SSMPA), a non-profit society which represents farmers and ranchers in the province who don’t raise meat animals in a conventional or industrial system, has lobbied the province for several years for more options as it has become almost impossible to have animals legally slaughtered in a timely manner under the current system.
The province, it seems, may have finally heard the pleas of these producers, who are integral to food production and food security in BC.
In a meeting with Ministry of Agriculture staff on March 25, 2021, SSMPA was informed that there are new policies in the works that would increase slaughter options and also remove some marketing limitations.