A California congressman, Jim Costa, is one of two candidates who have declared interest in chairing the U.S. House Agriculture Committee. He represents an agricultural district surrounding Fresno.

If the new administration doesn’t move forward with trade negotiations in Europe and Japan, this could present Canadian agriculture with an opportunity to better leverage its first-mover advantage secured in agreements, including CPTPP and CETA. That’s the insight provided by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute.

Just for fun, The Grower invited apple growers across the country to submit photos and measurements of the biggest Honeycrisp apple. Van Ymeren Orchards, Alymer, Ontario wins the contest with an apple measuring 4.9175 inches.

Health Canada has completed its re-evaluation of linuron. Some mitigation measures are required for specific crops such as carrots, parsnips, potatoes and asparagus. Celery growers will have another two years to find alternative solutions.

Software developer Cliffe Hodgkinson has finetuned a web-based program called FarmHR that eases the load of record-keeping for temporary foreign workers.

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency recently announced the approval of a minor use label expansion registration for Prowl H2O herbicide for control of labeled weeds on transplanted celery.

Telus Corporation, a Canadian telecom company, has announced its acquisitions of several data management and analytics companies to come under the umbrella of Telus Agriculture.

The global company has announced a new logo for its four business units: Syngenta Crop Protection, Syngenta Seeds, ADAMA and Syngenta Group China.

The label for Quadris Top fungicide has been expanded for management of Ramularia leaf spot and powdery mildew on globe artichokes.

Taylor Selig has been appointed to continue AgScape’s mission of reaching Ontario’s two million students about agriculture and the potential of agri-careers. He’s been with the organization for six years as development manager.