The Lead
The Dairy Farmers of Canada has pulled one of its new print ads after it drew public complaints to the advertising standards body.
As The Canadian Press reports, the ad being pulled is part of the DFC’s “Honest. Canadian. Dairy.” campaign, and features the picture of a man standing in front of a field and includes the words: “There are zero growth hormones in milk produced in Canada. Like, none.”
After making the rounds online, an animal rights group reportedly suggested people submit complaints to Ad Standards, the national advertising monitor, to argue milk contains a natural growth hormone.
A DFC spokesperson said the group has been “informed of the claims made by the lobby group and the information is incomplete and inaccurate.”
Yamina Bennacer, standards manager at Ad Standards, confirmed in a letter to a complainant that the group was informed by the DFC that it has permanently withdrawn the advertisement. Ad Standards will close its file on the matter because of this “corrective action.”
Around Town
The House and Senate are not sitting this week.
In Canada
New Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau is largely unknown to the nation’s agrifood organizations, reports National Newswatch.
And the surprising shuffle of longtime minister Lawrence MacAulay to Veterans’ Affairs last week is prompting these groups to rethink efforts to advance their goals in the short term as Bibeau gets up to speed with agrifood files.
Other than representing a Quebec riding with some dairy farmers, Bibeau has “no known experience with farming or food processing,” reports Newswatch.
New Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Mary Robinson said the group was sad with the departure of MacAulay, who she described as “a strong ally to Canadian agriculture and our organization.” She said the CFA will work with Bibeau “to ensure that federal government policies are aligned with farmer priorities.”
Former agriculture minister MacAulay is making a funding announcement on behalf of Bibeau tonight at the Canadian Horticultural Annual General meeting in Halifax. According to Bibeau’s office, he will announce a “federal investment to support Canada’s horticulture sector.”
Internationally
U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb will be resigning from the role after leading the agency’s crackdown on electronic cigarettes and the response to the opioid epidemic, Axios reports. The decision is reportedly due to the difficulty in commuting from Washington to Connecticut, where his three young children live.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is defending his country’s approach to farming and “food hygiene,” reports the BBC
U.S. beef and chicken producers use cleaning processes that are not permitted in the European Union, such as rinsing chicken carcasses with chlorine. However, Woody Johnson says the U.K. should accept American meat in a new post-Brexit trade deal.
“To get a robust trade arrangement, that lifts all boats, it has to include farming and farm products,” he said.
Johnson claims Americans believe their food to be “cost-effective and humane” and would take legal action if they felt there was anything wrong with food safety.
“If I had my choice between chicken that was safe and clean and didn’t have campylobacter material and poisons on it … I would take the one that had been cleaned sufficiently,” he added.
