Today’s Sprout is brought to you by iPolitics and Mainstreet Research. iPolitics’ 2019 Premium Election Package is your source for daily data to see the trends. Riding polls, regional breakouts, election briefs, weekly podcasts, insights and analysis will keep you ahead of the herd. Subscribe here.

Good day and welcome to the Sprout, where it’s National Caramel Custard Day. It’s also the internet’s annual celebration of the mid-2000s teen flick Mean Girls.

Here’s today’s agriculture news.

The Lead

Has agriculture been ignored in this election campaign? The chairman of Soy Canada thinks so.

Ernie Sirksi, who represents farmers and other groups involved in soybean production, as well as being a grain farmer himself in Manitoba, wrote an open letter entitled “Where is Agriculture?” expressing concern for the lack of attention the sector has received during the campaign

“We need a government with a plan to unite Canadians around a strong and healthy agriculture sector. Farmers, those who work in the industry and consumers are listening and waiting for our candidates’ responses,” Sirski said in his letter, as National Newswatch reports.

Sirski also said that the agriculture candidates’ debate coordinated by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture produced comments “heavy on rhetoric and light on substance.”

In Canada

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Liberal Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne encouraged aquaculture companies feeling the pressure in British Columbia relocate to his province in an interview with CBC News.

“Newfoundland and Labrador is a place where much of that salmon production should consider to locate,” Byrne said when responding to a campaign promise made by the federal Liberals to phase out sea-based open-net pen salmon farming in B.C. by 2025.

Agricultural company Cargill has reduced the amount of plastic it uses for its vegetable oil bottles and containers by more than 1,200 metric tones globally, which it says will prevent nearly 2,900 metric tons of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere. Food In Canada has more details.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney just announced the unilateral removal of a swath of internal trade barriers for Alberta. Internal trade barriers cost the Canadian economy between $50-billion and $130-billion and over the years, provinces have erected more and more barriers to trade between them. And, thanks to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, it is considerably easier for a business in Ontario, to trade goods or services with any European country, than with another province. All these factors make Canada less attractive for foreign investment and impede greater pan-Canadian social and political cohesion, according to the Globe and Mail.

Internationally

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in Wisconsin on Tuesday that he isn’t sure if the family dairy farm can survive as the industry becomes increasingly dominated by factory farming operations.

“In America, the big get bigger and the small go out,” Perdue said. “I don’t think in America we, for any small business, we have a guaranteed income or guaranteed profitability.”

The Associated Press has more.

President Trump will impose 25 per cent tariffs on certain European Union agricultural exports and 10 per cent tariffs on European-brand aircraft on Oct. 18, the White House announced Wednesday following a decision by a World Trade Organization (WTO) arbitrator to allow the U.S. to impose tariffs on $7.5 billion in European goods. “For years, Europe has been providing massive subsidies to Airbus that have seriously injured the U.S. aerospace industry and our workers. Finally, after 15 years of litigation, the WTO has confirmed that the United States is entitled to impose countermeasures in response to the EU’s illegal subsidies,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement, according to The Hill. “We expect to enter into negotiations with the European Union aimed at resolving this issue in a way that will benefit American workers.”

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he has delivered a “constructive and reasonable” plan to Brussels complete with compromises and alternative arrangements to the Irish backstop, in hopes of brokering a last-minute Brexit deal.

Now, he says it’s the EU’s turn to make compromises. BBC News reports.

Australian Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie said Wednesday she ordered sniffer dogs to fly to Darwin International Airport in an attempt to stop African swine fever (ASF), a disease which has wiped out approximately 25 per cent of the world’s pig population, from coming onto Australian shores.

McKenzie told Radio National she had made the call as the disease moved “very, very quickly” and because Darwin was the closest port to Timor Leste, according to ABC News.

Noteworthy

Kicker

After receiving complaints about a stray cat in the building, the Order of Attorneys of Brazil decided to employ the furry friend. Initially hired to help welcome people coming into the building, he’s now moved up to become a “cattorney.” You can find Dr. Leon on Instagram, or read about his story at Unilad.

Until next time.