As Africa trip nears end, Trudeau visits farm in Senegal helped by Canadian aid

Feb 17, 2020

KERI, Senegal - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is visiting a farm in Senegal's "California" today, seeing first-hand the benefits of some Canadian aid funding.

The Niayes region is feeling the effects of climate change and coastal erosion.

Trudeau is on a farm in Keri, about 50 kilometres outside the capital of Dakar, to witness how $14 million in Canadian aid over the last 10 years helped stimulate vegetable production.

The Program for Land Use and Economic Development of Niayes helped bring water pumps and solar panels.

Surrounded by sand dunes in every direction, the fields of cabbages, onions and tomatoes stand out as colourful patches of lush green against the dusty backdrop.

Trudeau says the initiative has helped bring wealth to a poverty-stricken area and helped make farms more resilient against climate change.

Trudeau was greeted by local politicians and residents, including children, who clamoured around him to shake his hand.

Earlier, Trudeau watched a demonstration by female Senegalese police officers who trained as UN peacekeepers. He also spoke at a university in Dakar and took questions from students about trade, climate and global security.

Trudeau is headed to Germany this afternoon, where he will attend the Munich Security Conference, an international event dubbed the security equivalent of the Davos World Economic Forum.

Trudeau addresses the conference Friday. Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne will meet with the Iranian foreign minister to discuss the investigation of the downing of a Ukrainian jetliner last month

Fifty-seven Canadians were killed. Canada is growing weary of Iran's reluctance to allow the plane's black boxes to go to France to be analyzed. Champagne says the equipment to do so doesn't exist in Iran and is not portable.

Source : FCC

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.