Bibeau Launches $77.5 Million Emergency Processing Fund

On Friday, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, launched the $77.5 million Emergency Processing Fund (EPF) as part of the Government of Canada’s action to support Canadians and businesses facing hardship as a result of COVID-19.

 

“Canadian food processors are key to ensuring Canada’s food supply chain is protected during COVID-19, and beyond," said Bibeau. "Our Government understands the challenges that Canadian food processors, producers and manufacturers are facing. This Emergency Processing Fund will help our processors to adapt their activities to ensure the safety of their workers, and to increase their capacity of production.”

 

The program will prioritize projects based on two objectives:

 

Emergency COVID Response to assist companies to implement changes required by COVID-19 to ensure the health and safety of workers.

 

This funding will assist with:

 

- plant retrofits or adjustments to existing operations to accommodate changes to processes and production;

 

- increasing capacity for herd management.

 

Strategic Investments to assist companies to improve, automate, and modernize facilities needed to increase Canada’s food supply capacity.

 

Activities can be retroactive to March 15, 2020 and must be completed by September 30, 2020.

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.