Parliamentary Secretary Badawey announces funding for Ontario Tender Fruit Growers to develop climate resilient fruit varieties

May 15, 2024

Vineland Station, Ontario – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Canadian farmers produce a wide range of fruits, including apples and tender fruit like peaches, pears, and apricots, that contribute steadily to Canada’s economy—with most of Canada’s tender fruit and apples grown in Ontario.

To keep the sector strong, competitive, and resilient in the face of more extreme weather events, today, Vance Badawey, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport and Member of Parliament for Niagara Centre, on behalf of the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced up to $1,099,624 to the Ontario Tender Fruit Growers through the AgriScience Program – Projects Component, an initiative under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership. Ontario Apple Growers is a project partner.

Key outcomes of the project include:

Developing baseline data on the carbon footprint and environmental impacts of Canadian apple and tender fruit farming operations
Measuring and quantifying the impacts of climate-smart management practices on a farm’s environmental footprint
Developing a carbon calculator to help growers understand, track, and reduce their carbon footprint and GHG emissions
Developing innovative and superior varieties of tender fruit to increase the resiliency and economic growth of the sector

Building on the previous variety development research, this project will look at innovative tender fruit varieties with improved attributes—such as firmer flesh—to increase production, extend shelf-life, and reduce losses caused by shipping, storage, and climate change.

Source : Canada.ca

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.