THE BEST DEFENSE A STRONG OFFENSE

Promoting The Health Benefits

Red meat is often wrongly portrayed as being unhealthy. some in the media as unhealthy or not environmentally friendly.

How To Spot An Online Phishing Scam And Avoid Getting Hooked

Online scams remain a common problem across Canada, and farmers and ranchers are not immune.

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), Canadians lost over $40 million to online scams in 2020, and phishing continues to be used in most cases.

Phishing scams are typically misleading and deceptive emails or text messages that falsely claim to come from legitimate organizations like banks, businesses or governments.

healthier alternatives. The result of this onslaught of negative meat messages has influenced many families to cut back on their meat and poultry purchases. Perceptions may reality but truth trumps misinformation. Parents and other consumers want what is best for their health and that of their families. They are also aware that a lot of false information is out there and as such, are open to scientific facts that can correct their misconceptions.

The scams aren’t limited to individuals. One agricultural conference organization almost lost close to $200,000 in 2020, but the fraud was detected before the money vanished.

liver, 625 spinach.

Iron found found in absorption.

Farmers As Targets

While usually carried out over email, phishing has also spread elsewhere online like social media, and this year, scammers included drought-affected Western producers among their targets.

“Because of the dry conditions on the Prairies, farmers were seeking hay for their animals,” says Wes Lafortune, Better Business Bureau media and communications specialist. “Scammers would post ads for hay for sale online and then ask for payment in full, or at least a 50% deposit. Once paid, the scammer disappeared.”

ARE YOU BEING PHISHED?

This provides an opportunity for retail meat departments to implement an instore ‘Healthy Meat Facts’ nutritional campaign to set the record straight and convince their customers that meat and poultry are actually good for one’s health and that they should increase rather than decrease their purchases of it. The campaign outlined below can have a direct impact on sales:

Beware of unsolicited text messages and emails from individuals or organizations asking you to click or tap on a link or attachment, CAFC warns.

Start by displaying instore posters promoting the nutritional value of meat. They should be innovative, eye catching and be designed to specifically contradict any meat myths. The comments should all be literature based quoting research papers or MDs for maximum effect. Various posters should be made - each with a brief but powerful message covering one theme.

2. Eat Meat Being deficient linked with Dr. Charlotte California, Zinc is preserves

3. Boost Due to antibodies chronic

4. Power The protein Muscles building The protein growth

Posters can convey the following healthy meat fact messages:

1. Let’s IRON out the Truth on Meat!

Signs of phishing include spelling mistakes in an email address or message, says Jennifer Hogan, a senior security analyst within the IT division of Farm Credit Canada (FCC). Phishing messages are likely to include offers too good to be true and attempts to trigger a sense of urgency to respond quickly, she says. Hogan says to also look out for requests for personal, financial or login information.

Preventative Steps

“You would need to eat a massive amount of spinach to equal (the iron content) in a steak,” says Christopher Golden, an ecologist and epidemiologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (As quoted by nature.com in the article ‘Brain food- clever eating’.)

5. Meat Meat contains body cannot isoleucine, threonine, protein.

CAFC recommends that with email, verify hyperlinks behind the text in a link or a button by hovering over the words, but avoid clicking on any links or attachments, as they may contain viruses or spyware.

For a woman to receive her recommended daily intake of 18 mg of iron, she would need just 300 grams of cooked bovine

Continued on page 12

6. Eat Meat Meat contains production functioning Say ‘hello’ acid, vitamin The line only apply meat health Facts’ and poultry. education

Ronnie P. meat and https://www.mmequip.com

HOGAN SUGGESTS FURTHER STEPS TO TAKE:

• Use password managers (a computer program that stores, generates and manages passwords for online services) to secure your passwords instead of writing them down.

• Configure multi-factor authentication (an electronic authentication where password-protected accounts can only be accessed after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence, like two security questions, or granting access through a second account) when provided with the option.

• Complete data backups.

• Remove administration rights (where someone else has privileges to perform most, if not all, functions within an operating system on a computer).

HAVE YOU BEEN HOOKED?

Hogan says you may have been phished if you observe:

• Passwords that no longer work.

• Odd behaviour on your computer, like the fan running more frequently, apps crashing and a sudden general slowness.

• Unusual charges on credit cards or bank account withdrawals never made.

• Files no longer open and a ransomware message displays on your screen.

Action

If you are a victim of a phishing attack, Hogan advises letting your financial institutions know immediately. While they monitor accounts, she stresses changing your passwords and adding multi-factor authentication (like Google authenticator) if possible.

Hogan notes that once you’re hit with ransomware, where the contents of your computer are held for ransom and not released until a fee is paid, you cannot clean your system and will be forced to wipe your computer and reload the operating system and apps.

If you lose money, Hogan says to contact the CAFC through its Fraud Reporting System, or by calling 1-888-495-8501. Also consider signing up with a credit monitoring service like Equifax, she advises, to track how your personal information may be used in the future.

Bottom Line

Farmers are at as much risk of online phishing scams as anyone else. Know the signs of phishing attempts to avoid being hooked. Steer clear of unfamiliar text messages or emails with links or logins, use multifactor authentication and complete data backups. All are steps to thwart fraudsters from gaining control of your computer systems or your financial accounts.

Article courtesy of Farm Credit Canada - https://www.fccfac.ca/en.html https://www.beaconmetals.com

Transforming Chicken Manure Into Nutrientrich Fertilizer For Crops

By Erin Matthews, Canadian Light Source

An international collaboration between researchers from Brazil and the United States has identified a process for turning poultry waste into a soil additive for agriculture.

“Several countries have large poultry production, especially United States and Brazil, where agriculture is also concentrated,” says Aline Leite, a Post Doctoral researcher from the Federal University of Lavras in Brazil. “So, reusing a global residue generated in large amounts is an interesting way of promoting a circular economy.”

The researchers harvested poultry manure from an experimental site in the United States, which they heated to turn into biochar, a carbon-rich substance that is used as a soil additive to replenish critical nutrients like phosphorus.

“We are focused on understanding mechanisms that are responsible for increasing phosphorus availability in materials like manure,” says Leite.

Poultry manure is full of calcium and requires higher temperature treatments to turn the waste into biochar, however, these higher temperatures can have an effect on the amount of phosphorus available.