MANITOBA – The Manitoba Beef Producers will receive $350,000 over the next five years to help deliver the Verified Beef Production Plus program. The investment is intended to help meet consumer demands while maintaining confidence in Canada’s world-class production standards.

The program will offer resources and training to help producers meet marketplace and societal expectations.

The VBP program is a national program that helps producers meet industry standards for food safety. In 2016, VBP expanded to include modules for animal care, biosecurity and environmental stewardship and is now called VBP+.

The VBP+ program includes a full suite of resources and training designed to establish a common platform to help producers meet marketplace and societal expectations. The Manitoba Beef Producers will deliver VBP+ workshops to train beef producers about the program, coordinate the required on farm audits and transition producers from VBP to VBP+.

“Verified Beef Production Plus is a transparent and comprehensive way to show consumers that our producers care about how we treat the environment, how we treat our livestock and that we take care to produce the highest-quality of beef,” said Tom Teichroeb, president, Manitoba Beef Producers. “Public trust is important to beef producers and we are happy to have both the federal and provincial government as partners as we encourage more of our producers to have their good practices recognized by this program.”

The five-year, $3-billion Canadian Agricultural Partnership includes $2 billion for cost-shared strategic initiatives delivered by the provinces and territories and $1 billion for federal programs and services. For more information, visit www.canada.ca/Agri-Partnership.