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Originally published:

November 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 11

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Stories In This Edition

Dairy pays price in new trade deal

USMCA uncorks wine sales

ALC crippled while province mulls revitalization

Editorial: Think Big

Back Forty: If wishes were horses, beggars would ride

Viewpoint: Antibiotics are important tools for producers

Farms scramble as thousands of jobs go unfilled

Farmers’ institutes set to meet in Vancouver

Poultry growers adjust to reduced antibiotic use

Traceability regulations expected next year

UFV consolidates two centres

Plowman in the making

Letters: Animal welfare monitored

Success starts with a solid business plan

Turkey growers look to boost markets

Dairy sale

Strawberry growers rank fruit quality highest

Westcoast Holsteins brings home the prizes

Cannabis raises new workplace concerns

Tasty!

Ag Briefs: Cannabis conference alongside PAS

Ag Briefs: First Nations farms funded

Ag Briefs: Cannabis grower breaks ground

Ag Briefs: harvest conflict results in fewer plow match competitors

Pilot project in Delta supports perennial crops

Uvic research seeks perfect picking time for wine grapes

Ag council wants to get farmers CHATting

Sidebar: Remember to CHAT

Fleeced

Buying stations gain ground

Snow joke

Triple Threat

Meat processing review fails to meet expectations

Livestock transport under scrutiny by activists

Ranching program grads ready for next field

Yields high as cranberry season runs late

Tour features multi-generation farms

Horse Power

Edible flowers show promise for BC growers

Retirement blossoms into flower nursery

Research: Sunflower pollen can help improve colony health

Woodshed: The countdown begins for Kenneth, Deborah

4-H BC: Funding helps advance initiatives

Wannabe: Choosing gratitude

Jude’s Kitchen: Roots and keepers

 

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8 hours ago

Farmland Advantage is receiving a $445,000 grant from the federal government. The program, the “brainchild” of Invermere cattle rancher Dave Zehnder, provides compensation to farmers for their conservation efforts to protect BC’s grasslands, riparian areas and wildlife habitat. The funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) and Priority Places programs, will be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas appeared in our March 2022 edition and you can view it at ... See MoreSee Less

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Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

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INVERMERE – Farmers and ranchers in the Columbia Valley will continue to see rewards for taking action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms. The Windermere District Farmer...
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5 days ago

A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural Land Commission hosted in Langley Monday night regarding a proposal to include 305 acres controlled by the federal government in the Agricultural Land Reserve. More than 76,000 people have signed an online petition asking municipal and provincial governments to protect the land from development, and for the federal government to grant a long-term lease to the Heppells. Read more in this morning's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. conta.cc/3XYXw6k ... See MoreSee Less

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Your weekly farm news update

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The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 January 25 2023 Surrey ALR inclusion cheered A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural L
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Mike Manion Pitt Meadows City Councillor

2 months ago

Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand this season and prices remain comparable to last year. But the number of tree farms has decreased dramatically over the past five years and the province will increasingly need to look elsewhere if it wants to meet local demand. More in this week's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. ... See MoreSee Less

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Christmas trees in demand

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Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand, with high quality trees making it to market. “The market is good. We’ll probably outdo last year and last year was one of our best years…
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2 months ago

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall. ... See MoreSee Less

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall.
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Avian influenza virus can be killed by chlorine at no higher a concentration than is present in drinking water, so unless farms are using untreated groundwater in their barns I don't see how it could be a source of transmission. www.researchgate.net/publication/5594208_Chlorine_Inactivation_of_Highly_Pathogenic_Avian_Influen...

2 months ago

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall. ... See MoreSee Less

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall.Image attachment
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Goes to show how far-removed our current government is from the agricultural sector. To put someone in this position who has no farming background is a slap in the face to all of our hard-working producers.

Going to be a heck of a learning curve. Helping the agricultural community recover from the biggest natural disasters in history, handling the avian influenza outbreak that is threatening our poultry industry, dealing with a crisis in meat processing, managing ongoing threats from climate change, supporting producers who are facing unprecedented inflation in an industry with very slim margins to begin with..... to name a few of the challenges our new Minister will have to face all with one of the lowest budgets of any ministry. I wish her the best of luck but I hope she's got a lot of support around her.

Best of wishes in your new position

Congrats to Pam, cool to see a Fraser Valley based ag minister but also so sad to see Lana reassigned . I have no doubt she will do an amazing job in her new role.

Will be missed by #meiernation

Bryce Rashleigh

Nooooooo!

Lana did a shit job and now we have a minister with no farming background at all. Aren’t we lucky..

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ALC crippled while province mulls revitalization

Just two regional panels properly constituted to handle applications

October 29, 2018 byPeter Mitham

DELTA – Victoria has left the Agricultural Land Commission short of commissioners needed to assess applications while it awaits a report on how to revitalize the province’s protected farmland.

Provincial legislation requires the ALC to have at least “at least 13 individuals … knowledgeable in matters relating to agriculture, land use planning, local government or First Nation government.” However, the commission now has just 11 members, including Jennifer Dyson, who succeeded Frank Leonard as chair in May. This is half the number who served in 2017.

The commission’s six regional panels – which BC agriculture minister Lana Popham would like to see disbanded in favour of a single panel for the entire province – have been reduced to no more than two members. Panels for the Interior and Okanagan regions now consist of just one member each, and the term of the Okanagan’s sole remaining panellist ends December 30.

Perhaps more important, just two of the remaining commission members are vice-chairs, meaning most panels aren’t legally constituted to fulfil their mandate.

The situation concerns Bill Zylmans, the former vice-chair of the South Coast panel whose term ended October 8.

“It seems like they don’t want too many people around the table,” he says.

While having just one person on a panel would cripple its work, the loss of the farmer’s voice from panel membership is an equal concern.

“They’ve sent some of the most passionate people out to pasture,” he says. “If you’re going to do anything for the farming community, you need farmers on board to be doing that job.”

Besides Zylmans’, the appointments of Fort Fraser rancher Dave Merz and Vancouver Island cheesemaker Clarke Gourlay have not been renewed. In addition, Oliver orchardist Greg Norton was not replaced following his death in February. This leaves just six active farmers on the commission, with only the Kootenay region served by a functioning panel with farmer membership.

“Is this good for the farming community as a whole, and the foresight for the farming community as we continue to go through very difficult times?” Zylmans asks, pointing to trade issues among the key pressures facing growers. “What serious agricultural, historical, boots-on-the-ground expertise is left on those panels?”

ALC CEO Kim Grout didn’t respond to a request for comment on how the lack of new appointments is affecting the commission’s work, but BC Liberal agriculture critic Ian Paton, a farmer and former Delta councillor who represents Delta South in the legislature, said the effect could be “chaos.”

Zylmans lives in his riding, and Paton said the loss of someone intimately familiar with farming in the region is unfortunate for everyone. The lack of any new appointments deepens the loss of Zylmans’ experience and expertise.

“With people being let go and no new commissioners being brought on, the applications are going to stack up, and decisions. … There’s tons of decisions being waited on by municipalities,” Paton says. “They seem to be reducing these panels to the point of disregarding them, and probably just pulling the whole thing together as one big land commission like in the old days.”

Many expect new appointments to follow when the province acts on the final recommendations of the nine-member committee charged earlier this year to suggest ways to revitalize the ALC and the properties it oversees. Provincial law requires the lieutenant governor fill vacant commission positions within 90 days, and the revitalization committee report is expected in November.

“There’s a very small glimmer of hope [that] after they’ve done their thing that they may come back to some of us who, I believe, have passion for agriculture and they may look at us again,” Zylmans says. “Or, they might find somebody entirely new, which is fine, too. … But hopefully they keep the focus of boots on the ground.”

Practical farming experience is critical if the province wants to understand farmers’ concerns and keep land in production, something Zylmans says has to be at the heart of farmland preservation. Decisions must be grounded in knowledge and understanding of the challenges farmers face.

“Preserving land is great; preserving farmers is even better. Together, with those two points in mind, you can move mountains and you can bring people back to the farm,” Zylmans says. “It’s not easy to come up with the perfect model, but I think we are three-quarters of the way down the road if we put the farmer and the land together.”

 

 

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