Pitt Meadows farmers Travis and Brad Hopcott of Hopcott Farms have taken top honours in the Outstanding Young Farmers Canada event, held in Laval, Quebec, November 22-26. “We are so excited to receive this award,” says Brad Hopcott. “The judges had an extremely hard decision to make with all of the fantastic honourees. We would …
Ben Janzen recognized for service
High production costs, narrow margins and market opportunities were key topics of discussion at the BC Dairy Industry Conference in Vancouver last week. A pre-conference meeting of producers with national industry representatives underscored the severe challenges BC producers are facing as incomes fall short of production costs and interest rates show no sign of abating …
Site C compensation funds awarded
The flooding of Peace farmland for the Site C reservoir has been pushed back till next year, but funds continue to flow to projects in the region from the BC Hydro Peace Agricultural Compensation Fund created to offset its impacts. The fund’s board of directors has approved $107,155 in grants to six projects that support …
Province considers farmland tax
ABBOTSFORD – Unused farmland could be the next front in the province’s battle against real estate speculators. Citing the precedent of the speculation and vacancy tax the province levies on underused housing, BC Premier David Eby said the province is considering applying a version of the tax to underused farmland in the ALR. “There’s a …
BC agriculture loses a champion
Veteran farm journalist and Country Life in BC editor emeritus David Schmidt has died. Schmidt passed away unexpectedly in Chilliwack, November 20. A cause of death has not been released. Raised on a mixed farm in Chilliwack, Schmidt was the face of Country Life in BC for decades as he diligently covered producers meetings across …
Flood recovery in hand
Two years after the atmospheric rivers of November 2021 led to catastrophic flooding and landslides across southern BC, cutting off farms and communities for weeks, those hit hardest continue to be grateful for the support that helped them get back into production. A series of roundtables ultimately pegged “extraordinary” losses to agriculture – those not …