KELOWNA – When equipment was removing the apple trees from his orchard in spring 2025, Shayne Witzke largely stayed inside the family farmhouse, grieving the end to three generations of apple production. The Kelowna orchard had earned industry awards for fruit quality and innovation, but with declining margins, external pressures such as loans, pests and …
ALC opposes province’s rule change
The Agricultural Land Commission has come out swinging against the province’s proposal to eliminate a rule requiring processors locating in the Agricultural Land Reserve source at least half their ingredients from BC growers. “The proposal represents a significant policy shift that has not been supported by evidence demonstrating the need for change or showing that …
UBC appoints new agriculture dean
Two years after Rickey Yada’s departure as dean, UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems has appointed a successor. Amy Charkowski steps into the role on October 1, following three years as associate dean for research and graduate education in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University, a land grant university with a …
Potato field day caps solid season
One of the largest gatherings of the BC farm sector took place at Lundstrum Farms on Westham Island last week. The annual potato variety trial organized by the BC Potato and Vegetable Growers Association (BCPVGA) and coordinated by ES Cropconsult took place August 27. More than 300 field growers and stakeholders from across the field …
Ag critic Paton goes independent
Delta South MLA Ian Paton parted ways with the Conservative Party of BC on August 24, joining Kamloops MLA and former finance critic Peter Milobar as an independent member. “I was elected to represent Delta South in Victoria. I was not elected to simply represent a political party in Delta South,” he says in a …
BC leads livestock tax deferrals
BC has the largest number of regions qualifying for the federal government’s livestock tax deferral provision this year. The initial list of prescribed regions, released September 1, identifies 46 regions in BC from the central interior south to the Kootenays and the Fraser Valley. This compares to 13 in the rest of Canada, though the …