ABBOTSFORD – On a bright sunny day in early April, Nick Warmerdam points out his office window at No. 4 and Marion roads to a spot about half a kilometre away across the Trans-Canada Highway. “The dike broke over there,” says Warmerdam, recalling when Sumas Prairie flooded in November 2021. “The water came through here …
Homemade food rules are too restrictive
PENDER ISLAND – While Canadian grocery retailers were called to Ottawa in March to account for last year’s record profits amid double-digit food inflation, one micro food producer in the southern Gulf Islands has been lobbying for changes to regulations on the production and sale of cottage foods. Rising grocery costs and issues of food …
EcoFarm rebrands, expands mandate
A popular agri-tourism destination and demonstration farm in Abbotsford has rebranded to reflect its growing scope of operations. Bill Vanderkooi, chair of the non-profit EcoFarm Innovation Association (formerly EcoDairy Innovation Association), made the announcement on Earth Day, April 22, with special guests including Abbotsford mayor Ross Siemens, Abbotsford MP Ed Fast and former Science World …
Cowboys honoured
This year’s inductees into the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame at the Museum of the Cariboo-Chilcotin in Williams Lake include a well-known farm and ranch safety advocate. Reg Steward was one of four inductees at this year’s ceremony on April 16, which also celebrated the contributions of working cowboy John Young, Okanagan horseman Allan Macdonnell …
ALR settles Treaty 8 claims
First Nations will receive approximately 27,000 acres of protected agricultural land in BC’s Peace Region as a result of settlement agreements addressing their land entitlements claims under Treaty 8, signed in 1899. “For more than 100 years, the First Nations were deprived of the use and benefit of thousands of acres of land owed to …
Northern vets in short supply
The province’s recent pledge to permanently fund 40 seats for BC students at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon was welcome news to the livestock and poultry sectors, but a new study says a local option is needed to support local food production. “As you go further north in and around the Peace, …