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Current Issue:

September 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 9

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4 days ago

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays. ... See MoreSee Less

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays.
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Patti 😊

6 days ago

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7 days ago

The top five issues the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity identified in a recent survey were the cost of food, inflation, the cost of energy, keeping healthy food affordable and the Canadian economy. “We are seeing that environmental concerns are not in the top 10,” says Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattle Association’s public and stakeholder engagement program. “If you are concerned about being able to afford to feed your family, the environment becomes less important.” ... See MoreSee Less

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Ranchers get the backstory on public perception

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VERNON – Ranchers might be concerned about how the public sees their industry, but a producer-funded team at the Canadian Cattle Association has their back. Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattleâ...
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1 week ago

BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million. ... See MoreSee Less

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Lake Country packing house sold

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BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million.
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Who bought it ffs ?

Ted Nedjelski Karen Turner

One of my first jobs was apple grading in a packing plant in Vernon

Vivian, is this where you worked?

I’d hear the company that owns the big Cannabis company that owns the green houses all around this packing plant was buying up everything around to expand. Wonder if it’s them that got it.

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1 week ago

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Association's preparation for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/ ... See MoreSee Less

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Associations preparation  for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit https://www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/
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Avian influenza returns

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May 3, 2023 byPeter Mitham

Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials have detected highly pathogenic avian influenza at a pigeon farm in Chilliwack, one week after revoking the last primary control zone established to control the disease’s spread among commercial operations in the Fraser Valley last fall.

The detection was announced April 29, and came seven days after three primary control zones were revoked in Abbotsford.

Now, a new primary control zone has been established on Sumas Prairie straddling the Abbotsford-Chilliwack border. It lies in the heart of one revoked April 12 where 25 detections were logged between November 19 and January 22. This was the greatest concentration anywhere in the country, and underscored the threat the tightly-knit poultry sector in BC faces.

The detection January 22 was also the final detection of the winter wave in an outbreak that began April 13, 2022.

The new case comes as the spring migration sees birds return from warmer climes and new strains of the H5N1 virus behind the current outbreak.

“The virus was introduced to BC via wild birds during the northwards spring migration and we’re still seeing ongoing virus exchange between BC and the US along the Pacific flyway,” BC’s chief veterinary officer Dr. Theresa Burns told the BC Poultry Conference in March. “Looking forward, we’re expecting that we could see mutations coming from north or south from migrating wild birds.”

Steve Leech, food safety and animal health director with Chicken Farmers of Canada, drove home the message, noting that four migratory bird flyways cross North America, overlapping with each other.

“Our birds in North America are comingling with birds on the western side from Asia and on the eastern side from Europe, and this is helping to spread some of the viruses that we see,” he says. “Climate change has impacted this to the point where our North American birds are mingling longer with birds they wouldn’t normally have partied with before. They’re passing on those viruses and bringing them in.”

The BC Poultry Association continues to emphasize strong biosecurity measures as the best defence against infection.

The latest detection brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began last year. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year.

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