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Current Issue:

JANUARY 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 1

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4 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

1 month 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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2 months ago

The scale of this year's avian flu outbreak now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004. An additional 13 commercial farms in the Fraser Valley have tested positive in the last week. To date, 49 commercial farms and 1.2 million birds have been impacted. CFIA is struggling to keep up with depopulation of sick birds. ... See MoreSee Less

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AI outbreak rivals 2004

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The scale of this year’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004 that saw farms throughout the Fraser Valley depopulated. An additional 13 commercial…
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Commercial operations need to reevaluate their stocking densities and overall health and welfare of the animals within their systems if they are ever going to have a fighting chance against this virus.

Yup cause food shortage

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CAI disbanded by province

March 9, 2022 byKate Ayers

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC will deliver programs formerly administered by the Climate & Agriculture Initiative of BC, which is winding up its operations after 14 years of service to BC’s farm sector.

Created by the BC Agriculture Council in 2008, CAI has delivered adaptation projects funded through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership on behalf of BCAC subsidiary ARDCorp and IAF for the past four years.

With BCAC stepping away from program delivery last summer, the province made the decision to transfer CAI’s responsibilities to IAF.

“Regarding the decision to transfer responsibilities to IAF, everyone was aware that was going to happen when it had been announced in late summer,” says Rachel Penner, who has handled communications for CAI since 2018. Contracts were transferred from CAI to IAF in January.

CAI director Emily MacNair’s role ends March 31. Three staff members will remain to ensure successful completion of ongoing regional adaptation projects and the transition of Farm Adaptation Innovator Program projects to IAF. The organization will wind up at the end of March 2023.

The abrupt change has raised concerns about knowledge transfer and research extension to agricultural stakeholders. CAI’s website, revamped a year ago after a lengthy consultation process with stakeholders, was deleted immediately.

“We were given less than 24 hours’ notice before the CAI website was taken down and deleted. There are countless groups and partners that used the website as a resource and linked to the different tools,” says Penner, whose contract was set to expire this year. “I received a number of comments from people who wondered what had happened and expressed how valuable the site had been.”

The site was home to nearly 250 documents, including fact sheets, reports, videos and workbooks. IAF says it will ensure all resources will be available on a new site, which will operate under the Climate Change Adaptation Program name.

However, many of the links to the resources the old site hosted are broken.

“I’m worried about the impacts on the user experience. How many people will arrive on the new website through a broken link, get confused, and then just leave?” says Penner.

Duncan Barnett, a rancher and chair of the Climate Change Adaptation Review Committee, hopes for seamless program delivery to farmers and ranchers and ongoing government engagement with producers.

“We are going to lose some key people who have been involved in that program and I really hope that the Ministry of Agriculture people are able to step up and continue to engage producers as well as [CAI] have been,” he says.

IAF referred questions to the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food, which did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication.

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