LUMBY – Hardneck garlic grows superbly in BC and is different than the softneck varieties grown in hotter climates that grocery stores traditionally carry. Not only do hardneck varieties taste great, they can also be grown here organically while giving consumers a high-quality local alternative. Speaking at the Pacific Agriculture Show this past winter, Jim …
NEWS
Delta farmers in growing battle against waterfowl
The past five years have seen close to half of Metro Vancouver’s new industrial construction occur in Delta and Surrey, thanks to the South Fraser Perimeter Road opening and the availability of acreages suitable for warehouses. According to Metro Vancouver, Delta and Tsawwassen First Nation are home to14% of the region’s industrial land, up from …
Ag council welcomes BC fish farmers to table
ABBOTSFORD – The BC Agriculture Council is adding aquaculture to its roster. “We farm animals and this is the group that farms animals,” BC Salmon Farmers Association executive director Jerry Dunn told BCAC members at their annual meeting in Abbotsford on April 12, in explaining why BCSFA members want to join. BCAC chair Stan Vander …
OP ED: When producers and special interest groups collide
It’s hard to pin down when the BC Sheep Federation officially began addressing interactions between wild and domestic sheep and disease transfer between the two populations. As early as 30 years ago, BCSF was involved with sheep health in locations that contained wild sheep. In the 1980s, grazing contracts became active in the forestry cutblocks …
Clock ticking for organic certification
NANAIMO – There are few events as diverse as the Certified Organic Associations of BC (COABC) conference each year. Large and small-scale farmers spanning the spectrum of different crops, livestock, regions and experience, they are connected by a commitment to organic production systems. With the theme of ‘Relationships in Transition: Land, Livestock, Waterways and Community,’ …
Mother Nature packs a wallop
CHILLIWACK – Collapsed barns and greenhouses, missed milk shipments and broken trees: the early February storm which blanketed the Lower Mainland with snow and freezing rain left a trail of destruction in its wake. The eastern Fraser Valley was hardest hit. BC Ministry of Agriculture provincial dairy technologist Roger Pannett has also been Environment Canada’s …