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FEBRUARY 2023
Vol. 108 Issue 2

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6 days ago

Farmland Advantage is receiving a $445,000 grant from the federal government. The program, the “brainchild” of Invermere cattle rancher Dave Zehnder, provides compensation to farmers for their conservation efforts to protect BC’s grasslands, riparian areas and wildlife habitat. The funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) and Priority Places programs, will be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas appeared in our March 2022 edition and you can view it at ... See MoreSee Less

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Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

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INVERMERE – Farmers and ranchers in the Columbia Valley will continue to see rewards for taking action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms. The Windermere District Farmer...
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2 weeks 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

2 months 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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China ups ante for exporters

December 2, 2020 byPeter Mitham

A year after the first case of COVID-19 emerged in China, the country’s customs officials announced tough new inspection rules designed to prevent the virus from returning via food shipments.

On November 18, 2020, the General Administration of Customs China (GACC) requested that Canada and other trading partners revise export certificates for frozen and chilled fish and seafood products to incorporate new elements related to China’s concerns on COVID-19 and food safety by January 1, 2021.

The move follows GACC’s request earlier this year that governments provide assurances that food processors exporting to China have stringent measures in place to prevent product contamination.

Canada has provided the relevant documentation, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. However, eight meat plants are no longer allowed to export to China following COVID-19 outbreaks this year.

Nevertheless, there is “no scientific evidence” to support claims that food or food packaging harbours the virus, according to CFIA. It notes the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF) says “there have been no confirmed cases of food or food packaging being associated with the transmission of COVID-19.”

“Canada continues to seek further information from China regarding the scientific basis for its recent measures relating to COVID-19 that are affecting trade in food and agricultural products,” a CFIA statement to Country Life in BC states. “CFIA continues to work with industry to adjust to these new requirements.”

Salmon raised by BC farmers is BC’s top export, part of the $145 million worth of frozen fish Canada exported to China in 2019. However, blueberries also rank among the $452 million worth of food BC exported to China last year but pork shipments were halted after China claimed to discover bogus documentation with incoming shipments. The documents were not present at the time of export, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said during a visit to Vancouver last summer.

The current dispute concerns her.

“We are always following very closely all our trade, especially with China, to make sure we can keep our market open,” she told Country Life in BC, saying Canada continues to work with officials in China to resolve trade issues and keep the country on track for $75 billion worth of exports by 2025. “There are some impacts but we are also investing and working on diversifying our markets.”

“Our government defended supply management from a president who was very outspoken about the fact that he wanted it dismantled,” she maintains, voicing a commitment “to engaging the sectors on full and fair compensation for CUSMA.”

There is no timeline for concluding the discussions around CUSMA, which remain ongoing.

Bibeau’s promise of compensation came two days before the federal government’s fall fiscal update. The compensation package featured in the government’s spending plans as the single largest tranche of funding to help agriculture recover from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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