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Originally published:

AUGUST 2020
Vol. 105 Issue 8

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Stories In This Edition

Master of Vine

Second farm locked down

COVID-19 darkens sales outlook

Initiative takes aim at invasive Asian hornets

Editorial: Relax, rethnk, reset

Back 40: A fire prevention and response plan is crucial

OpEd: Food priorities need to focus on the basics

BC berries face mixed outlook this season

Pandemic puts the squeeze on blueberry growers

U-picks popular as consumers seek outdoor activities

Cosures underscore need for licensing reform

Small-lot farmers  call for greater infrastructure

Ag Briefs: Milk production adjusted to meet demand

Ag Briefs: Former minister of agriculture Ed Conroy dies

Ag Briefs: Paton introduces artisan food bill in legislature

Ag Briefs: Milk board takes out recall insurance

Vancouver Island hazelnut plans focus on growth

Hazelnut replant program enters home stretch

Agrologists unveil new designation

Woodjam Ranch honoured for sustainability

Outlook cautiously optimistic for fall run

Sidebar: Set-aside program easing backlog

Research: Managing crop residue to increase soil health

Inaugural viticulturist of the year chosen

Shuswap couple sees future in elderberries

Research farm grows in the Garden City

New crops could join greenhouse association

Garlic time

Farm Story: Summertime road trips

4-H auctions steer toward online formula

Woodshed: Kenneth takes social distancing up a level

Consumers are responding to transparency

Rain-be-gone

Jude’s Kitchen: Outdoor appies while keeping your distance

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4 weeks ago

It’s been four years since the last tulip festival was held in Abbotsford, but this year’s event promises to be an even bigger spectacle than ever. Spanning 27 acres along Marion Road, Lakeland Flowers will display more than 70 varieties of the spring blossom, including fringe tulips and double tulips, the first of six months of flower festivals hosted by the farm. Writer Sandra Tretick spoke with Lakeland Flowers owner Nick Warmerdam this spring to find out how the floods on Sumas Prairie in 2021 have had an impact on his business plan as he transitions from wholesale cut flower grower to agri-tourism. We've posted the story to our website this month. It's a good read.

#CLBC #countrylifeinbc #tulipfestival
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Tulip grower makes the shift to agritourism

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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.
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Omg 🥹 Jared Huston let’s go pls

1 month ago

Farming, like any other job.. only you punch in at age 5 and never punch out 🚜 ... See MoreSee Less

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Easton Roseboom Levi Roseboom🚜

1 month ago

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges.
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1 month ago

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year. ... See MoreSee Less

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year.
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Any other details for FVN and chillTV please? radiodon11@gmail.com

1 month ago

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agriculture's interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agricultures interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry.
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I sure hope part of that money is to educate the people in charge of the pumps and drainage system! They just relayed on computers and weren’t even physically monitoring the water levels. I’ve lived in the Fraser Valley my whole life and the old guys managing that system know how to do it. The new generation just sit behind computer screens and don’t physically watch the water levels. That system works very well when you do it right. The Fraser river levels are very important. The system is designed to drain the Sumas Canal (the part that runs thru the valley) into the Fraser. When they let it get backed up it put pressure on the dyke and the weak part burst. Simple science. And yes, the dykes need to be worked on too. Abbotsford has not been maintaining properly for years.

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Closures underscore need for licensing reform

Growing demand for local food demands a larger abattoir licensing vision

Lori Gillis has processed her final chicken at The Cluck Stops Here, another casualty of abattoir owners not being able to find new owners for their businesses as they reach retirement age. PHOTO / MYRNA STARK LEADER

August 1, 2020 byPeter Mitham

COOMBS – A year ago, Lori Gillis was sounding the alarm about the coming wave of retirements that threatened to drastically reduce meat processing capacity on Vancouver Island. She was 66, and had nearly 23 years’ experience under her belt.

“All the butchers – red and poultry – we’re all in the same sort of age group,” says Gillis, who runs The Cluck Stops Here, a licensed Class A poultry plant in Coombs. “We can’t last forever and no one is coming up behind us.”

She thought she might have another 18 months, or until the end of 2021 at the very latest, but then a long-time employee resigned, citing arthritis. Shortly afterwards, while working her garden, Gillis’ own hands stiffened and refused to cooperate with her.

“My hands can’t do it anymore,” she said. “But the demand is huge.”

Despite growing demand for her services from small-scale producers, which only seems to have increased in the wake of COVID-19 and greater interest in local food, she decided to close. She called the clients she could, and in July was handling the last few birds for the clients she couldn’t reach.

“It’s just tidying up now,” she said.

Al’s Feathers Be Gone in Port Alberni is taking on most of her clients, but Gillis says shops like hers filled an important niche. Her closure follows that of Plecas Meats in Nanaimo this spring, leaving 10 Class A abattoirs on Vancouver Island – five each  for red meat and poultry.

Changing times

Changing times mean the rules need to change to ensure the services of the smaller abattoirs that provided custom slaughter won’t be lost. Gillis says this requires more than an expansion of Class D licences, a move the province made in June to boost processing capacity in the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District as well as two other areas.

Class D abattoirs are geared to provide fresh meat on a regional basis but lack inspection, which limits distribution to within their home region. This supports local processing but caps the extent to which it can grow. Processors looking to expand need to have inspection services to facilitate access to larger markets, not just within their region.

Moreover, the demand for local slaughter capacity is outstripping the ability of smaller processors to accommodate it. A larger plant, such as Island Farmhouse Poultry in Duncan, has limited capacity to handle custom slaughter.

“The equipment that they use in an industrial plant is very fast,” says Gillis. “[But] it doesn’t hold the home-grown birds, which are much larger. … The little plants are so needed.”

Without a viable solution, she expects underground processing will increase. BC Ministry of Agriculture compliance and enforcement staff have opened 188 files related to the Meat Inspection Regulation since 2014. The files led to 21 illegal operations being shut down and at least six new abattoirs licensed as a result of compliance and enforcement activities.

Gillis herself was an underground operator before licensing in 2010.

“We had no trouble with going into the meat inspection system. It was just a smooth transition; we basically were operating like that anyway,” she says.

Incentives

The threat of fines – a last resort, says the province – and incentives to upgrade plants helped bring many operators into compliance at the time.

“They offered all kinds of government grants to help you switch over. That was a very good incentive – first the fine, and I didn’t want to lose my farm, and then the incentive to upgrade the buildings,” she says.

But now that the new licensing system has become established, it has to adapt to reflect current realities.

Changing times

“Times have changed,” she says. “There’s a whole switch in society in how we’re viewing food and our lives. … There seems to be a huge increase in people growing their own chickens. You could say, in a hard way, the system is archaic.”

One scenario she sees is a closer relationship between farmers and processors. She suggests a processing co-op where growers would contract with an abattoir operator for services. The need for closer relationships throughout the value chain is an idea supported by other industry groups, including the BC Association of Abattoirs.

Gillis also sees the need for training that addresses both the technical aspects of butchering animals, but also animal welfare and consumer concerns.

“We need something better than the D and the E licences,” she says. “[Farmers] will always butcher their meat; regulation is not going to stop them. … There should be a course for them, a certificate, and a yearly meeting.”

But training is in short supply.

Olds College in Alberta offers slaughter courses and occasional workshops focused on slaughter for personal use (the ministry says these are not a concern), but no formal, accredited training program in BC.

A series of workshops hosted by the BC Ministry of Agriculture and BC Breeder and Feeder Association last year focused on animal welfare/humane handling and slaughter hygiene at 10 locations throughout BC.

BC Association of Abattoirs executive director Nova Woodbury was one of the trainers – independent of her association work – and says the association supports training for all members of the slaughter industry

“BCAA is supportive of training of absolutely everybody who is involved with the slaughter of animals,” she says. “The better we are all at it, the better it is for the animals and the consumers.”

She looks forward to provincial training initiatives resuming as the province continues to reopen following the pandemic.

Catching her breath

Gillis, for her part, is taking a break from raising her own birds right now as she catches her breath, but she’s concerned about what awaits her next year. She’ll be just like any other small-lot producer at that point.

“We have the barn, we have the feeders and all that, but I’m going to need a place to take my birds to,” she exclaims. “So I’m quite curious. … It’s going to be interesting because I’m on the other end of the spectrum now.”

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