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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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CP Rail’s plans for a new logistics facility on 100 acres of farmland in Pitt Meadows is facing opposition from neighbours, who question the impact of the project on their community and local agriculture. Close to 100 residents questioned CP representatives in an online open house this week but received few definitive answers. The project is exempt from Agricultural Land Commission and local government approval. Results of a survey that closes today will be made public in March, with mitigation measures of the project provided this summer. Construction could begin in 2026 if federal authorities approve. Country Life in BC is the agricultural news source for BC's farmers and ranchers. buff.ly/2ReiFur ... See MoreSee Less

2 days ago

CP Rail’s plans for a new logistics facility on 100 acres of farmland in Pitt Meadows is facing opposition from neighbours, who question the impact of the project on their community and local agriculture. Close to 100 residents questioned CP representatives in an online open house this week but received few definitive answers. The project is exempt from Agricultural Land Commission and local government approval. Results of a survey that closes today will be made public in March, with mitigation measures of the project provided this summer. Construction could begin in 2026 if federal authorities approve. Country Life in BC is the agricultural news source for BCs farmers and ranchers. buff.ly/2ReiFur
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The BC Ministry of Agriculture has announced a new round of funding this week to support more community projects aimed at protecting the health and habitat of bees. The Bee BC program provides up to $5,000 to fund smaller-scale, community-based projects enhancing bee health throughout the province. Since launching in 2018, Bee BC has contributed almost $280,000 to 62 projects. The last round of 24 approved projects projects ranged from providing education in communities to planting bee-specific forage to using innovation and technology to help protect and ensure bee health in BC. The program is administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation. Check out the program guide for more information: buff.ly/3bCMzSW ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago

The BC Ministry of Agriculture has announced a new round of funding this week to support more community projects aimed at protecting the health and habitat of bees. The Bee BC program provides up to $5,000 to fund smaller-scale, community-based projects enhancing bee health throughout the province. Since launching in 2018, Bee BC has contributed almost $280,000 to 62 projects. The last round of 24 approved projects projects ranged from providing education in communities to planting bee-specific forage to using innovation and technology to help protect and ensure bee health in BC. The program is administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation. Check out the program guide for more information: https://buff.ly/3bCMzSW
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The Mainland Milk Producers Association could continue its support of local communities with initiatives kickstarted in 2020. MMP president Mark Van Klei says its donation of $25,000 to Fraser Valley food banks last year aided those affected by COVID-19. The organization also sponsored two Ag in the Classroom programs in 2020 – the Pencil Patch, a working garden where K-12 schools get hands-on lessons about agriculture, and Take a Bite of BC, which delivers fresh, BC grown products five times a year to secondary schools running a culinary arts program. “Ag in the Classroom takes our dairy message right to the children’s classrooms straight across the province. I think it works really well,” Van Klei told almost 80 people attending the MMP annual general meeting via Zoom on January 8. With both initiatives getting good feedback from directors, Van Klei says they could be added to the 2021 budget. “COVID doesn’t always make it easy but we plan to work with (the BC Dairy Association) to look at making sure we can keep some of these initiatives going.” Country Life in BC is the agricultural news source for BC's farmers and ranchers. ... See MoreSee Less

4 days ago

The Mainland Milk Producers Association could continue its support of local communities with initiatives kickstarted in 2020. MMP president Mark Van Klei says its donation of $25,000 to Fraser Valley food banks last year aided those affected by COVID-19. The organization also sponsored two Ag in the Classroom programs in 2020 – the Pencil Patch, a working garden where K-12 schools get hands-on lessons about agriculture, and Take a Bite of BC, which delivers fresh, BC grown products five times a year to secondary schools running a culinary arts program. “Ag in the Classroom takes our dairy message right to the children’s classrooms straight across the province. I think it works really well,” Van Klei told almost 80 people attending the MMP annual general meeting via Zoom on January 8. With both initiatives getting good feedback from directors, Van Klei says they could be added to the 2021 budget. “COVID doesn’t always make it easy but we plan to work with (the BC Dairy Association) to look at making sure we can keep some of these initiatives going.” Country Life in BC is the agricultural news source for BCs farmers and ranchers.
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To advance agriculture for the future, Farm Credit Canada industry relations director Marty Seymour says the the industry must be willing to challenge conventional thinking and practices. Speaking at the Agriculture Excellence conference Farm Management Canada hosted last month, he said the sector has two easy options for doing this. One is including youth on industry boards and drawing on what they’re being taught. The other is for farm businesses to assemble boards of directors from other sectors, both inside and outside the agriculture industry, and learn from their experiences. Subscribe to buff.ly/2H3dK8k ... See MoreSee Less

5 days ago

To advance agriculture for the future, Farm Credit Canada industry relations director Marty Seymour says the the industry must be willing to challenge conventional thinking and practices. Speaking at the Agriculture Excellence conference Farm Management Canada hosted last month, he said the sector has two easy options for doing this. One is including youth on industry boards and drawing on what they’re being taught. The other is for farm businesses to assemble boards of directors from other sectors, both inside and outside the agriculture industry, and learn from their experiences. Subscribe to buff.ly/2H3dK8k
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Around 60 viewers attended the BC Grapegrowers’ online pruning session earlier today. After an overarching Pruning 101 presentation by Troy Osborne from Arterra, a panel of growers from across the Okanagan shared their knowledge during an open Q&A. The panel included viticulturist Miguel Fontalvo from Monte Creek Ranch Winery near Kamloops, Felix Egerer, viticulturist at Tantalus Wines in Kelowna, Ralph Suremann, longtime BCGA director from Pegasus Vineyards at Naramata and Amy Richards, 2020-elected BCGA director from Phantom Creek in Oliver. While some North Okanagan wineries won't be pruning until later in the spring, pruning is already underway further south and at Tantalus in Kelowna. The panel cautioned growers against pushing new vineyards to produce grapes too soon. Suremann says a decision to have vines produce before year three or four can result in a setback of several years, while Egerer remarked that one bad shoot thinning can harm five years of growth. BCGA says all their events are being planned online for 2021 and there’s no date yet for the AGM. ... See MoreSee Less

5 days ago

Around 60 viewers attended the BC Grapegrowers’ online pruning session earlier today. After an overarching Pruning 101 presentation by Troy Osborne from Arterra, a panel of growers from across the Okanagan shared their knowledge during an open Q&A. The panel included viticulturist Miguel Fontalvo from Monte Creek Ranch Winery near Kamloops, Felix Egerer, viticulturist at Tantalus Wines in Kelowna, Ralph Suremann, longtime BCGA director from Pegasus Vineyards at Naramata and Amy Richards, 2020-elected BCGA director from Phantom Creek in Oliver. While some North Okanagan wineries wont be pruning until later in the spring, pruning is already underway further south and at Tantalus in Kelowna. The panel cautioned growers against pushing new vineyards to produce grapes too soon. Suremann says a decision to have vines produce before year three or four can result in a setback of several years, while Egerer remarked that one bad shoot thinning can harm five years of growth. BCGA says all their events are being planned online for 2021 and there’s no date yet for the AGM.
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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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