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FEBRUARY 2023
Vol. 108 Issue 2

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7 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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Communities plan for agriculture

August 18, 2021 bySandra Tretick

BC communities are taking innovative approaches to agriculture planning with the help of $252,773 from the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC.

IAFBC’s Local Government Partnership Program awarded eight local governments $252,773 in July for agricultural planning and implementation. While four of the recipients will use the funds to create or update agricultural plans, others are taking a slightly different approach.

Tsawwassen First Nation is the fist Indigenous government to receive funding through the program, which was open to First Nations for the first time this year.

TFN will conduct a community farm pilot on an acre of the 800-plus acres of agricultural land it received when its treaty took effect in 2009. The pilot builds on its 2013 agricultural plan and was identified as one of four priorities in its 2020 agricultural business plan. The pilot aims to build capacity and food security.

Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District will be looking at ways to bring Indigenous perspectives into its existing food and agriculture planning processes. It adopted an agricultural plan in 2011.

IAFBC funds will also support an Islands Trust review of farming regulations on Denman Island, which completed an agricultural strategy in 2011 and a farm plan in 2012.

Township of Spallumcheen is creating an agricultural industry plan for its southeast sector to augment its 2006 agricultural plan.

Four regional districts have received funding to create or update agricultural plans. Plans will be created for the Cariboo Regional District and the Lower Columbia region in the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary. Comox Valley and Central Okanagan regional districts will be reviewing and updating their existing plans, prepared in 2002 and 2005, respectively.

“This is a great crop of local government projects,” says IAFBC chair Jack DeWit. “Agricultural planning is vital at all levels of government, especially for regional districts, municipalities, First Nations, and other local governments. It’s so important to provide funding for planning at that local level to ensure the success of agriculture across our province, for everyone’s benefit.”

IAFBC relaunched the Local Government Partnership Program in April after a two-year hiatus. Since the first round was fully allocated, a second intake for up to $250,000 in funding is set for this fall.

The funding is through the Agri-Food Futures Fund, with the federal and provincial governments created in 2001 to finance development activities across a broad range of sectors. The trust managing the fund winds up in 2022, meaning the remaining funds must be allocated before then.

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