Country Life in BC reporting honoured

Country Life in BC found the “win” in “Winnipeg” on September 20, receiving a record nine awards during the annual conference of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation.

Top honours went to contributor Ronda Payne, who received a gold award for her technical feature in the March 2024 issue, “Pruning should focus on the needs of the bush,” about pruning techniques in blueberries.

Writer Tom Walker received two awards for his reporting. He received silver in the business reporting category for “Stabilization initiative yet to bear fruit,” a report on the province’s long-running orchard industry stabilization initiative, in the July 2024 issue. Bronze honours went to “Salmon farm ban sends message to land-based farms,” a current affairs feature in the August 2024 issue that addressed the implication for land-based farms of federal moves to ban open-net salmon farms off the BC coast.

Kootenay contributor Tracey Fredrickson also received a silver award for her people feature in the September 2024 issue profiling Thetis Island farmers Elisabeth and Noah Bond, “Gulf Island entrepreneurs eye food security.”

On the opinion front, policy columnist Kathleen Gibson received silver for her March 2024 column, “The Land Act: important context, faulty process,” while multi-year winner Bob Collins received bronze for his September column, “Redefining labour as a technological problem.”

Prolific photographer Myrna Stark Leader received honours in all three photography classes. Her photo of Kelowna fruit grower Karma Gill and his grandson Jhelum on the cover of the August issue received silver in the people category, while her October cover shot of people gathered around an apple harvester received bronze in the production category. “Heading Home,” a photo of seasonal workers walking away from the camera under an arcade of trees on the cover of the December issue won silver in the landscape category.

The tally on nine awards was the paper’s best-ever showing, and represented nearly a third of the 29 awards presented that evening.

Other recipients with BC connections included Country Life in BC contributor Kate Ayers, currently completing a farm apprenticeship, who received a bronze award in the communications category for an item published by Western Canadian Dairy News.

The David Schmidt Award, named for long-time Country Life in BC editor David Schmidt and presented to the year’s best new writer, went to Saskatchewan’s Janelle Rudolph, a graduate of Thompson Rivers University’s Communication and Digital Journalism program.

A total of 139 entries were received across 14 categories this year. Winners receive monetary awards along with recognition for their outstanding work in advancing agricultural reporting and communications across Canada.

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5 days ago

The province has extended its provincial state of emergency until August 29 as wildfire risk remains elevated across much of the province, particularly in the Okanagan. While thousands have returned home since the August 8 declaration, evacuation alerts and orders remain in effect in several areas. Government urges residents to stay prepared, review emergency plans and check EmergencyInfoBC.ca for updates.

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6 days ago

Chilco Ranch–Miller Ranches of Hanceville received the national environmental stewardship award from the Canadian Cattle Association at this week's Canadian Beef Industry Conference in Winnipeg. The fourth-generation ranch blends traditional values with modern innovation as it manages 1,000 cow-calf pairs of Hereford cattle across 170,000 acres. Rotational grazing, soil health improvement and careful land stewardship as well as advanced water-monitoring technology ensures sustainable ranch operations, while deep community involvement through 4-H and other organizations support future generations. You can read more of their story in the September issue of Country Life in BC, which goes to press next week. Photo | Facebook/Canadian Cattle Associat#BCAg#BCAg ... See MoreSee Less

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The deadline to weigh in on BC's proposed food-processing rules in the Agricultural Land Reserve has been extended to September 18. Proposed changes would open nearly 1.3 million acres of protected farmland to food processors by allowing processors to build plants on Class 5-7 soil (and Class 4, in some cases) as long as 5% of inputs are grown in BC. Currently, all processors must source at least 50% of inputs from BC. The existing 50% rule would stay in place for Class 1-3 soils. The BC Agriculture Council, which has previously raised concerns that the proposal reflects a narrow set of interests, says it's still reviewing the details with its #BCAgrs.

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Funny how they always release these proposals in August when most farms are working overtime.

Let’s use our brains for a moment and think about this. Let’s say I’ve got a farm in bc, where i grow a crop that I then turn into jam. I have a small window each year where my produce is ready. I turn it into jam. Now my jam becomes a big hit and people want it year round. The only way for me to produce outside of my fruit bearing window is to bring in fruit from other places. I’m supposed to let my investment sit idle for most of the year? You can extrapolate this to many things we grow in bc and have short windows where it is ready. Our goal shouldn’t be to make it harder for people to succeed. Maybe 5% is too low, but 50% means it’s going to sit idle.

The current rules actually say 50% from the farm or related farms (ie. in the same producer group). The new rule is 5% from BC. This would likely be good for abattoirs, and I'm sure wineries would be excited too. However, both thise enterprises can be located away from ALR land. The proposed regulations will do the opposite of supporting agriculture. They will foster the removal of farmland from protection, and the increased impoverishment of our food system.

emails can be sent here: AF.Minister@gov.bc.ca

5%? Yeah, that’s a big “no” from me… the whole point of allowing processing on farmland is to make farms more economically viable by increasing the market for their product.

Where is the link for input?

I find that 5% vs 50 % equation very unsettling. In this situation it is not 5% from the farm it is 5% from bc. The rest can come from anywhere else. This is fine for industry standards but does not help agriculture in bc. So if we are going to give up limited agricultural land for this endeavour it had should help farming in bc. Farmers are expected to use 50% of their own on farm product on alr. Farmers would continue to be expected to use 50% while processors need not grow anything nor support bc farms. This doesn’t pass the sniff test to me

5% that’s nothing and how long what happens then after 5 years it is 0% they are not going to say oh you need to shut down.

I am by far, no expert, but why would you even propose to build a plant on good farmland, isn’t that for growing a plant? You can build a plant on any ground. Reminds me of all the greenhouses built on prime soil, to me it reduces capacity and takes away from local farmers so big business can come in and take over.

Here is the link: news.gov.bc.ca/files/FoodProcessingALR_DiscussionPaperAug18_2026.pdf Taking input until September 18th. In my opinion, lowering the sources to just 5% does nothing to build food sovereignty which is what we desperately need.

This is such bs

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7 days ago

The province has just issued a new temporary protection order for the Salmon River, effective immediately, restricting irrigation water for forage crops such as hay, alfalfa, and corn. A previous order was issued on July 28 and rescinded on August 8 due to wildfire risk, but low stream flows persist, threatening over 200 spawning Chinook salmon in the watershed. Affected licence holders will be contacted directly. Drought support is available to farmers through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. The province has invested $120 million in the Agriculture Water Infrastructure Program to support farmers facing water scarcity.

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Can someone explain why they irrigate during the day in the blistering heat. Would it be better to water early morning and at sunset?

200 fish over all the feed that grows in this valley wow that some expensive fish

Time to start new methods of agriculture, ive watched our ecosystem take a beating in my lifetime, iym not against any productivity of our economic development within our structures, really its not rocket science. Its just going to cost alot to change to a better, more viable solution. Banks and your intellectuals, wanna run this country with money, then quit, wasting it on ignorance. The solutions are all easy, just how much money, do we waste, and how much are we going to spend, on actually fixing the issues.

This is just an exceptionally dry year from low snow cap. It does happen!

Get your water off fly hills two big lakes off there Spa and author

And they continue to ignore CHASE CREEK....

The methods we have now are because settlers always saw what was excess resources in their eyes - the riches of the ‘New World’ have been used and abused and as the limits have been reached are in disbelief and still trying to push for more….when the problem is US and how settlers have always been about extraction and not living with and much less understanding the landscapes in their integration because the next crop is the horizon and there is no compassion for the land its flora and fauna because it needs to be remade in the settler image and naive ideal

1 week ago

Kwantlen Polytechnic University has established a one-acre research hopyard at Molson Coors' Chilliwack plant, housing 10 experimental selections and 40 heritage varieties. The multi-year partnership supports new hop variety development and breeding decisions for BC growers, building on Chilliwack's history as Canada's former largest hop-producing region. www.countrylifeinbc.com/kpu-sets-up-rese #BCAgh#kwantlenpolytechnicuniversityc#MolsonCoorsty #MolsonCoors ... See MoreSee Less

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