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Originally published:

APRIL 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 4

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Stories In This Edition

Back to business
$200 million draws fire
Farmland values ease
Delta farmland gets new lease on life
Editorial: Genuine connection
Back 40: Different worldviews, common ground
Viewpoint: Unlocking an unsustainable trajectory
Crossroads ahead for BC farmland
Ag industry hub sparks regional interest in OK
Show offs
Ag Briefs: New “underused” home tax has a wide impact
Ag Briefs: Richard Ranch hosts bull sale
Ag Briefs: Canadian Foodgrains Bank supproted
Ag Briefs: Poultry leaders recognized
Province steps up surveillance after sting operation
Watershed strategy coulg hang ag out to dry
Flood victims struggle with recovery deadline
Sidebar: Disaster Financial Assistance funds inconsequential for producers
Rising ferry fares sink producer profits
Sidebar: Ferry traffic another hurdle for island producers
Fruit growers keep calm, carry on at convention
Signs of spring
Producers at a loss with elk damages
New AI insights shared at poultry conference
Birds of a feather
Sidebar: Vaccination under discussion
Potato growers buoyed by strong markets
Rising cost of dairy production drives agenda
Export markets focus of upbeat cherry meeting
Sidebar: Provincial survey tracks spread of Little Cherry Disease
Cranberry crop dips in 2022 but growers optimistic
New rules for pesticide applications
Sidebar: Spraying tips
Rodenticide restrictions now permanent
Homemade food rules are too restrictive
Sunflowers are multi-purpose helpers
Boosting value with great apples
Farm Story: Heavy lifting not a retirement plan
New soil assessment tool in development
Woodshed Chronicless: Just when things start going right, stuff happens
BC breeder wins national Jersey award
Jude’s Kitchen: Celebratory foods for friends and family

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4 days ago

Congratulations to Travis and Brad Hopcott of Hopcott Farms for taking top honours as Canada's Outstanding Young Farmers last week in Laval, Quebec. For more, see this week's FARM NEWS UPDATE at www.countrylifeinbc.com/hopcotts-win-oyf#BCAGd#clinbcAg #CLinBC ... See MoreSee Less

Congratulations to Travis and Brad Hopcott of Hopcott Farms for taking top honours as Canadas Outstanding Young Farmers last week in Laval, Quebec. For more, see this weeks FARM NEWS UPDATE at https://www.countrylifeinbc.com/hopcotts-win-oyf-canada/

#BCAg #CLinBC
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Congratulations to all of you. You have done a tremendous job growing your business

Congratulations from Coniagas Ranches! Your business is awesome!!!

Thank you so much! 😁

Congratulations Travis!

Well done ! Well deserved

Congratulations

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6 days ago

Congratulations to Chilliwack’s Ben Janzen, former chair of the BC Milk Marketing Board, who received the BC Dairy Achievement Award from Jim Byrne of the BC Dairy Historical Society on November 23. Byrne hailed Janzen’s selfless work on behalf of the industry, first as a member of the first producer-elected board of Agrifoods International Cooperative in 1996 then as chair of the BC Milk Marketing Board for five years from 2016. "These successes have allowed the industry to increase processing capacity and develop initiatives that, when completed, will provide processing for growth for many years to come,” Byrne said. In response, Janzen expressed gratitude while emphasizing the determination and resilience of producers in the face of challenges. “You’re the ones that make this industry great,” he said.

#BCAg #CLinBC
... See MoreSee Less

Congratulations to Chilliwack’s Ben Janzen, former chair of the BC Milk Marketing Board, who received the BC Dairy Achievement Award from Jim Byrne of the BC Dairy Historical Society on November 23. Byrne hailed Janzen’s selfless work on behalf of the industry, first as a member of the first producer-elected board of Agrifoods International Cooperative in 1996 then as chair of the BC Milk Marketing Board for five years from 2016. These successes have allowed the industry to increase processing capacity and develop initiatives that, when completed, will provide processing for growth for many years to come,” Byrne said. In response, Janzen expressed gratitude while emphasizing the determination and resilience of producers in the face of challenges. “You’re the ones that make this industry great,” he said.

#BCAg #CLinBC
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I don't understand? Maybe it's my own ignorance but don't we produce way more milk than we use and force farmers to dump anything above their quota to ensure the prices stay high? Wouldn't we want to keep the retail price as low as possible while ensuring farmers receive their required compensation? Wouldn't that be worth an award? Help me understand 🤷‍♂️

Is this guy a reason why I cannot buy whole unpasteurized milk for my own personal use, yeah personal use even to make glue ...but really I don't carecwhy anyone wants whole unpasteurized milk ..it is Not my business..and nor should it be the business of bearacracy ..so in mho ppfffft

2 weeks ago

We are profoundly saddened to announce the passing of veteran farm journalist and Country Life in BC editor emeritus David Schmidt. He died suddenly in Chilliwack on November 20. For 35 years, David was the face and voice of Country Life in BC, covering producer meetings across the Fraser Valley and throughout BC. His reporting earned many national awards and he was honoured with several lifetime achievement awards, including the 2018 Scotiabank Champion of Agriculture, as he edged toward retirement at the start of the pandemic in 2020. He was, as one former ag minister eloquently put it, the "encyclopedia of BC agriculture." We will miss him terribly. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced. For more, see today's FARM NEWS UPDATE - www.countrylifeinbc.com/bc-agriculture-loses-a-champion/ ... See MoreSee Less

We are profoundly saddened to announce the passing of veteran farm journalist and Country Life in BC editor emeritus David Schmidt. He died suddenly in Chilliwack on November 20. For 35 years, David was the face and voice of Country Life in BC, covering producer meetings across the Fraser Valley and throughout BC. His reporting earned many national awards and he was honoured with several lifetime achievement awards,  including the 2018 Scotiabank Champion of Agriculture, as he edged toward retirement at the start of the pandemic in 2020. He was, as one former ag minister eloquently put it, the encyclopedia of BC agriculture. We will miss him terribly. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced. For more, see todays FARM NEWS UPDATE - https://www.countrylifeinbc.com/bc-agriculture-loses-a-champion/
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Very sad to hear of his loss…amazing dedication to Country Life.

He will be missed. His dedication to the agricullture industry was exceptional and conversattions with David were always welcomed

David was just an exceptional person . He had an unbridled passion for Agriculture. He will be so missed in this Industry. Condolences to David's family and friends.

Condolences to David's family and also his work family. He was a veteran agricultural supporter and reporter, and in his younger days attended every agricultural event he possibly could! He always had insightful views on the current agricultural state of affairs in the Fraser Valley, and also on the government programs and relief offered. He will definitely be missed in the Fraser Valley agricultural community.

David's thoughtful, careful and insightful reporting set a standard in farm reporting in BC, and much further. He will be very much missed.

Deepest Sympathy to family and friends.

Our most heartfelt condolences.

Very sad to hear this.

Sad to hear 😞

Very sorry to hear this. David was a first class journalist and an all around good human being.

Rip David.

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3 weeks ago

An agriculture plan progress report presented to Kelowna council November 6 shows a drop in the number of active farm operations in the Central Okanagan region since 2017. Six years ago, there were 1,034 actively farmed parcels; today, there are 983, according to BC Assessment data. Read more in this week's FARM NEWS UPDATE bitly.ws/ZScG ... See MoreSee Less

An agriculture plan progress report presented to Kelowna council November 6 shows a drop in the number of active farm operations in the Central Okanagan region since 2017. Six years ago, there were 1,034 actively farmed parcels; today, there are 983, according to BC Assessment data. Read more in this weeks FARM NEWS UPDATE https://bitly.ws/ZScG
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3 weeks ago

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Crossroads ahead for BC farmland

The Agricultural Land Reserve remains vulnerable as it turns 50

Delta South MLA Ian Paton wants to see the province make good on a pledge to protect farmland at Brunswick Point in Delta in perpetuity as the ALR marks its 50th anniversary. RONDA PAYNE

March 29, 2023 byPeter Mitham

DELTA – Jutting out into the Strait of Georgia, the rich soils of Brunswick Point are a gift of the Fraser River’s run south from its headwaters in the Fraser Pass of the Rockies. The longest river in BC, the deposits here encapsulate the wealth of the province – a wealth fundamental to the most valuable farmland in Canada.

But others see a different kind of wealth. In 1968, the province expropriated thousands of acres as backup lands for port development at Roberts Bank.

When the lands weren’t needed, most were leased back to the previous owners for farming and 43 were eventually sold with the original families having right of first refusal. But the four families at Brunswick Point – the Swensons, Montgomerys, McKims and Gilmours – didn’t enjoy this privilege.

The province’s treaty settlement with Tsawwassen First Nation allowed the families to continue farming and gave them the right to buy the properties, totalling about 600 acres. But if the families declined to purchase the properties, TFN would be first in line. The families reached an agreement with the province in 2011 that would see the lands remain in the Agricultural Land Reserve and covenants put in place preserving them for soil-based agriculture and migratory bird habitat, but that never happened.

This prompted Delta South MLA Ian Paton to introduce a private member’s bill in March to ensure this takes place, his third bid to ensure lasting protection for the properties.

“People are just crazily adamant about preserving our good-quality pieces of farmland,” he says, noting the headline-grabbing fight over the potential loss of 305 acres of federally owned land in Surrey where the Heppell family grows vegetables.

But the long-standing and lingering issue of Brunswick Point, double the size and equally important given the thousands of tonnes of potatoes harvested there each year and its national importance as a site of variety trials, has simmered under the radar.

The concern underscores the importance of the Agricultural Land Reserve as it turns 50 years old this month. Brunswick Point was included from the beginning, but the ongoing threat to its future means vigilance remains essential for the long-term protection of it and other key properties.

Land freeze

The invocation of the land reserve is a shift from 1972, when the newly elected NDP government of Dave Barrett moved to head off a rush of subdivision applications with a land freeze, followed by the imposition of a reserve for farming with a suite of measures that were supposed to ensure farmers – whose right to develop their properties as they saw fit was immediately curtailed – could remain profitable independent of capital gains on their real estate.

Described by this paper as “one of the greatest uproars in BC history,” even farmers who had initially supported the idea were outraged when the government began sharing details for the land reserve in January 1973.

Many growers remain bitter, even as they’ve continued to farm in spite or as a result of the restrictions.

Ken Ellison, a former dairy farmer who now raises beef in the Cowichan Valley, describes the ALR as “the biggest hit the government’s ever dumped on the farmers.”

“Over the years, we’ve dealt with that reduction in assets. We’ve moved forward,” he says. “And we made a decision to continue farming, but guess why we made that decision? Because the government told us we had to farm it.”

But the legislation, known as Bill 42, passed, and on April 18, 1973, the ALR was born.

Setting boundaries

Joan Sawicki joined the new Agricultural Land Commission as a technician that summer, spending 18 months working to finalize the reserve’s boundaries. Proposals submitted by the regional districts provided a starting point, and ALC staff ultimately designated 11.6 million acres for inclusion, or about 5% of the province.

“It was an exhaustive project,” says Sawicki, now in her late 70s. “Historically, agriculture was always seen as the poor cousin of resource ministries, and there was always a so-called higher and best use. The ALR said no, in this zone, growing food is the highest and best use.”

Unlike recent moves to manage groundwater, land use wasn’t bound to a particular crop. A grower’s options were kept open to allow farms to adapt to changing circumstances.

“The title of our first public brochure was Keeping the Options Open, and to me that’s what this is all about, for the whole 50 years,” she says. “It was never intended … that every hectare of the ALR needs to be farmed. But it’s the options. … As long as we have the land, farmers have the option to adjust.”

But those options shouldn’t be taken for granted, something she feels government is prone to doing.

“Most decision-makers have never known British Columbia without the ALR. They take it for granted,” she says. “We can’t take it for granted because it is vulnerable. Not only from landowners.”

Recent reports show that other government priorities continue to trump agriculture. Just last year, an order in council authorized the “temporary exclusion” of 251 acres for gravel extraction to supply the Site C dam project, following on the exclusion of nearly 6,860 acres in 2015 for the dam’s headpond.

In 2016, 2,065 acres were excluded under the terms of the province’s treaty with the Tla’amin First Nation.

Last month, the province ordered 150 acres in Richmond excluded for a private composting facility, reducing the area protected by the ALR to less than 11.4 million acres

Sawicki says attention also needs to be given to safeguarding the province’s foodlands as the province moves to address reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

“We saw what happened in Tsawwassen,” she says, referring to the development of malls and warehouses on hundreds of acres of farmland removed from the ALR as part of the treaty struck with TFN. “Class 1 farmland is now one of the biggest shopping malls in North America.”

She sees a way forward in broadening the public understanding of how the land provides food.

“In our culture we tend to think of agriculture as crops that we plant,” she says. “But if part of our concept of meeting the challenge of reconciliation is ourselves expanding the concept of food … to embrace the other ways that the land produces food for humans, I think that’s a good thing.”

This is where Paton wants to see definitive protections for Brunswick Point, not to mention the 305 acres in Surrey currently subject to federal discussions with local First Nations.

“It would be fitting this year … that we make absolutely sure that these two prime pieces of agricultural land in Surrey and in Delta have a covenant put on them, that they remain agricultural land in perpetuity,” he says.

—With files from Kate Ayers

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