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Originally published:

June 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 6

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Stories In This Edition

A Taste of Spring

Flooding wallops southern interior

Ottawa wires CAP cash

Minimum wage hike squeezes farm margins

Editorial: The new democracy

Back Forty: Horgan on receiving end of pipeline challenge

Viewpoint: BC has led country in national check-off support

New chair appointed to land commission

Richmond expands farmhouse provisions

Demand for land drives farmland values higher

Biosolids raise a stink with neighbours

Rising wine sales boost demand for red grapes

Game-changer on dividend splitting

Mushroom merger

Wildfire, flood review has First Nations focus

Sidebar: Snapshot of recommendations

Labour tops issues as hothouse growers meet

Growers on look-out for activists

Antimicrobial lockdown

Ag briefs: Island farmers on lookout for armyworm

Ag briefs: AgSafe elects new chair

Ag briefs: No flood of licences

Ag briefs: Direct delivery

Hops revival gains traction with feds

Wildfire top concern of grape growers

Sidebar: Preparing for fires in the Okanagan

Nuffield scholars

Two studies promise to ensure slaughter capacity

Sidebar: Consultation schedule

Oversight sought

Bumper crop of invasive weeds after wildfires

Elk sights have producers concerned

Guichon heads back to life on the ranch

Research: Grazing cattle the sustainable way

Farmers markets focus on cultivating trust

Veggie days open house

Co-ops offer values-based alternatives

Region focuses on boosting local food usage

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Growing opportunity

Garden City project breaks sustainable ground

Weevils pose challenges

Protecting pollinators key for crop yields

Wannabe: Keeping up with the times

Young farmers turn on, tune in and download

Woodshed: Kenneth has another go at the Massey

4-H BC thanks partners for their support

Jude’s Kitchen: Co-op food

 

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BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

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BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

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Congratulations!!!

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Congratulations Duncan and Jane Trott Barnett Well deserved recognition

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Congratulations to Duncan, Jane, and all the rest of the Barnett family!

Congratulations Duncan and Jane!!

Congratulations Jane and Ducan! Sandra Andresen Hawkins

Congratulations Jane & Duncan 🥳

Congratulation Duncan & Jane!!

Congratulations Jane Trott Barnett and Duncan!!!

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1 month ago

Grapegrower Colleen Ingram, who was recognized earlier this year as the 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association. “Given the devastation we have had over the last three years, I feel like this award should be given to the entire industry,” she says. Her story appears in the June edition of Country Life in BC, and we've also posted to our website.

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Industry champion named BC’s best grape grower

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KELOWNA – Colleen Ingram’s enthusiasm for collaboration within the BC wine industry is so great that when she was named 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association, she wanted to sh...
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2 months ago

From orchard manager to government specialist and now executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association, Adrian Arts brings a rare blend of hands-on farming experience and organizational leadership to an industry poised for renewal. His appointment comes at a pivotal moment for BC fruit growers, with Arts expressing enthusiasm about continuing the momentum built by his predecessor and working alongside a board that signals a generational shift in agricultural advocacy.

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Arts leads BCFGA forward

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A combination of organizational management and practical farming experience has primed the new executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association to lead the industry forward.
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A public consultation is now underway on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board. Key issues for dairy producers include transportation costs, rules governing shipments and limitations on supporting processing initiatives. Stakeholders have until May 31 to comment.

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Milk board undertakes review

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A public consultation on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board is underway as part of a triennial review required by the British Columbia Milk Marketing Board Regulation.
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Farmers’ markets focus on cultivating trust

June 1, 2018 byPeter Mitham

VICTORIA – Consumers look to farmers’ markets as a trusted source of wholesome local produce.

But as an undercover investigation in Ontario last year discovered, not all vendors are honest about their sources. Sometimes, what they claim to grow is from a wholesaler, a phenomenon not unknown at some markets in BC.

The issue came back to national attention at the beginning of May with efforts by the Peterborough & District Farmers’ Market Association, which ran the Ontario market at the centre of the CBC investigation, to expel the long-time vendors that spoke to CBC.

By speaking out to CBC after failures to resolve the situation internally, the five vendors brought the association and its market into disrepute. The market executive deemed this grounds for expulsion.

Assuming the roles of market promoter and enforcer is “very difficult” for market associations, says Colleen Donovan, an outreach and education specialist with the Washington State Department of Agriculture in Ellensburg, Washington.

Yet promotion of the market will fall flat without the trust of consumers, and allegations against vendors can undermine a market’s integrity and reputation with the public. Therefore, there needs to be some verification, independent of vendors, to assure consumers that what they’re buying is the real deal.

“Farmers want this; they want it bad,” Donovan said in a presentation to the BC Association of Farmers’ Markets annual conference in Victoria at the beginning of March.

Through her work as founding co-ordinator of Washington’s Farmers Market Integrity Project, Donovan found that independent certification can take several forms.

GrowNYC, which operates a network of farmers’ markets in New York including the well-known one in Union Square, has an in-house inspection program.

California’s Department of Food and Agriculture levies a mandatory assessment to fund compliance activities, which the agriculture commissioners in each county oversee. However, commissioners are unable to cross county lines, meaning some vendors aren’t inspected.

Chicago’s Green City Market requires that all of its vendors hold certification from one of eight national certifying bodies, which ensures outside scrutiny.

Fulton Street Farmers’ Market in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has its own certification program that requires vendors to detail farm activities and receive an inspector but the program lacks enforcement.

Credible third-party scrutiny and enforcement is important, Donovan said, because there’s also a question of how reliable farmers are as witnesses to their own practices.

“Just because someone’s a farmer doesn’t mean they know everything about agriculture,” she says.

Nor does a site visit provide convincing proof that they’re actually growing what they bring to market.

“Evidence of production is never actually proof of production,” she said.

This is why trust is so important to the relationships at the heart of farmers’ markets – both those between market organizers and market vendors, as well as the vendors and their customers.

“We’re built on trust; that’s our mortar,” Donovan says.

This is where having clear, written rules about what’s allowed and what isn’t are necessary, as well as an ability to enforce the standards you want vendors to maintain. Keeping clear, consistent records of what comes into a market and what’s sold can also help ensure that everyone knows what the market is handling, what’s in season from year to year, and what might be unseasonable.

“You cannot do an audit if it’s not written down,” she said. “Only have rules that can be enforced.”

Donovan says enforcement must respect all vendors, including the alleged transgressor.

“Word of mouth works in a lot of different ways, so be respectful,” she says.

The emotional toll can be high for everyone so any investigation should give vendors the benefit of the doubt and also focus on the future. What’s past is past, but the market should focus on moving forward together as one.

“You want to speak as one and be constructive as possible,” she said. “The long game is trust and integrity.”

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