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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

Bonus coupon

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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1 day ago

A turkey farm in West Abbotsford is the second commercial poultry flock to tested positive for avian influenza since the initial case was reported in Enderby on April 13. CFIA announced the case May 19, but has yet to define the control zone. Ray Nickel of the BC Poultry Association says more than 50 farms are in the vicinity of the infected premises, meaning control measures — including movement controls — will have a significant impact on the industry. The supply of birds moving into the country from US hatcheries will also be affected, compounding the host of supply chain issues growers have been dealing with over the past year. A story in our June issue will provide further details. ... See MoreSee Less

A turkey farm in West Abbotsford is the second commercial poultry flock to tested positive for avian influenza since the initial case was reported in Enderby on April 13. CFIA announced the case May 19, but has yet to define the control zone. Ray Nickel of the BC Poultry Association says more than 50 farms are in the vicinity of the infected premises, meaning control measures — including movement controls — will have a significant impact on the industry. The supply of birds moving into the country from US hatcheries will also be affected, compounding the host of supply chain issues growers have been dealing with over the past year. A story in our June issue will provide further details.
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2 weeks ago

The province has extended the order requiring regulated commercial poultry operations to keep their birds indoors through June 13. Originally set to expire this Friday, the order was extended after a careful review by the province's deputy chief veterinarian. Poultry at seven premises, all but one of them backyard flocks, have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza since April 13. The order allows small-scale producers to continue pasturing their birds outdoors provided biosecurity protocols developed by the Small-Scale Meat producers Association are followed. ... See MoreSee Less

The province has extended the order requiring regulated commercial poultry operations to keep their birds indoors through June 13. Originally set to expire this Friday, the order was extended after a careful review by the provinces deputy chief veterinarian. Poultry at seven premises, all but one of them backyard flocks, have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza since April 13. The order allows small-scale producers to continue pasturing their birds outdoors provided biosecurity protocols developed by the Small-Scale Meat producers Association are followed.
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Sounds like 2 weeks to flatten the curve turning into 2 years.

USDA doing avian vax research, May 11 bio-docs to UN incl section on H5N8 w/wild bird spread. Found link to apparent pre-release on May 11 Geller Report. Good luck farmers.

2 weeks ago

Two more small flocks in BC have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The latest cases are in Richmond and Kelowna. CFIA is in the process of determining a control zone around the property in Richmond, the first report in the Fraser Valley of the H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry. Speaking to Country Life in BC this week, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said CFIA staff are working diligently to address outbreaks, and she encourages small flock owners to do the same. While commercial farms have tightened biosecurity measures, owners of small flocks have greater freedom. “Some smaller ones don’t necessarily have these measures in place,” Bibeau says. “They should also be extremely careful, because if we have a case in a backyard flock ... it could have an impact on bigger commercial installations.” ... See MoreSee Less

Two more small flocks in BC have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The latest cases are in Richmond and Kelowna. CFIA is in the process of determining a control zone around the property in Richmond, the first report in the Fraser Valley of the H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry. Speaking to Country Life in BC this week, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said CFIA staff are working diligently to address outbreaks, and she encourages small flock owners to do the same. While commercial farms have tightened biosecurity measures, owners of small flocks have greater freedom. “Some smaller ones don’t necessarily have these measures in place,” Bibeau says. “They should also be extremely careful, because if we have a case in a backyard flock ... it could have an impact on bigger commercial installations.”
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Killing our food chain. How do we know they are actually carrying a virus, look what's taking place with covid, is it real.

Ik kan niet zo goed Engels maar als ik het goed begrijp is bij jullie ook vogelgriep maar nog niet bij jullie

Any idea when this episode or bird flu might be over?

3 weeks ago

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC welcomed its first new members in 20 years at its AGM on April 27. The BC Blueberry Council, BC Cherry Association, BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, BC Food & Beverage Association, BC Meats and Organic BC were approved as members, bringing the IAFBC’s membership to 15 farm and food organizations. IAFBC is also growing in responsibility, managing a record $8.3 million in funding from six funding agencies and developing new programs to support the agriculture sector including Farmland Advantage and Agricultural Climate Solutions. ... See MoreSee Less

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC welcomed its first new members in 20 years at its AGM on April 27. The BC Blueberry Council, BC Cherry Association, BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, BC Food & Beverage Association, BC Meats and Organic BC were approved as members, bringing the IAFBC’s membership to 15 farm and food organizations. IAFBC is also growing in responsibility, managing a record $8.3 million in funding from six funding agencies and developing new programs to support the agriculture sector including Farmland Advantage and Agricultural Climate Solutions.
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4 weeks ago

A second BC flock has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province reported this evening, April 25. The small backyard flock of chicken and ducks near Kelowna has fewer than 100 birds and is relatively isolated. This is the second backyard flock to be suspected of high-path avian influenza in the past week. The other, on Vancouver Island, was found to be AI-free. Amanda Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association’s emergency operations centre, says the latest case is of minimal concern to industry because there are no commercial flocks within 12km of the premises. ... See MoreSee Less

A second BC flock has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province reported this evening, April 25. The small backyard flock of chicken and ducks near Kelowna has fewer than 100 birds and is relatively isolated. This is the second backyard flock to be suspected of high-path avian influenza in the past week. The other, on Vancouver Island, was found to be AI-free. Amanda Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association’s emergency operations centre, says the latest case is of minimal concern to industry because there are no commercial flocks within 12km of the premises.
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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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