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Originally published:

SEPTEMBER 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 9

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Stories In This Edition

Wildfire response improves

Bad timing for election call

Hay there!

Food sales still reeling from the pandemic

Editorial: Restart, regenerate

Back 40: Anti-vax rhetoric is far worse than the cure

Viewpoint: Organic practices key to our collective well-being

Producers face unannounced welfare checks

Livestock feel the heat as forage dries up

Farmers take issue with water restrictions

Ag Briefs: Grape growers optimistic as harvest approaches

Ag Briefs: Greenhouse nursery specialist named

Feed BC connects producers with opportunities

Sidebar: Nutrition program continues

Growers welcome grocer code of conduct

Chicken growers address heat stress

Greenhouse growers undertake strategic plan

Turning manure into renewable energy

Sidebar: Biogas gets a boost with changes to regulations

Blueberry growers welcome higher berry prices

Ranchers, farmers on the wildfire frontlines

Sidebar: Water and fans keep cattle cool

Province halts livestock watering reg update

BC farm sales sets new monthly record

Mental wellness resources meet a growing need

Sidebar: Mental health resources

Saving the farm business hinges on planning

Hot potatoes

Farmers produce crops, and loads of plastic

Barnston Island farmers face uncertain future

Market garden rises from battle of the weeds

Sidebar: Oostenbrink’s tips for no-till vegetables

Research: Bumblebee declines not as dire as study states

A non-family succession plan that worked

Living plants are revolutionizing herb sales

Food hub readies for fall opening

Farm Story: Good help at the right time

Small-scale abattoir in the works for Island

Breeding better tasting beets

Woodshed Chronicles: Plans unfold for the ride of a lifetime

Young entrepreneur weaves new use for twine

Jude’s Kitchen: Simpler eats for a new, normal September

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1 week ago

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays. ... See MoreSee Less

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays.
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Patti 😊

2 weeks ago

... See MoreSee Less

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2 weeks ago

The top five issues the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity identified in a recent survey were the cost of food, inflation, the cost of energy, keeping healthy food affordable and the Canadian economy. “We are seeing that environmental concerns are not in the top 10,” says Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattle Association’s public and stakeholder engagement program. “If you are concerned about being able to afford to feed your family, the environment becomes less important.” ... See MoreSee Less

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Ranchers get the backstory on public perception

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VERNON – Ranchers might be concerned about how the public sees their industry, but a producer-funded team at the Canadian Cattle Association has their back. Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattleâ...
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2 weeks ago

BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million. ... See MoreSee Less

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Lake Country packing house sold

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BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million.
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Who bought it ffs ?

Ted Nedjelski Karen Turner

One of my first jobs was apple grading in a packing plant in Vernon

Vivian, is this where you worked?

I’d hear the company that owns the big Cannabis company that owns the green houses all around this packing plant was buying up everything around to expand. Wonder if it’s them that got it.

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2 weeks ago

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Association's preparation for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/ ... See MoreSee Less

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Associations preparation  for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit https://www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/
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Farmers take issue with water restrictions

Food security requires access to water, say growers

built a 500,000 gallon dugout six years ago to stabilize her water supply. SUBMITTED

September 1, 2021 byKate Ayers And Peter Mitham

GIBSONS – With a growing number of watersheds reaching Level 4 drought restrictions or higher, some farmers say regulators need to make greater allowances for food production.

Sunshine Coast Regional District recently implemented Level 4 drought restrictions which prohibit all outdoor water use, including for agriculture.

That doesn’t sit well with Raquel Kolof of Hough Heritage Farm in Gibsons and president of the Sunshine Coast Farmers Institute.

“All farmers, including commercial food farmers, were cut off from outdoor water use on August 10, 2021, as the SCRD went into stage 4 water restrictions on the Sunshine Coast,” she says. “[But] breweries, distilleries and industrial cannabis grow ops have unrestricted water use simply due to the fact that their operations are indoors.”

The farmers institute promptly sent a letter to the Sunshine Coast Regional District asking it to exempt soil-based farmers from the restrictions. It had previously changed the rules in 2019 to exempt farmers until Level 4, but Kolof says allowing industrial users to draw water while prohibiting growers from watering their crops doesn’t make sense.

“Water restrictions based on indoor versus outdoor water use are arbitrary, unfair and not in the best interest of our communities’ need for food security, nor our aquifer’s and ecosystem’s long-term health,” the letter says. “Soil-based farming supports our ecosystem and reverses climate change. Soil-based farmers with healthy living crops and livestock-grazed pastures sequester carbon. This carbon drawdown into living roots feeds our soil microbiome and cools our climate.”

The letter also notes that healthy pastures, cropland and orchards also support wildlife and feed pollinators, which are essential to the food supply as well as being an environmental benefit.

Nature Tech Nursery

co-owner Thom O’Dell in Courtenay also flags the environmental benefits of maintaining agricultural water use.

Drought ratings in two watersheds in the Comox Valley are at Level 4, a stage at which adverse impacts become likely. While maintaining stream flows protects fish, O’Dell would like to see the province support greater investment in on-farm water management.

Nature Tech has yet to hear back regarding its water licence application 19 months after submission and is now considering whether or not to develop a dugout for water storage.

“We hope that the province will implement funding for water storage as it is increasingly clear that we need to do much more to adapt to climate change,” he says. “We think that is a simple and cost-effective contribution that would serve complementary goals of assisting small farmers to be more sustainable in terms of their water use while also enhancing conservation efforts for salmon and other riparian species by reducing the use of surface water by farmers in the growing season.”

Courtenay beef producer Brad Chappell of Heart of the Valley Farms says the federal government also needs to step up.

“If the federal government truly wants to help agriculture, they should develop a plan through grants and financing in regions to develop off-stream and extra watering facilities like dugouts and wells,” he says.

Courtenay organic producer Arzeena Hamir has ensured a stable supply of water for her four acres of vegetables with a dugout she built in 2015. It stores 500,000 gallons of water, augmenting what her well delivers.

Water access is most acute in the Koksilah watershed, one of a growing number of watersheds in the province now rated Level 5, when a “high likelihood of significant irreversible harm to the aquatic ecosystem” are almost certain.

Growers along the Koksilah River became the first in the province to face restrictions under BC’s Water Sustainability Act in 2019 when water access was cut as stream flows fell below 180 litres per second.

“All the streams and wells that are in the Koksilah watershed and support the river and are used for irrigation were also included,” says David Tattam, a producer and environmental farm plan advisor. To manage the risk, a group of 19 producers developed an irrigation scheduling system that sees half of them irrigate four days then the other half irrigate for four days during drought conditions. This approach helped maintain water use until midnight on August 17 when the province once again cut off users as flow levels dropped.

However, some farmers in the area decided not to irrigate at all this year, says Tattam.

“They have to put so much water on that it wasn’t cost effective,” he explains. “Farmers take a pretty big hit financially even with the scheduling. It’s better than no irrigation but you’re only irrigating half the time. They reduce the opportunity of getting second and third crops off. … We’re hoping in the future that we can come up with something better than scheduling and find opportunities to develop access to water.”

Secure access to water will be key for agricultural production to continue in BC. This point was highlighted in a 2006 report for the province, which estimated that an additional 92,000 hectares of irrigated farmland would be needed by 2025 for BC farmers to continue supplying 48% of the province’s food supply.

Climate change, and the responses of local government, has only exacerbated the importance of secure access to water.

The urgency of the situation is prompting some producers to get political.

Cammy and James Lockwood of Lockwood Farms in Cobble Hill have 6,000 laying hens and a market garden, both of which suffered during this summer’s heat waves. They did their best to keep the lettuce and brassicas cool so it wouldn’t go to seed but still lost about 4,000 heads of lettuce.

“Plants were literally just getting scorched. On the nursery side, a lot of the leaves just burnt even when they were well watered,” says Cammy, noting that the farm’s well struggled to keep up with demand.

Growers in the eastern Fraser Valley also made huge demands on their aquifers, and Lockwood says governments need to pay attention.

“I feel not enough is being done about this,” she says. “The government is not treating it like the crisis it is. Food security is at top of mind through the wildfires and heat dome.”

This summer’s events pushed Lockwood to become more politically involved in her region and she will support the Green Party in the upcoming federal election.

“As farmers, we are on the front lines of the climate crisis and it’s getting harder and harder to grow food,” Lockwood says.

With files from Barbara Johnstone Grimmer

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