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September 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 9

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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

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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 Cattle...
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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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Flood buyout bypasses farmers

Kettle River flooding near Manly Meadows, May 2018. Photo: Regional District of Kootenay Boundary [Floodlist.com]

May 13, 2020 byTom Walker

May is the month when Grand Forks residents watch the Granby and Kettle rivers for signs of flooding.

This year, local snowpacks were 119% of normal May 1, above the provincial average of 106% but well below the levels that triggered extensive flooding in 2018.

Recent cool temperatures mean the snow pack remains stable but the potential for flooding exists if there is a sharp rise in temperature and or heavy rainfall.

“You don’t have to drive up very high before you see snow,” says area rancher John Mehmal.

To help prevent a repeat of the 200-year flood levels that occurred two years ago, the city of Grand Forks is coordinating a buy-out program for residents of the Ruckle Addition area. The floods in 2018 breached dikes built after the 1948 floods.

“We have friends down in Ruckle who have had an offer on their house,” says Mehmal.

But farmers hit hard in 2018 haven’t seen any help.

“We lost fencing along the river and had to rehabilitate fields that were damaged,” he says. “We had someone from the provincial disaster relief program come out and look at the damage, and we have contacted them a couple of times since, but we haven’t heard a thing.”

Fred Elsaesser of nearby Advance Nurseries Co. Ltd. was hit harder, losing access to 50 of the 350 acres near the Kettle River where it grows hardy deciduous trees shipped across North America. The flood carved a new channel for the river through his land, burying trees in three feet of silt and washing the rest downstream to the US.

The volume of sales pushed him over the threshold for government compensation, and he says his small family farm is being treated like it was a corporation.

With any luck, he hopes to recover some of the money he’s lost. Discussions with administrators of the disaster financial assistance program over the past 18 months have yet to bear fruit, however.

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