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Originally published:

AUGUST 2020
Vol. 105 Issue 8

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Stories In This Edition

Master of Vine

Second farm locked down

COVID-19 darkens sales outlook

Initiative takes aim at invasive Asian hornets

Editorial: Relax, rethnk, reset

Back 40: A fire prevention and response plan is crucial

OpEd: Food priorities need to focus on the basics

BC berries face mixed outlook this season

Pandemic puts the squeeze on blueberry growers

U-picks popular as consumers seek outdoor activities

Cosures underscore need for licensing reform

Small-lot farmers  call for greater infrastructure

Ag Briefs: Milk production adjusted to meet demand

Ag Briefs: Former minister of agriculture Ed Conroy dies

Ag Briefs: Paton introduces artisan food bill in legislature

Ag Briefs: Milk board takes out recall insurance

Vancouver Island hazelnut plans focus on growth

Hazelnut replant program enters home stretch

Agrologists unveil new designation

Woodjam Ranch honoured for sustainability

Outlook cautiously optimistic for fall run

Sidebar: Set-aside program easing backlog

Research: Managing crop residue to increase soil health

Inaugural viticulturist of the year chosen

Shuswap couple sees future in elderberries

Research farm grows in the Garden City

New crops could join greenhouse association

Garlic time

Farm Story: Summertime road trips

4-H auctions steer toward online formula

Woodshed: Kenneth takes social distancing up a level

Consumers are responding to transparency

Rain-be-gone

Jude’s Kitchen: Outdoor appies while keeping your distance

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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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2 months ago

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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Food priorities need to focus on the basics

Shorter, local supply chains make for resilient food systems

The BC Ministry of Agriculture needs to double extension services, with agrologists, agri-tech experts and other advisors who will get to know farmers and processors on site and connect them with useful resources. Photo / File

August 1, 2020 byKathleen Gibson

People working on sustainability have been talking for years about a tipping point. This may well be the year we’ve reached it.

A mortal threat to human health – COVID-19 – has disrupted the global status quo and will condition everything we do from now on, at least until we have an effective treatment or vaccine. The pandemic joins with the widening effects of climate change and significant social inequality. We can’t go back to the way things were.

Amid the challenges and uncertainties, few matters are more immediate or important than food. The pandemic spotlight has picked out significant weaknesses in long, complex, just-in-time supply chains where food passes through many hands. A few very large companies own key links in those chains, and we’ve realized how dangerously fragile big and concentrated operations are. We have also realized that the many hands that make the chains work are essential, and require appropriate compensation, good working and living conditions and access to health care.

The good news is that food providers and the people of BC are demonstrating adaptability and resilience. And there are many hands and minds willing to help and think our way forward.

The farmers, fishers, food businesses and organizations in BC are engaged. When our restaurants closed and everyone began to cook more at home, retail markets adapted and farmers shifted their planting, marketing plans and sales channels. Smaller processors picked up some of the slack from the big players. Distributors helped re-route product from farms to consumers. Farm and food businesses added or improved online capabilities. To the people immediately involved it probably felt – and may still feel – like daily scrambling, but food has kept growing and moving, and that is a significant achievement.

Missing the mark

In this context, the BC government’s 2019-20 Economic Plan, Emerging Economy Task Force Report and Food Security Task Force Report – conceived pre-pandemic and promoting the theme of BC becoming a world leader in agri-tech and innovation – miss the mark. More relevant are pandemic-informed reports such as the European Commission’s From Farm to Fork, the Green Technology Education Centre’s Rebuilding BC: A Portfolio of Possibilities or the First Nations Health Authority’s Planning for Food Security: a Toolkit for the COVID-19 Pandemic.

There is general agreement that putting more emphasis on closer, shorter supply chains is a good idea because they provide resilience against shocks and stressors. There is also a focus on reducing waste along the chain, which can include the development of new products. If we want robust BC supply chains, here are some suggestions for how a few key organizations could take action:

  • BC Ministry of Agriculture: Double extension services, with agrologists, agri-tech experts and other advisors who will get to know farmers and processors on site and connect them with useful resources.
  • Universities and colleges: Provide resources that help solve supply chain problems. Pick an area, build relationships, stay with it. A livestock example is the Niche Meat Processors Assistance Network, an information and problem-solving hub operated by extension personnel at Oregon State University.
  • Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC: Lean into the possibilities of (re)developing products from existing supply chains and repurposing waste. Livestock examples include fleece, wool and hides.
  • Food policy councils and local governments: Provide coordination, something no supply chain can do without. This goes to facilitation, contract development and management, logistics, scheduling and more. Unpaid coordinators tend to burn out, and then supply chains crack or break.
  • The Premier: Find a way to insert food into the mandate of every ministry. This can support and reinforce agriculture’s efforts. The BC Ministry of Health’s definition of food security as a “key determinant of health” has proven beneficial. The education minister could make food a key topic for food literacy and citizenship.

Overall, the key resilience variable and hallmark of sustainable food systems is diversity: in seeds, crops, livestock breeds, land and water use practices, business models, not to mention points of view at the table.

These remarks are based on a post-tipping point assumption that our food providers are now in survival mode and we need to reinforce basics. No shiny things, no promises here about making BC a world leader.

Technology has many important and useful roles, but it should be understood as a means to an end, not an end in itself. Provincial reports such as those cited above mistakenly emphasize technical solutions for what is really an enormous adaptive challenge. While these reports were being published, farmers, fishers and food businesses were improvising and innovating like never before. When it comes to charting a path forward, the pandemic has reminded us to listen to them – when they come up for air.

Kathleen Gibson is a policy analyst and founding member of the Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CR-FAIR), the BC Food Systems Network and Food Secure Canada. Between 2005 and 2012, she assisted with industry’s adaptation to the Meat Inspection Regulation and introduction of BC’s graduated slaughter licensing system.

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