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Originally published:

APRIL 2020
Vol. 106 Issue 4

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Stories In This Edition

Sheep labour

Growers scramble for workers

Province implements Bill 15

Farmers’ markets help communities recover

Looking ahead

Back 40: Food security demands out-of-box thinking

Viewpoint: Government needs to step up farm support

Groundwater bill causes confusion for Island farmer

Cannabis expansion goes up in smoke

Dairy producers surveyed on regulation impact

Institute keeps ALR changes on the front burner

Organic growers face mainstream competition

Egg producers reflect on productive year

Better together: Broilers, hating eggs collaborate

A job well done

Turkey growers see slow demand for birds

Dairy driving increase in semen sales

Beef conference BC-bound

Dairy producers rail against new transport rules

Beef industry looks beyond pandemic

Abattoirs required to cut back overtime

Tax credit review

Cattlemen take their concerns to Ottawa

Cattle sales an essential service

Funding will help farmers address nutrient runoff

Manure management guide updated for small-lot farmers

Potato growers optimistic

Hazelnut growers survey indsutry

Cherry growers focus on export opportunities

Weather woes drive cranberry yields lower

NFU highlights role for ag in climate crisis

Research: Reducing dairy production’s carbon footprint

Independent corn trials a priority for group

Silage management must be taken seriously

Brewing a local future

Orchardists urged to work smarter, not harder

Breakout sessions take growers deeper

Farm News: With spring comes a field of dreams

BCAFM considers Alberta vendors in border markets

Woodshed: Kenneth reaches a new low in the Bahamas

Authentic stories will resonate with consumers

Jude’s Kitchen: Food for holy days

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6 days ago

Farmland Advantage is receiving a $445,000 grant from the federal government. The program, the “brainchild” of Invermere cattle rancher Dave Zehnder, provides compensation to farmers for their conservation efforts to protect BC’s grasslands, riparian areas and wildlife habitat. The funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) and Priority Places programs, will be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas appeared in our March 2022 edition and you can view it at ... See MoreSee Less

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Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

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INVERMERE – Farmers and ranchers in the Columbia Valley will continue to see rewards for taking action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms. The Windermere District Farmer...
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2 weeks ago

A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural Land Commission hosted in Langley Monday night regarding a proposal to include 305 acres controlled by the federal government in the Agricultural Land Reserve. More than 76,000 people have signed an online petition asking municipal and provincial governments to protect the land from development, and for the federal government to grant a long-term lease to the Heppells. Read more in this morning's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. conta.cc/3XYXw6k ... See MoreSee Less

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Your weekly farm news update

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The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 January 25 2023 Surrey ALR inclusion cheered A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural L
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Mike Manion Pitt Meadows City Councillor

2 months ago

Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand this season and prices remain comparable to last year. But the number of tree farms has decreased dramatically over the past five years and the province will increasingly need to look elsewhere if it wants to meet local demand. More in this week's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. ... See MoreSee Less

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Christmas trees in demand

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Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand, with high quality trees making it to market. “The market is good. We’ll probably outdo last year and last year was one of our best years…
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2 months ago

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall. ... See MoreSee Less

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall.
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Avian influenza virus can be killed by chlorine at no higher a concentration than is present in drinking water, so unless farms are using untreated groundwater in their barns I don't see how it could be a source of transmission. www.researchgate.net/publication/5594208_Chlorine_Inactivation_of_Highly_Pathogenic_Avian_Influen...

2 months ago

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall. ... See MoreSee Less

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall.Image attachment
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Goes to show how far-removed our current government is from the agricultural sector. To put someone in this position who has no farming background is a slap in the face to all of our hard-working producers.

Going to be a heck of a learning curve. Helping the agricultural community recover from the biggest natural disasters in history, handling the avian influenza outbreak that is threatening our poultry industry, dealing with a crisis in meat processing, managing ongoing threats from climate change, supporting producers who are facing unprecedented inflation in an industry with very slim margins to begin with..... to name a few of the challenges our new Minister will have to face all with one of the lowest budgets of any ministry. I wish her the best of luck but I hope she's got a lot of support around her.

Best of wishes in your new position

Congrats to Pam, cool to see a Fraser Valley based ag minister but also so sad to see Lana reassigned . I have no doubt she will do an amazing job in her new role.

Will be missed by #meiernation

Bryce Rashleigh

Nooooooo!

Lana did a shit job and now we have a minister with no farming background at all. Aren’t we lucky..

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Food security demands out-of-box thinking

April 1, 2020 byBob Collins

Food security has been a core public health program of the BC Ministry of Health since 2005.

A food security model core program was released in 2006. The original program was updated in 2013.

The paper outlines the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s definition of food security, and the four dimensions required to achieve it. A chart then neatly boxes 53 potential influences on food security in BC.

Among the boxes is one for Agriculture, one for Fisheries and one for Farmers, Growers, and Fishers.

Noticeable by their absence are any boxes for drought, flood, fire, hail, frost, insect infestation, pandemic illness, red tape and regulation, wildlife damage, or that thing no one ever could have imagined. All of these, and others like them, get crammed into the agriculture box.

There are also boxes for NGOs and advocacy groups. Most communities will have one or more of these addressing the issue of food security. Some of them will be focussed on outcomes as specific as feeding the homeless: the issue becomes immediate for people with nothing to eat today. Other groups will embrace a broader perspective that includes what goes on in the agriculture box. At this point things start to get fuzzy.

The FAO defines food security as a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active healthy life. That’s certainly straight-forward as it stands, but when it’s embraced as a public goal, we begin to see qualifying phrases added in. Phrases like: locally sourced, ethically produced, sustainably grown, non-GMO, and a host of others.

With the best of intentions, and sometimes righteous zeal, these additions and the expectations that accompany them ultimately make their way over to the Agriculture box.

Things are starting to get a little crowded in the Agriculture box, and the farmers, ranchers, and growers will need to navigate the shoals of social expectation before they will be granted a “social licence” to ply their trade.

The FAO food security definition doesn’t mention a social licence. It specifically addresses food: sufficient, safe, and nutritious.

It also mentions food preferences and it might be here the social expectations congregate, as in: I prefer food that is locally sourced, ethically produced and sustainably grown.

Farmers and ranchers might fairly ask, what exactly does that mean? Define locally sourced. Is it grown within 20 km of your house? 50 km? 100 km? Anywhere in BC? California? Ethically produced: are domesticated animals ethical? Is it ethical for apple growers to be paid 20 cents for a pound for apples that sell in the store for $2.49? Sustainably grown: Is it sustainably grown if fossil fuel powered the machinery that harvested it? Or hauled it to market?

There are no specific answers, rather a spectrum of them for every question.

Producers might wonder about the ethics of a social licence if fulfilling its terms drives costs beyond the economic access of many consumers or returns below the cost of production.

To paraphrase an old saying: When you’re up to your armpits in expectations and regulations it’s hard to remember the objective was to grow food and make a living.

The take-away in all this is for the 98% of the population who rely on the other 2% to grow their food: If farmers and ranchers can’t make an economic case to grow food and get on with it, don’t assume they will keep it up for the sheer joy of the exercise or from a sense of social obligation.

Food security is best understood by people who have been truly hungry. Be thankful so many of you have never seen it that way.

Bear in mind there are more farmers over 70 than under 35. As a thank-you for all the sage advice and guidance (if I were you, I’d plant three acres of garlic and sell it all at the farmer’s market for $12 a pound), here is an observation from US President Dwight Eisenhower from an address in 1956: “You know, farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield.”

Bob Collins raises beef cattle and grows produce on his farm in the Alberni Valley.

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