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Originally published:

September 2017
Vol. 103 Issue 9

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Stories In This Edition

Bleak

Rising from the ashes

Foreign ownership on radar

Local knowledge & premise ID earn creditibility

Political overhaul targets major issues

Back to the future

Back Forty: Support can’t come soon enough

Viewpoint: Smartphones dial up new green revolution

Govt orders review of contaminated acquifer

Ag waste regs coming

Perfect attendance

BC-Washington collaborate on water mgmt

BC leads in organic consumption

Bracing for second flight of armyworm

Budget funding starts flowoing for genomics work

The “S” Team

Ag ministers sign new funding framework

Supply management takes hit

Delta land swap yields benefits

Consolidation strengthens ALR exclusion bid

Salt Spring facility gets big boost from local donor

Corn rootworm infesting FV crops

Kelowna farmers’ market gives new location a try

Compensetion sought for Clinton backburn

Fall promises volatility in cattle markets

Cattle feeders face certain uncertainties

Shave Shower Shampoo

Strong showing for Hereford Bonanza

Grain research helps address shifting conditions

FV, N OK dairies win at Chilliwack

Research: Breeding cows to beat the heat

Kootenay program aims to revive extension expertise

Beet trials target “seed sovereignty”

New hop debuts

Washington lab holds opportunities for grain growers

Sheep dog trials make comeback

Bear kills cause grief for Island sheep producers

Get it in writing

Celebrating 100 years: Eaglet FI

Managing risks, seizing opportunities

Naturally rich soil, low inputs support Kelowna garden

In celebration of thse who buy local

Woodshed: Ashley exercises power of persuasion

Jude’s Kitchen: Back-to-it Bites

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4 days 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

1 month 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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2 months ago

The scale of this year's avian flu outbreak now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004. An additional 13 commercial farms in the Fraser Valley have tested positive in the last week. To date, 49 commercial farms and 1.2 million birds have been impacted. CFIA is struggling to keep up with depopulation of sick birds. ... See MoreSee Less

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AI outbreak rivals 2004

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The scale of this year’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004 that saw farms throughout the Fraser Valley depopulated. An additional 13 commercial…
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Commercial operations need to reevaluate their stocking densities and overall health and welfare of the animals within their systems if they are ever going to have a fighting chance against this virus.

Yup cause food shortage

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Food testing within reach

September 1, 2017 byBarbara Johnstone-grimmer

PORT ALBERNI – How is it that a tiny island in Washington state has the first farmer-run community food safety lab in the US, satisfying the rigid requirements of the US Department of Agriculture and the US Food Safety Modernization Act?

Part of the San Juan Islands, an archipelago just south of BC’s own Gulf Islands, Lopez Island is tiny at 120 square miles. Home to just 35 farms, it has limited land and resources, and is separated from the mainland by the cost and inconvenience of a ferry. It is home to 700 people in winter and 5,000 to 6,000 in summer.

But what really sets Lopez Island apart, explained Dr. Claver Bundac at the Islands Agriculture Show in Port Alberni, February 4, is that it is a “community where continuous improvement is a necessity for survival.”

“They have an adventurous sense of imagination and a strong community spirit so they wanted a community lab,” he says. “They embrace collective problem solving to get co-operative solutions. They consider food safety a culture and not just a requirement. They take pride in what they do.”

The sustainable agriculture and rural development program of the Lopez Community Land Trust (LCLT) actively supports small-scale sustainable agriculture in the San Juan Islands, with some notable successes.

In 2001, LCLT unveiled the first USDA-approved Mobile Meat Processing unit in the US. This allowed Lopez farmers to legally slaughter livestock on-farm with USDA inspection but without the ferry rides.

More recently, Bundac, a Lopez Island resident and founder of California biotech firm Biomedix which develops food safety testing systems, collaborated with LCLT to open FoodMetrics Laboratories.

The labs Biomedix sets up are usually designed to run within large food production companies. Biomedix had never set up a community food testing lab before but Lopez Island farmers were interested in the model. Changes under the US Food Safety Modernization Act meant that community food testing could be “a local answer to a national question,” says Bundac.

Safe food

The national issue is the regulation and protection of food: food sold to the public must be safe, wholesome and authentic and consequently, the new act requires regular testing of food and processes. On an island, everything is small-scale. It’s expensive and time-consuming to go off-island and cost-prohibitive for everyone to set up in-house labs.

LCLT provided space and Biomedix, through its Food Metrics division, set up the lab – a gift worth US$6,000 to US$8,000 (about $7,500 to $10,000 Canadian) – to provide food and environmental testing to people for their farms and food processing operations. The lab opened in January.

Producers are able to book time in the lab to analyze their products, an arrangement that gives them control over the information they need to meet their statutory requirements.

While the original idea was for farmers to receive training and certification to use the lab, the majority want someone else to do the work. Web-based lab information is collected and benchmarks are developed from cumulative anonymous data.

“It all boils down to a risk assessment system. You need your own data to benchmark or you have to use extrapolations from big data, big companies and apply it to smaller operations,” says

Bundac.

Other advantages of the community lab include:

  • eliminating or reduce shipping costs;
  • lower testing costs;
  • producer-specific data;
  • faster results;
  • lower risk of sample contamination;
  • flexible testing schedules.
  • Based on the Lopez Island experience, the BC Small Scale Food Processor Association and the Comox Valley Economic Development Society are working to develop a community food analysis lab in the Comox Valley. Bundac has already set up a demonstration lab at the Vancouver Island Technology Park.

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