• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Country Life In BC Logo

The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915

  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search

Primary Sidebar

Originally published:

JULY 2022
Vol. 108 Issue 7

Subscribe Now!

Sign up for free weekly FARM NEWS UPDATES


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
Your information will not be
shared or sold ever

Stories In This Edition

Good land at risk

Borrowing costs rising

Biosecurity rules limit bird flu outbreaks

From far and white

Back 40: A reality check for those living in a virtual world

Viewpoint: Don’t overlook tax incentives for innovation

Chicken growers battle disease, high feed costs

Delayed seeding means lighter crop, higher prices

Dairy farmers welcome price increase

Ag Briefs: Dutch Treat

Ag Briefs: Bearing fruit

Ag Briefs: Photo finish

Ukraine’s loss in the global market is everyone’s loss

Diesel prices plateau but gas pains continue

Farms expected to meet carbon emission targets

Sidebar: Regulating cannabis emissions

Carbon tax tops greenhouse grower concerns

New extension initiatives for orchard sector

Langley farmers air grievances to politicians

Drought, fires mark chaotic year for ranchers

Reduced forage quality complicates the math

Targeted grazing project reduces wildfire risk

BC bee colonies see significant winter losses

Hay down

Slocan market garden finds its sweet spot

Farm co-operatives aim to do business right

Sidebar: What about larger scale cooperatives?

Researchers close in on grapevine trunk disease

Sidebar: Fighting fungi with fungi

Summer sweet

Industry collaborates on smoke taint research

Farm Story: The usual thing isnt working

Researchers investigate sunscreen for fruit

Sidebar: Larger rootstocks could alleviate heat stress

Startup supports seasonal worker payments

Woodshed: Kenneth’s rescue is TikTok worthy

Family and friends honour rancher’s legacy

Jude’s Kitchen: Summer salads are cool and refreshing

More Headlines

Follow us on Facebook

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

4 days 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.
View Comments
  • Likes: 8
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

Patti 😊

7 days ago

... See MoreSee Less

View Comments
  • Likes: 4
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

7 days 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

Link thumbnail

Ranchers get the backstory on public perception

www.countrylifeinbc.com

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...
View Comments
  • Likes: 3
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

1 week 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

Link thumbnail

Lake Country packing house sold

www.countrylifeinbc.com

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.
View Comments
  • Likes: 7
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 5

Comment on Facebook

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.

View more comments

1 week 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/
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

Subscribe | Advertise

The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Good land at risk

Ottawa’s plan for Surrey farmland raises alarm

Tristin Bouwman, left, and Tyler Heppell say the 220 acres the Heppell family farms in Surrey’s Campbell Heights is irreplaceable. It’s one of the first to be seeded and the first to supply the BC market with potatoes, carrots and cabbage. They’re petitioning the federal government to work with the province to include the land in the province’s Agricultural Land Reserve to maintain its agricultural integrity. RONDA PAYNE

July 4, 2022 byPeter Mitham

SURREY – This spring’s cool, wet weather has made it difficult for farmers to get on fields across the Lower Mainland, particularly in low-lying areas of Delta and on Sumas Prairie.

But in Campbell Heights, the Heppell family was seeding its 220 acres in early March – a little bit later than usual, but earlier than most others. Good drainage and a warm microclimate makes it among the first fields seeded in Canada each year and the first to supply the BC market with potatoes, carrots and cabbage. This puts it at the forefront of the local supply; without it, the marketing window for imported vegetables would be longer.

“It is integral to Western Canada’s food production, in that it pushes back Mexico and California product,” says Wes Heppell, whose family has farmed the land since 1974.

Heppell farms a total of 650 acres, the majority of it on Sumas Prairie. Wet conditions this year meant that even in mid-June, equipment was getting stuck. That wasn’t the case in Campbell Heights, which makes it unique for the Lower Mainland, if not Canada.

“There is no other land like it in Canada,” he says. “We’ve looked all over the province – the Interior, everywhere – and you just cannot find what we have here.”

But the future of the site, which totals about 300 acres including forested land, is in jeopardy.

Declared surplus by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada in 2016, it’s been farmed on a year-to-year lease ever since. Public Works and Government Services Canada began preparing for disposition of the property last year. This summer, Crown corporations, provincial and municipal governments and First Nations will be asked to express interest in the property prior to it being offered to private buyers.

“This could be the last season that the land is producing before it gets put into a trajectory of disappearing from agriculture, as we understand it,” says Tristin Bouwman, crop manager with Heppell and vice-president with the Surrey Farmers Institute, who has been working to raise awareness of the potential loss of the land.

Bouwman has launched a petition on Change.org calling on Ottawa to work with the province to include the property within the Agricultural Land Reserve and urging Surrey to amend its official community plan to designate the land for farming and greenspace.

“Are we prepared to take the most resilient, fertile land and pave it over?” he asks. “If this piece is lost, there’s nothing that could replace this land’s productive capacity.”

A leading option for the land – if local First Nations don’t express interest in it – is industrial space. The property lies within the Campbell Heights area, a key source of industrial land for Metro Vancouver, which claims the tightest industrial market in North America with virtually no space available unless it’s built. Unlike a smaller tract on the south side of Campbell Heights,  also in line for development, it doesn’t need rezoning.

“Since about 2000, it’s been in the official community plan for industrial development,” Bouwman says. “We’re moving towards that now, and it’s the time that people have to be heard as to whether or not this critical piece of land should be lost forever.”

There’s growing momentum to save the land. Dozens of politicians from all levels of government have toured the property in recent weeks, just as the first nugget potatoes headed to local stores – the first of close to 50 million servings the land will produce this year.

With a civic election looming this fall, Surrey mayor Doug McCallum has offered to purchase the site.

“If the federal government were to make this property available to the City of Surrey, I would ensure an offer would be made,” he said in a statement, June 21. “If successful, I would pledge that the property would remain as farmland so it can produce harvest after harvest for generations to come.”

Bouwman hopes the candidates who run in this fall’s civic election will stand up for the land.

“We think decision-makers at all levels of government should come out in support of the local food supply and protect this land by committing to amend municipal plans and by including the land in the ALR,” he says.

The BC Agriculture Council supports the inclusion of the land in the ALR, saying the collaboration of the federal and provincial governments would send a strong message.

“If these lands are recognized as part of the Agricultural Land Reserve, it would send a powerful signal that agriculture is valued in British Columbia and that different levels of government can cooperate effectively to ensure our communities’ food security,” BCAC executive director Danielle Synotte said in a statement.

The public is watching, Bouwman says.

“This is an issue that is a public issue, that whenever they hear about it, really cares, because it’s about the future of our food,” he says. “We’ve learned in the last two years how vulnerable supply chains are. We’ve learned the importance of domestic supply. To lose this piece of land would be a significant blow to our local food production.”

Related Posts

You may be interested in these posts from the same category.

Province consults on agritech

Foreign worker consultation planned

Province funds climate readiness

BCAC plans benefits program

ALR settles Treaty 8 claims

Watershed strategy could hang ag out to dry

Food security funding welcomed

Carbon tax rebate announced

Farmers question regenerative ag agenda

Community spirit honoured at gala

Surrey ALR inclusion cheered

Senate report highlights need for flood plans

Previous Post: « Irrigation shouldn’t be an afterthought
Next Post: Guaranteed returns for apples »

Copyright © 2023 Country Life in BC · All Rights Reserved