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Originally published:

July 2017
Vol. 103 Issue 7

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Stories In This Edition

4-H Gator draw

Poultry Abuse underscores need to measure up

Political uncertainty creates angst

Water tops list of ranchers’ concerns at AGM

Editorial: Trust is an active verb

Back Forty: Time to celebrate our home and rural land

Greenhouse growers propose infrastructure project

Letter: Seat belts must be worn at all times

Ag Brief: Blueberry growers pack meeting

Ag Brief: Blueberry growers pack meeting

Barn fires spark focus on prevention

Emergency plan critical for livestock owners

BCAC hires new communications director

Abbotsford seeks exclusion to boost industrial land base

Otter Co-op posts another record-breaking year

Food report card gives BC passing grade

Agriculture’s success testifies to investment funding

Ag Brief: Hullcar abatement order shut down

Mission investigation inconclusive

Abbotsford tickets thousands

Price set as growers eye ambitious growth target

High prices, change coming for nurseries

BC tree fruit outlooks is a bowl of cherries

BC greenhouses are family-friendly operations

Sidebar: Why greenhouses aren’t organic

Greenhouse showcases production systems

BC agricultual history depicted in museum murals

BC agriculture vital part of Canada’s 150 years

Research: Grazing time for cows

Deep roots give Shannon Farm bright future

Fraser Lake ranchers honoured for excellence

Cattlemen invest in research to boost productivity

New livestock industry co-ordinator embraces dream job

Researchers study sheep diseases to understand potential risks

Blueberry processors focus on fruit quality

Sidebar: SWD can make timing harvest tricky

Urban growing, libations and greenhouses

Municipalities committing to urban farming

Young farmers hear production, packing trips

Pencil Patch offers hands-on experience

Summer camps foster farm focus for kids

New group of 4-H Ambassadors engage BC

Woodshed:

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse

Jude’s Kitchen: Summertime

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1 week ago

The province remained short on details Thursday as it repeated an announcement it plans to invest $5 million in a new animal disease preparedness and response program. “This investment will provide BC farmers and ranchers with the support to plan and respond quicker and better to disease outbreaks,” said BC agriculture minister Pam Alexis, who was joined by MLAs from Langley East, Chilliwack and Chilliwack-Kent at Canadian Organic Feeds in Chilliwack.

#BCAg #countrylifeinbc #BCpoultry
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The province remained short on details Thursday as it repeated an announcement it plans to invest $5 million in a new animal disease preparedness and response program. “This investment will provide BC farmers and ranchers with the support to plan and respond quicker and better to disease outbreaks,” said BC agriculture minister Pam Alexis, who was joined by MLAs from Langley East, Chilliwack and Chilliwack-Kent at Canadian Organic Feeds in Chilliwack.

#BCAg #countrylifeinbc #BCpoultry
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Stay away from government programs

It's a killing program ..

1 week ago

With the stroke of a pen, BC has officially entered into a new agreement with the federal government that will see more than $140 million invested over the next five years in “strategic” agricultural initiatives. The money represents a 25% increase of about $29 million over the previous funding agreement, which ends on March 31. “This partnership will support our government’s focus on food security for all British Columbians while investing significantly in BC farmers, producers and processors,” says BC agriculture minister Pam Alexis. The agreement was signed earlier today, during federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau’s visit to the province. ... See MoreSee Less

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Bilateral agreement signed

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BC will see an additional $29 million over five years from the federal government when the new agricultural policy framework debuts April 1. A new bilateral agreement between the provincial and…
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1 week ago

BC farmers and producers have until June 30 to register for AgriStability, pay their fees and secure coverage under the program. AgriStability provides support to growers with large financial declines caused by production losses as a result of extreme weather, disease outbreak (such as avian influenza) and increased costs or declining market conditions. About 2,100 BC farmers enroll in the program annually. For more information or to enrol, visit www.gov.bc.ca/AgriStability

#BCAg #countrylifeinbc #AgriStability
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BC farmers and producers have until June 30 to register for AgriStability, pay their fees and secure coverage under the program. AgriStability provides support to growers with large financial declines caused by production losses as a result of extreme weather, disease outbreak (such as avian influenza) and increased costs or declining market conditions. About 2,100 BC farmers enroll in the program annually. For more information or to enrol, visit www.gov.bc.ca/AgriStability

#BCAg #countrylifeinbc #AgriStability
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2 weeks ago

A new provincial agricultural extension program is in the works, and hopes are high it heralds a fresh start for regional agricultural support in BC. Set to launch this spring, the program intends to increase engagement with producers, with a focus on climate mitigation, adaption and overall sustainability.

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Provincial extension service coming

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A new provincial extension service is in the works, an initiative applauded at an Agri-Extension and Research event organized by the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District and held at the BC Ministry of...
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2 weeks ago

A planned food hub in the Kootenay Boundary region could be a reality this fall after three years of planning, supporting local meat processing capacity in the southern Interior. “We have settled on a butcher hub with two components, a dedicated space for cut-and-wrap with Magnum Meats as the tenant and a value-added meat processing area with a smokehouse and sausage-making equipment available for daily rental," says Vicki Gee, who sits on the food hub committee. The story appears in our March edition and we've uploaded it to our website.

[Schweb Cattle Co photo]
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Butcher hub moves ahead after three years

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ROCK CREEK – A planned food hub in the Kootenay Boundary region could be a reality this fall after three years of planning, supporting local meat processing capacity in the southern Interior.
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Jessica Coburn you see this?

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Greenhouse growers propose infrastructure project

July 1, 2017 byLinda Della Santi

The BC Greenhouse Growers’ Association (BCGGA) has ongoing concerns around the availability of good, clean water for our greenhouses.

During the water shortage and drought in the summer of 2015, agriculture minister Norm Letnick was quoted in the August issue of Country Life in BC saying that “commercial greenhouses and other large agricultural water users could be restricted if the drought persists”. Greenhouse

Reliable and sufficient water supply is crucial for agricultural development and food security in the province. Our greenhouse vegetable plants would not survive any interruption in water supply.

The Water Sustainability Act (WSA) came into force on February 29, 2016. It modernizes BC’s strategy for using water efficiently throughout the province. Within the WSA, greenhouses are, remarkably, not considered an agricultural use of water but rather an industrial use. The WSA commits to secure agricultural access to water but as greenhouses are not considered to be agriculture, we have concerns with water interruption in summer months during a drought.

Some greenhouse owners have reported rumours about water:

  • Municipalities and possibly the provincial government will not be allowing any new agricultural businesses to use municipal water.
  • Those farms that are on municipal water will not be permitted to continue using it in the future.
  • Water connections would be restricted to one inch for agriculture.
  • Some municipalities do not permit municipal water to be used for open field irrigation and this prohibition will be extended to greenhouse irrigation.

No basis

We have met with many levels of government in the past year and discussed these rumours. Government officials say there is no basis for these rumours and deny that there is anything in the works. Environment minister Mary Polak did, however, comment that municipal water – or potable water – is very expensive to produce and finding alternative water supplies when potable water is not necessary would be an attractive solution to high- cost municipal potable water.

For a variety of climate reasons, greenhouse vegetable growers are mainly clustered in the Lower Mainland and, more specifically, near water such as in north Abbotsford and Delta. Our growers have found that proximity to bodies of water – the Fraser River and the ocean – helps provide a climate in the summer months that our crops prefer: lower temperatures and higher humidity. Growers in these areas are on municipal water systems.

The greenhouse sector engages in production practices that promote the sustainable use of water:

  • Our farms grow their plants in bags, many in gutters, allowing for the collection of water the plant doesn’t use. This water is treated and recycled back to the plants.
  • Rainwater is collected from the roof into holding ponds, then used for irrigation.

These practices have reduced our overall consumption of fresh water, making the best use possible of this valuable resource.

We acknowledge that potable water is expensive to produce and we do not necessarily require fully potable water for irrigation. Alternative sources of water, such as drilled wells in north Abbotsford and Delta, will not produce water that will be abundant enough or suitable for irrigation purposes. Soil-based farmers in Delta use Fraser River water that is pumped into the ditch system. This source of water is not sufficiently clean for greenhouse use, and would compromise our food safety.

There is a long-term solution to provide greenhouses with secure access to clean, non-potable water from the Fraser River. This would require an infrastructure project to provide farmers with a treatment system and pipeline dedicated to agriculture. An infrastructure project such as this would benefit the entire Lower Mainland agricultural complex.

This large infrastructure project would be an excellent project to access the recently created Canada Infrastructure Bank. The federal government created this bank as a new tool to provide low-cost financing for new infrastructure projects to help provinces and municipalities build the projects their communities need.

Partnerships

This project clearly reflects the objectives of green infrastructure projects to deliver clean air and safe water systems. Our industry will continue to explore this possibility with municipal, provincial and federal government authorities. We welcome other sectors to join us in this initiative.

Linda Delli Santi is the executive director of the BC Greenhouse Growers’ Association.

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