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Originally published:

NOVEMBER 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 11

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Stories In This Edition

Down to the crunch

Producer prices on the rise

Feeling burned

Groundwater users could lose rights next year

The right thing

Editorial: Freedom worth having

Back 40: The battle continues long after the war is over

Viewpoint: Stories bridge the gap between producers, consumers

Growers wrestle with irrigation upgrades

Wildfire 2021

Abbotsford updates farmland policies

Stormy skies

Ag Briefs: Douglas Lake “right to roam” challenge dismissed

Ag Briefs: Creston food hub opens

Ag Briefs: Food processors receive funding

Ag Briefs: Vanderspek appointed

Summerland grape specialists retire

Grapevine virus spread threatens BC industry

Caught in the act

Abbotsford sheep grower honoured

Tag readers help with livestock recordkeeping

RegenBC kicks off agritech network

Producers silent on Columbia River Treaty impacts

Cranberry fields forever

Manitoba farmers make dreams a reality

Enderby dairy is anything but conventional

Improvement to classification services explored

Up close and personal

Partnering with farmers to reduce food loss

Sidebar: Upcycled food

Slow and steady wins the day for irrigation

Research: Study takes soil health to the next level

Nelson farm builds soil and local community

Cash flow analysis is key to resilience

New app zeroes in on reducing lost produce

Sidebar: Food hub offers room to grow

Farm Story: To hoard or not to hoard: that is the question

Bursary benefits rising farm professionals

Woodshed: So much for a little peace and quiet

Saanichton Farm receives Century Farm award

Jude’s Kitchen: Fall Flavours

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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.
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Patti 😊

6 days ago

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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

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Ranchers get the backstory on public perception

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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...
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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

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Lake Country packing house sold

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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.
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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.

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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/
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Groundwater users could lose rights next year

Unlicensed water could be reallocated to new users

Okanagan Irrigation. A vineyard gets irrigated at dusk in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada.

November 1, 2021 byPeter Mitham

VERNON – This summer’s dry weather resulted in a record number of restrictions on water use across southern BC, underscoring just how tapped out some basins are.

Salmon River remained at drought level 5 last month – the most severe under the province’s new six-tier drought rating system – even after the autumn rains arrived. The Upper Nicola was rated 4, only slightly better, with irreversible harm to aquatic life still possible.

With the province standing firm on a deadline of March 1, 2022 for existing non-domestic well owners to license their wells, a renewed push is taking place to make sure those wells are licensed. If they don’t, users in watersheds such as Bessette Creek in the North Okanagan, could find themselves out of luck.

“If you’re in an area like that, it’s going to be difficult to get a licence, because most of those streams are already fully recorded,” says Andrew Petersen, a water management specialist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries who addressed the Abbotsford-based Centre for Organizational Governance in Agriculture on October 7. “You’d basically have to prove your groundwater well is not connected to the river to get your application through the door.”

The scenarios facing well owners in other areas of the province after March 1, 2022 are no less daunting. Users who have not applied for a licence will have effectively relinquished their historical rights, and the province will treat them as new users. This means their existing water rights will be reallocated to new applicants on a first come, first serve basis – the guiding principle of the first in time, first in right system BC has enjoyed since water rights were first regulated under the Gold Fields Act of 1858.

“You will lose your historic rights, you will lose your fee waiver, and depending on where you are, you may have a very difficult time getting that licence,” says Petersen, calling out the four watersheds where fish protection orders were issued this summer — the Bessette, West Kettle, Koksilah and Salmon. “They’re very drought-stricken. The chance of getting a new water use licence is going to be very, very low. So I’m really, really pushing hard to get producers to apply before deadline on that existing use.”

Yet the deadline doesn’t mean the taps will be turned off if users haven’t applied for a licence.

“It’s not going to be a mass send all the [compliance officers] out tomorrow to go find people. We’re told that’s not going to be happening,” says Petersen, noting that the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development has not hired more staff for enforcement.

This undermines the credibility of the new licensing regime, says Ted van der Gulik, president of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC.

During the recent provincial budget consultation, he urged government to allocate an extra $30 million per year for water management at FLNORD. This would include $11 million to hire staff to process licence applications, and $4.5 million for enforcement.

“The No. 1 thing is the province doesn’t have enough enforcement staff, and the province has not followed [up] on enforcement if you don’t have a licence,” he says. “If you’re not enforcing … guys that are flagrantly going against the act, and you’re not doing anything about it, why should I bother applying for a licence?”

While enforcement puts people out of business and is politically unpalatable, van der Gulik says sooner or later the province will have no choice.

One watershed he’s familiar with has seen new licence applications turned down based on the volume of current use, including one by a farmer who drilled a well expecting to be approved. The watershed currently has 270 registered wells, including more than 35 for irrigation. But just two have applied for licences.

“If I was that farmer, and I’ve got all this money invested in a well that I can’t use, I’m applying again on March 1, even though they turned me down on that previous application,” he says. “When I apply on March 1, the province cannot shut me down or turn my application away unless they shut down all the non-domestic users in that aquifer that have not applied, and so far it looks like there’s hundreds of them.”

While this situation may be extreme, it’s not uncommon.

According to Petersen, the province estimates that there are about 8,000 agricultural wells in the province. Of these, 2,700 have applied for groundwater licences. This works out to 34%, or more than triple the rate for all other sectors combined, which have filed just 1,300 licence applications. All told the province expects to licence 20,000 wells.

“Agriculture’s the shining star when it comes to the applications for existing groundwater. We really pushed hard, especially BC Cattlemen’s at the beginning,” says Petersen. “Agriculture’s done a very good job of trying to get out and get those applications in.”

 

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