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Originally published:

MAY 2020
Vol. 106 Issue 5

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Stories In This Edition

Rapid response

Worker health crisis

Spring melt floods Cariboo

Foreign Labour an essential service for fruit growers

Editorial: Watershed moments

Back Forty: COVID-19 will be a reality check for many

Viewpoint: Register now, question later to keep water rights

COVID-19 has varied impact on poultry sector

Social distancing

Honey producers keep focus on research

Beekeepers stung about import issues

Sidebar: Advocating for technology transfer

Farmland values facing headwinds

IAFBC defers major decisions

BCAC focuses on public trust with lower budget

AgSafe governance set for a shake-up

COVID-19 leads to oversupply of dairy

BC Fairs positive as large events banned

Peace growers facing multiple challenges

Co-op considers four-way fix at crossroads

Surprise audits to double

Co-op focuses on cutting costs, increasing sales

Volatility from plant shutdowns could hit BC

Island farmers renew request for local abattoir

Meat processing capacity stable despite closures

Direct marketing saves producers’ bacon

Small producers ride the online sales wave

Farm equipment dealers keep sale smoving

Strawberry growers pin survival on levies

Sidebar: Blueberry and raspberry AGMs postponed

Raspberry growers target fresh market, quality

Apple soda breaks ground in saturated market

Chilliwack family cracks open direct sales

EFB-resistant trees not out of the woods

Distillery shows resilience as it adapts to market

Home gardeners overwhelm seed companies

Sidebar: Commercial seed supply affected

Research: Viruses pursue unique strategies to evolve

Moisture sensors are not created equal

Woodshed: Kenneth gives new meaning to social isoluation

Farmers’ markets go online as channels shift

Farm Story: Pandemic forces a hard pivot to stay in the game

Cheesemaker adapts to coronavirus restrictions

Jude’s Kitchen: Stay-healty food in uneasy times

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1 month ago

It’s been four years since the last tulip festival was held in Abbotsford, but this year’s event promises to be an even bigger spectacle than ever. Spanning 27 acres along Marion Road, Lakeland Flowers will display more than 70 varieties of the spring blossom, including fringe tulips and double tulips, the first of six months of flower festivals hosted by the farm. Writer Sandra Tretick spoke with Lakeland Flowers owner Nick Warmerdam this spring to find out how the floods on Sumas Prairie in 2021 have had an impact on his business plan as he transitions from wholesale cut flower grower to agri-tourism. We've posted the story to our website this month. It's a good read.

#CLBC #countrylifeinbc #tulipfestival
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Tulip grower makes the shift to agritourism

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ABBOTSFORD – On a bright sunny day in early April, Nick Warmerdam points out his office window at No. 4 and Marion roads to a spot about half a kilometre away across the Trans-Canada Highway.
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Omg 🥹 Jared Huston let’s go pls

1 month ago

Farming, like any other job.. only you punch in at age 5 and never punch out 🚜 ... See MoreSee Less

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Easton Roseboom Levi Roseboom🚜

1 month ago

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges.
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1 month ago

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year. ... See MoreSee Less

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year.
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Any other details for FVN and chillTV please? radiodon11@gmail.com

1 month ago

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agriculture's interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agricultures interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry.
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I sure hope part of that money is to educate the people in charge of the pumps and drainage system! They just relayed on computers and weren’t even physically monitoring the water levels. I’ve lived in the Fraser Valley my whole life and the old guys managing that system know how to do it. The new generation just sit behind computer screens and don’t physically watch the water levels. That system works very well when you do it right. The Fraser river levels are very important. The system is designed to drain the Sumas Canal (the part that runs thru the valley) into the Fraser. When they let it get backed up it put pressure on the dyke and the weak part burst. Simple science. And yes, the dykes need to be worked on too. Abbotsford has not been maintaining properly for years.

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Island farmers renew request for local abattoir

Demand for local meat, shutdowns spur new push

The closure of Plecas Meats in Nanaimo means one less abattoir option among already too few for Vancouver Island farmers. Rod Plecas, left, with Susan Toth and butcher Brad Lester, retired at the end of March, closing the doors on the plant his dad started back in 1962. The last slaughter day was March 16. PHOTO / BOB COLLINS

May 1, 2020 byTom Walker

PORT ALBERNI – The Alberni Farmers’ Institute is renewing a request to have the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD) designated a Class D and E licensing area under BC’s Meat Inspection Regulation.

“The regional district first made a formal application to the government back in 2017,” says Lisa Aylard, president of the Alberni Farmers’ Institute. “They sent a follow-up request last September during the province’s consultation with regional districts about Class D slaughter licences as part of their on-going contact with the government over this issue. But no decision has been made.”

ACRD lacks an A or B-class processing plant for red meat. The recent closure of Plecas Meats in Nanaimo means the closest provincially licensed abattoir to Port Alberni is 103 km away in Courtenay. The next closest is in Duncan, 134 km away.

Aylard says the COVID-19 crisis has just made the situation worse.

“Travelling that far is not acceptable for health and safety reasons,” she says. “We are seeing an increase in consumers wanting to purchase local meat during this time and producers in our region are facing an unfair economic hurdle to have to travel away and back to provide meat for those customers.”

Paying someone else to process animals means less profit for small farmers.

“We have lost a lot of local agriculture because of this,” says Aylard. “There used to be a lot of people in the valley who had one or two cows.”

While the number of animals in the area doesn’t warrant a Class A facility, she says a Class D plant could go a long way to encourage more meat production.

Affordable land in the Alberni Valley is attracting new farmers.

“We have these young people in our farmers’ institute that are all gung-ho and then they get hit with these regulations [against on-farm slaughter,” says Aylard.

Increased demand

The lack of a local abattoir was highlighted as a barrier to development of the regional livestock industry in the ACRD agriculture plan drafted in 2011. A feasibility study for a Class A plant for red meat in 2016 highlighted many benefits but the community said it was not feasible due to a lack of funding, management and inadequate production volume.

But demand remains, and has even increased.

“The lack of access to red meat slaughter services has been a key roadblock to sustaining livestock production within our region,” the ACRD told BC agriculture minister Lana Popham last September. ”Our producers are suffering due to the competitive disadvantage of having to transport out of the region and the lack of access to services.”

“What we need is the ability to do on-farm slaughter the way farmers always have,” says Aylard. “When the regulations changed after BSE, it took away our control and our ability to make economic development on local farms.”

She is not opposed to a change to provincial inspection for remote facilities.

“If they can do long-distance support for remote medical surgery, I’m sure we can put something in place for animal processing,” she says.

The lack of government response to the issue is frustrating.

“The wheels on the bus are turning awfully slowly,” says Aylard.

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