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Originally published:

November 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 11

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Stories In This Edition

Dairy pays price in new trade deal

USMCA uncorks wine sales

ALC crippled while province mulls revitalization

Editorial: Think Big

Back Forty: If wishes were horses, beggars would ride

Viewpoint: Antibiotics are important tools for producers

Farms scramble as thousands of jobs go unfilled

Farmers’ institutes set to meet in Vancouver

Poultry growers adjust to reduced antibiotic use

Traceability regulations expected next year

UFV consolidates two centres

Plowman in the making

Letters: Animal welfare monitored

Success starts with a solid business plan

Turkey growers look to boost markets

Dairy sale

Strawberry growers rank fruit quality highest

Westcoast Holsteins brings home the prizes

Cannabis raises new workplace concerns

Tasty!

Ag Briefs: Cannabis conference alongside PAS

Ag Briefs: First Nations farms funded

Ag Briefs: Cannabis grower breaks ground

Ag Briefs: harvest conflict results in fewer plow match competitors

Pilot project in Delta supports perennial crops

Uvic research seeks perfect picking time for wine grapes

Ag council wants to get farmers CHATting

Sidebar: Remember to CHAT

Fleeced

Buying stations gain ground

Snow joke

Triple Threat

Meat processing review fails to meet expectations

Livestock transport under scrutiny by activists

Ranching program grads ready for next field

Yields high as cranberry season runs late

Tour features multi-generation farms

Horse Power

Edible flowers show promise for BC growers

Retirement blossoms into flower nursery

Research: Sunflower pollen can help improve colony health

Woodshed: The countdown begins for Kenneth, Deborah

4-H BC: Funding helps advance initiatives

Wannabe: Choosing gratitude

Jude’s Kitchen: Roots and keepers

 

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1 day 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 😊

3 days ago

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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 Cattleâ...
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4 days 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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5 days 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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Meat processing review fails to meet expectations

Select standing committee calls for more consultation; lacks action

October 29, 2018 byTom Walker

MERRITT – First it dodged half the province by cancelling a week of scheduled meetings in June and now it’s squandering the chance to show leadership and help the BC meat processing industry move forward.

The legislature’s Select Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fish and Food has delivered its final report, making no definitive recommendations on the key issues it was asked to address.

“This is a very safe report,” says Julia Smith of Blue Sky Ranch in Merritt and president of the Small-Scale Meat Producers Association.

The committee’s 21 recommendations use bland wording, she said, such as “encourage,” “work with” and “investigate options.”

“There are not a lot of recommendations that can be implemented without more time-consuming, resource-intensive processes,” Smith says. “For all of the time and effort that has been spent across the province, this report doesn’t put us much further ahead.”

The lacklustre report follows a decision the nine-member committee made to cancel an entire week of meetings scheduled in June and hold just three days of hearings.

The move ruled out face-to-face meetings with stakeholders in the Peace, Prince George, southern Vancouver Island and the entire Lower Mainland. Ultimately, the committee based its recommendations on 50 oral presentations as well as 36 written submissions and 74 online survey responses, many of which offered well-considered and thorough perspectives.

“I submitted 27 written pages of recommendations that were all reviewed by my board of directors,” notes Nova Woodbury of the BC Association of Abattoirs. “For each item that the presentation spoke to, we gave specific strategies on how the issue might be solved.”

The committee also had the benefit of the 96-page report on D & E class licensing that summarized the findings of a targeted survey conducted in May, just prior to the committee’s own hearings.

While the committee’s failure to make specific recommendations frustrates producer groups, committee chair Ronna-Rae Leonard explains it this way.

“As a committee we can make recommendations; we don’t have the power to make change,” she says. “You have an all-party committee that is trying to consolidate all of the comments and frame it in a way that will move the agenda forward.”

“In the report you have a lot of recommendations that talk about partnership collaboration and discussion,” adds deputy chair Jackie Tegart. “What we wanted to do as a committee was to encourage collaboration with industry and indicate to the Ministry of Agriculture that there are concerns and to encourage them to talk with people in the field, in regards to … the best way to deal with [concerns].”

That’s the kind of lengthy process Smith hoped could be avoided.

“We just don’t know if the small-scale meat industry can wait much longer,” she says, noting that one of her association’s members had to take her turkeys to Vancouver Island for processing because there was no capacity in the Lower Mainland.

Woodbury sees the same urgency. Her counterparts in Alberta and Ontario can’t believe that BC allows the sale of uninspected meat in certain areas as a way to get around the shortage of inspectors. Other facilities have had to cancel bookings because, she says, “there are not enough provincial inspectors to work with them.”

The report does little to address processing capacity issues. It doesn’t recommend increasing total animal units at D & E plants, or supporting the completion of more A & B plants, including D &D plants that are looking to upgrade.

Indeed, the report makes only two specific actionable recommendations: reducing travel times to one hour between facilities and seeking ways to make mobile slaughter capacity accessible to small producers.

“That is a possible way to alleviate some of the capacity issues,” says Smith. “But right now the requirement to have a permanent kill floor and direct-source potable water make it expensive. Why can’t water come in on the mobile plant?”

Woodbury notes that the report does speak to the multiple staffing and training issues across the province.

“The problem is, there are no specifics around funding,” says Woodbury. “We know that we need more training, but will the money come from the Ministry of Agriculture or Advanced Education?”

Woodbury and Smith both say they’re urging government to take specific actions to help processors. Leonard, for her part, says agriculture minister Lana Popham is taking the committee’s report seriously.

“[She] took a look at the report fairly quickly and is encouraged by it,” says Leonard. “So I expect that there will be actions taken.”

 

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