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Originally published:

NOVEMBER 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 11

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Stories In This Edition

ALC gets an earful

Herding Hens

Food hub funding boost

Municipalities challenge ALC over process

No bad apples

Editorial: Taking stock

Back Forty: Remembering Aunt Dolly, and others

Viewpoint: Keeping BC farms (and farmers) growing

Farm status undermined by local bylaws

Big green gourd

Heavy rains don’t wash out potato hopes

Giant hornets headline beekeepers’ concerns

Honey producers honour industry leaders

Country Life in BC wins awards at conference

Bridging the urban-rural divide

New skills needed for technology-driven agriculture

Data drives more efficient poultry farming

Ag Briefs: New CEO appointed at BC Tree Fruits

Ag Briefs: Site launched for farmers’ institutes

Ag Briefs: Child labour feedback sought

Demand underpins cheesemaker’s expansion

Cranberry growers expect lower yields

Neighbours raise stink over cannabis farms

Sheep farmers share their experiences

Lots (and lots) of pumpkins

Federation moves forward on key initiatives

Riparian assessment requirements updated

On-farm slaughter a key skill for producers

On the move

Sidebar: Better than offal

Feedback on new watering regs a concern

Market Musings: The future in beef looks like a slam dunk

Growers all ears at silage corn field day

UBC dairy centre signs five-year lease

Falkland Dairy volume buyer at Holstein Sae

Mega-dairies are the future of US farms

Research: Bacterial leaf streak lacks chemical controls

Big beef show at BC Ag Expo

Farm News: Growing prospects brighten dark autum days

BC Young Farmers look to grow north

Horse Power

Day-long 4-H event puts emphasis on safety

Woodshed: Newt schemes to rescue Kenneth’s tractor

Good gourd! Giant vegetables weigh off

Jude’s Kitchen: Late fall harvest

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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

www.countrylifeinbc.com

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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Neighbours raise stink over cannabis farms

Province urged to intervene

November 1, 2019 byPeter Mitham

LANGLEY – A year after their crop was legalized for recreational use, cannabis growers in BC are facing a challenge familiar to other agricultural sectors – greater regulation.

Both municipalities and neighbours are calling on the province to adopt legislation consistent with federal regulations requiring cannabis producers to have systems that “prevent the escape of odours.”

Lake Country put forward a resolution to that effect at the Union of BC Municipalities’ annual meeting in Vancouver at the end of September. A petition has also been launched on StoptheSmell.ca asking the Agricultural Land Commission to intervene with the same goal.

The petition is the initiative of John Cameron and other neighbours of the massive Canopy Growth Corp. greenhouse in Aldergrove. Cameron set up a Facebook page in August to voice his concerns and rally support after what the group calls “the summer of stink” in Delta, Langley, Maple Ridge and Abbotsford. The petition, launched in September, asks Premier John Horgan to intervene, noting that the Agricultural Land Commission seems happy to regulate other forms of construction while turning a blind eye to cannabis facilities.

“The ALC seems to have plenty of time to enforce building rules, fill applications, farmland uses, mobile home applications and other rules – it’s time they enforce this one,” says a form letter on the site.

ALC compliance and enforcement staff are limited to enforcing the commission’s own regulations, however, not federal law. Regardless, Cameron says cannabis farms need to be good neighbours.

“The solution is as simple as this,” he says. “Show respect for the neighbours and contain the smell; they were here first.”

The initiative parallels a move by Metro Vancouver to regulate emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from cannabis facilities. A discussion paper Metro Vancouver released in the run-up to a public consultation that ended

October 31 claimed VOCs from cannabis “may contribute to the formation of harmful ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter through reactions with other substances and sunlight in the lower atmosphere.”

“Cannabis production has the potential to cause negative air quality impacts if emissions are not adequately controlled,” a discussion paper regarding the regulation states.

While the smell of cannabis bothers some neighbours, Esther Bérubé, division manager for air quality bylaw and regulation development with Metro Vancouver, says the health impacts of the emissions is what concerns the regional district.

It inventories emissions in the region every five years to determine which, if any, to regulate in accordance with its powers under the province’s Environmental Management Act.

The discussion paper cites research that says cannabis produces 57 grams of VOCs per kilogram of plant tissue each year, versus 1.5 grams per kilogram of tomatoes. But when greenhouses shift from vegetable production to cannabis, they often aren’t retrofitted to mitigate emissions. Metro Vancouver estimates cannabis production could emit 870 tonnes of VOCs a year, versus

less than 200 tonnes by the rest of the agriculture sector.

However, the BC Agriculture Council notes that cannabis is a permitted farm use and farms of any sort will generate some level of odour. It objects to measures that would introduce regulations for cannabis that could be extended to other types of production.

BCAC recommends that complaints regarding odour be taken to the BC Farm Industry Review Board, the tribunal appointed to deal with complaints regarding farm practices.

Bérubé points out that the province’s Environmental Management Act trumps the provisions of the Farm Practices Act.

“So, basically, they cannot be in contravention of Metro Vancouver’s requirements,” she says.

Bérubé says feedback gathered during the consultation will be the foundation of a report that goes before directors of the regional district early in the new year. She expects a second round of consultation will follow prior to the regulation coming before directors for a vote.

 

 

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