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Originally published:

June 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 6

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Stories In This Edition

First Cut

Hog farm won’t face charges

Okanagan drives land values

Where’s the beef?

Minister defends Bill 15 changes

Back Forty: Farmers, not just farmland, need revitalization

Editorial: No peace, no order

ALR restrictions make commuting a fact of life

Johnston’s Packers targeted by activists

Child labour

Sidebar: When is a crime not a crime?

Berry growers get long-awaited funding boost

Proteobiotics reduce poultry, swine infections

Greenhouse growth stymied by gas prices

Bloom

Increase farm productivity with cover crops

Ag Briefs: Water fees not evenly distributed among users

Ag Briefs: BC Tree Fruits prepares to relocate

Farmland trust explored for Island

New owner, same faces

Fruitful experience

Fruit growers cautiously optimistic on bloom set

Honeycrisp key to success for Golden Apple winners

Changes to slaughter rules taking too long

Going! Going! Gone

Local meat deamnd creating opportunities

Sidebar: Compost in 14 days

Ranch takes pasture to plate at face value

Market Musings: Technology has its challenges

Oliver veggie grower prefers wholesale

Grocer offers tips to get a foot in the door

Greenhouse veggie days a hit with school

Haskap research may help berry go mainstream

Grow up!

Research: Bee sensitivity linked to neonic pesticides

Fraser Valley orchardist calling it a day

Rally cry

Worming his way to the top of the heap

Mushrooms a viable crop for small growers

Island 4-H beef show celebrates 25 years

Woodshed: Deborah starts her vacation a golf widow

Brewery’s food program spawns farm project

Jude’s Kitchen: Celebrate dads!

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8 hours ago

Farmland Advantage is receiving a $445,000 grant from the federal government. The program, the “brainchild” of Invermere cattle rancher Dave Zehnder, provides compensation to farmers for their conservation efforts to protect BC’s grasslands, riparian areas and wildlife habitat. The funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) and Priority Places programs, will be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas appeared in our March 2022 edition and you can view it at ... See MoreSee Less

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Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

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INVERMERE – Farmers and ranchers in the Columbia Valley will continue to see rewards for taking action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms. The Windermere District Farmer...
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5 days ago

A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural Land Commission hosted in Langley Monday night regarding a proposal to include 305 acres controlled by the federal government in the Agricultural Land Reserve. More than 76,000 people have signed an online petition asking municipal and provincial governments to protect the land from development, and for the federal government to grant a long-term lease to the Heppells. Read more in this morning's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. conta.cc/3XYXw6k ... See MoreSee Less

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Your weekly farm news update

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The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 January 25 2023 Surrey ALR inclusion cheered A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural L
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Mike Manion Pitt Meadows City Councillor

2 months ago

Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand this season and prices remain comparable to last year. But the number of tree farms has decreased dramatically over the past five years and the province will increasingly need to look elsewhere if it wants to meet local demand. More in this week's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. ... See MoreSee Less

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Christmas trees in demand

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Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand, with high quality trees making it to market. “The market is good. We’ll probably outdo last year and last year was one of our best years…
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2 months ago

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall. ... See MoreSee Less

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall.
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Avian influenza virus can be killed by chlorine at no higher a concentration than is present in drinking water, so unless farms are using untreated groundwater in their barns I don't see how it could be a source of transmission. www.researchgate.net/publication/5594208_Chlorine_Inactivation_of_Highly_Pathogenic_Avian_Influen...

2 months ago

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall. ... See MoreSee Less

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall.Image attachment
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Goes to show how far-removed our current government is from the agricultural sector. To put someone in this position who has no farming background is a slap in the face to all of our hard-working producers.

Going to be a heck of a learning curve. Helping the agricultural community recover from the biggest natural disasters in history, handling the avian influenza outbreak that is threatening our poultry industry, dealing with a crisis in meat processing, managing ongoing threats from climate change, supporting producers who are facing unprecedented inflation in an industry with very slim margins to begin with..... to name a few of the challenges our new Minister will have to face all with one of the lowest budgets of any ministry. I wish her the best of luck but I hope she's got a lot of support around her.

Best of wishes in your new position

Congrats to Pam, cool to see a Fraser Valley based ag minister but also so sad to see Lana reassigned . I have no doubt she will do an amazing job in her new role.

Will be missed by #meiernation

Bryce Rashleigh

Nooooooo!

Lana did a shit job and now we have a minister with no farming background at all. Aren’t we lucky..

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No peace, no order

A police officer stands on the property at Excelsior Hog Farm surrounded by people who showed up to support the farmers after protesters occupied a barn, in Abbotsford, B.C., on Sunday April 28, 2019. Approximately 50 people occupied a barn and another 135 individuals protested on the rural road outside the farm after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a video last week that it says shows dead piglets as well as fully grown pigs with growths and lacerations. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

June 1, 2019 byPeter Mitham

“Peace, order and good government” may well be the words fundamental to Canada’s national character. We say “sorry” at the drop of a hat, devoutly anxious that we might somehow have disturbed the peace and order of our neighbours. Our laws and regulations define what we can and can’t do, especially in matters regarding freedom of speech; unlike the US, where the onus is on the defamed party to prove injury, Canada’s laws regarding libel and defamation favour plaintiffs, encouraging individuals to respect others.

But farmers, who the province is set to exclude from the definition of persons for the purposes of land exclusions under Bill 15 (set to pass shortly after this issue goes to press), are in danger of losing their protection from defamation.

The recent decision of Crown prosecutors to drop charges against an animal rights activist who entered an Ontario hog farm because they didn’t think the case would result in a conviction – even though the activist herself admitted to the act and had video footage of what she had done – could well embolden activists there, as well as in BC.

It’s already happening, in fact. Two years ago, undercover footage of livestock mistreatment by staff at a Chilliwack chicken catching business grabbed headlines. But the province’s privacy commissioner told the business it couldn’t equip staff with body cameras to monitor animal handling practices. “Video surveillance should only be used as a last resort,” the commissioner said.

It wasn’t true for activists then, and it wasn’t true this spring when cameras were installed at a hog farm in Abbotsford, resulting in footage that triggered an invasion of the farm by protestors at the end of April and a cybertattack that compromised the business of the packinghouse it supplies. Police are investigating the break-and-enter that led to the footage, but the BC SPCA notes that the footage is hardly grounds for convicting some of filming it. Even someone claiming to have shot the video isn’t enough; there must be proof that the suspect actually installed the cameras.

While the BC SPCA has found no evidence the farm mistreated its animals, the defamatory footage will live on because, it seems, no one can be held accountable for releasing it. It’s one more instance where farmers have lost their rights under the law.

There was neither peace nor order when activists descended on the BC hog farm at the end of April, and no one seems sorry for the inconvenience caused the farm or the rest of the supply chain. Good governance demands more, especially in a province where industry codes of practice for livestock are, as of this month, part of provincial statutes that also include right-to-farm legislation.

We all want to protect livestock. Who will protect farmers?

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