Non-BC market vendors approved

BC Association of Farmers Markets members have approved a special resolution to permit food vendors based within Canada but outside BC to sell at farmers markets in the province.

The resolution, passed at the association’s annual general meeting March 2, will benefit markets near the Alberta border. Several markets have faced a limited selection of vendors since BCAFM bylaws changed three years ago preventing them from having non-BC vendors.

The change will allow “a Person or Organization that is not located within British Columbia, or whose food products are not grown, made, baked, raised or wild harvested within British Columbia but who is located in Canada not more than 300 kilometres” from the market where it intends to sell its food products to be a vendor at said market. The vendor must sell only food produced within 300 km of the market.

The motion would permit vendors from as far east as Calgary to sell in Revelstoke, for example, or a vendor from east of Lethbridge to sell in Fernie. Elkford and Sparwood, which left the association because of the restrictions on vendors, could host vendors from as far east as Medicine Hat.

BCAFM members also approved a resolution legalizing online markets, providing all items and vendors are from BC. Bylaws previously prohibited exclusively online markets, but some association members found this was the only way they could operate under public health restrictions in 2020.

Restrictions designed to fight COVID19 continue, however.

Many of the four dozen attendees at the online meeting expressed concern over restrictions on flower and wool vendors as part of the provincial health order barring non-food vendors from markets. An online petition launched by the Front Yard Flower Co. of Vancouver is asking provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry to permit non-food vendors soaps, fibres such as wool, flowers and artisan crafts at outdoor markets. It has gathered more than 6,500 signatures to date.

BC agriculture minister Lana Popham says the province is listening.

“We’re working on that and hopefully we’ll have some news soon,” she told the Certified Organic Associations of BC at its annual conference this past weekend.

With files from Barbara Johnstone Grimmer

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14 hours ago

Forty-six regions in BC are eligible to participate in the federal livestock tax deferral program, announced yesterday, more than anywhere else in the country. The program allows producers who downsize their breeding herds by 15% to defer reporting the proceeds until the following year, when they buy replacement stock. But after multiple years of drought, the BC beef herd is cruising 25-year lows and some producers are calling for more support to maintain and rebuild their herds. For more, see: [www.countrylifeinbc.com/bc-leads-livestock-tax-deferrals/]

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5 days ago

After weeks and weeks of no moisture, there's rain in Kelowna today. While much more moisture is needed over the coming weeks and months to reduce drought conditions and the air smells of wet campfire, the slow, steady rain is very welcome for fruit grower#BCAg#BCAg ... See MoreSee Less

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The first Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Grassland Set-aside Variety Trial Field Day was held at Delta's family-owned Tecarte Farms, August 27. Co-owner Bill Bates and DFWT executive director Christine Schmalz welcomed more than 35 people to view seven acres planted to different grassland blends specifically chosen to rejuvenate the soil and support the farm's blueberries. For the Bates family, it was time to try something different following the decline of the field's blueberry bushes over the past several years. "We tried everything, and nothing worked," says Bates. The blueberries were removed in May and the grassland crops planted about a week later.

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Bessette Creek is the latest watershed hit with a temporary fish protection order this year as the province moves to protect returning Chinook salmon. A total of 131 surface and groundwater users must cease drawing water immediately, with forage producers, greenhouses and nurseries impacted. "Declining flows in Bessette Creek reached record lows in early July 2026 and have remained below the minimum level required to support fish population survival," says the province. Bessette producers have embraced voluntary cutbacks, scheduled irrigation and other measures to reduce water use, and are also waiting on funding to boost water storage infrastructure. They're the second group of producers hit with a provincial order this year. Salmon River irrigators were told to top watering earlier this month following a reprieve to address wildfire risk. Growers in both the Salmon River and Bessette watersheds are urging the province to support new water storage infrastructure in advance of next year.

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There is a problem... having lived in the salmon river ( silver creek ) area, I remember a fish biologist telling family members that salmon only "survive" in high iron content creeks, they do not "thrive".... salmon river ( silver creek ) is a very high iron content, would stain clothes brown when i would use bleach... So don't expect high salmon numbers off of that creek , even in ideal situations...

I just wish they would take an interest in CHASE CREEK....went bone dry...100% of trout abd other species died...smell was terrible from rotting fish. Understand this has happened many times in the past. Chase Irrigation District totally responsible for this disaster. Now fishermen are complaining about major drop in water levels at Pillar Lake.

They could not mismanage things worse than they have. It's impossible for them to. The fact that farmers that we need for our animals are now suffering the consequences our governments have not protected us from, is absolutely fucking wild.