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Originally published:

January 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 1

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Stories In This Edition

Victoria tweaks ALR rules

Ranch must allow anglers

Grappling with challenges

Editorial: Learning from leopards

Back forty: Livestock protection is a grey matter

Viewpoint: One zone shows foresight as BC ag evolves

Popham pursues ambitious agenda as 2019 arrives

Milk stocks rebuild but skimmed milk an issue

Holstein spring show grows, moves to Chilliwack

Dairy producers withhold national levies

Wave of retirements sweeps through dairy associations

Fund aims to give BC fruit growers a competitive edge

Ag Brief: New chair for Farm Industry Review Board

Ag Brief: BC Tree Fruits shake-up

Ag Brief: Thompson retires from dairy centre

New trap set to reduce Okanagan starling flocks

Consumer prices could buoy farm cash receipts

BC potatoes yield increase in 2018

‘Green rush’ overwhelms OK planning staff

Show, gala showcases BC agriculture

Hort show covers buds to spuds

Sidebar: Budding interest

Spotlight on dairy, innovation

Popular dairy tour showcases diversity

Overseas markets demand top quality

Sidebar: Gerbrandt coordinates berry research

Local seed initiative shifts focus to economics

Big dreams for small pepper growers

Cattle feeders bullish on packing plant

Research: Increasing green fodder could decrease allergies

Beekeepers learn to defend against wildlife

Online platform connects producers, consumers

Public trust programming to expand in 2019

Farmers institutes meet to forge connections

The rock road of water buffalo in BC

Wannabe: Pulling together

Woodshed: Deborah finds it’s better to give than receive

Jude’s Kitchen: Start healthy

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6 days 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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2 weeks 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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Online platform connects producers, consumers

Dutch entrepreneur wanted grass-fed meat but making a connection was tough

December 31, 2018 byMyrna Stark Leader

VANCOUVER – When entrepreneur Victor Straatman moved with his family to Vancouver from the Netherlands in summer 2015, he went online seeking grass-fed meat from a local farmer.

Through a referral, he finally found a source and placed his order. But he had to meet the farmer in a North Vancouver parking lot. The farmer had driven six hours from his farm for the meeting , and didn’t take advance payment. They’d never met. And the transaction took up a good part of Straatman’s day, and the farmer’s, too.

“I was happy to get the product, but I thought, ‘Who’s going to do this?’” says Straatman, the founder of a full-service online marketing agency in Holland.

Straatman knew through his experience that he could help consumers find quality meat locally and conveniently. He also saw the opportunity to educate consumers about how their meat is raised to help encourage them to support small-scale BC farmers. Meatme.ca was born.

“I’ve seen this already happening in Europe so I was confident that we could replicate the model here and help smaller scale, ethical farms,” he says. “I started by crowd-funding one cow, basically selling one cow and everyone would buy a share into it like in the past when you used to buy a half or quarter of beef. We broke the cow into 30 shares. Now, it has transformed into an open model where you pick and choose all the cuts you like and it’s delivered.”

Today, Meatme is his full-time job. The company works with seven producers of grass-fed and antibiotic-free meat: Empire Valley Ranch outside of 100 Mile House for beef; Aldergrove’s Giesbrecht Farm and Blue Sky Ranch in the Nicola Valley for pork; Central Park Farms in Langley for chicken; Harmony Farm lamb at Monte Lake; turkey from K&M Farms in Abbotsford and seafood from Haida Wild.

Meatme purchases whole animals cut to specifications. Through a partnership with a storage and fulfillment centre which keeps the meat, orders are ice-packed in recyclable, insulated cardboard boxes and shipped to the purchaser.

Straatman says customers appreciate the quality of the products and the convenience. Most buy monthly or every quarter. A private company, Meatme won’t disclose revenues but Straatman says sales in 2018 tripled versus 2017. It now has about 1,300 customers mostly in the Lower Mainland, as well as on Vancouver Island and in the Okanagan.

“We’re tapping into a whole supply not available in grocery chains. These small farmers can’t get into the grocery stores and consumers can’t buy these products. We’re competing with the conventional meat industry and factory farms,” says Straatman. “Our customers know where their meat comes from, how it’s raised and what it’s eating.”

Although the product is more expensive than the cheapest meat in the grocery store, he says prices are competitive with top-end retailers and the local butcher shop. People are willing to pay for better meat, with new business coming largely from customer referrals or social media.

The business has received more than $40,000 in grants from various sources including Vancity Credit Union and the United Nations Association in Canada’s Green Corps program. Green Corps aims to provide new youth employment to ignite Canada’s green economy.

Straatman says farmers are calling him wanting to join the platform if it grows.

Julia Smith of Blue Sky Ranch was thrilled when Meatme contacted her a year ago. She shipped a couple animals at first, and now ships pigs monthly.

“The model works really well for our farm because it allows us to focus on what we love –  raising happy pigs – without having to worry about the many logistical challenges that come along with a direct-to-consumer business model,” says Smith. “We’ve been hesitant to work with a distributor until now because we haven’t met anyone before who is as true to our values and truly committed to transparency before. We have educated our customers to be savvy, conscious consumers so it is critical for our business that we only work with people our customers can trust. … Meatme shares our passion for animal welfare, honest business practices and respect for our customers, so our relationship is a great fit.”

When Meatme outgrows what she can produce, she knows there are other small producers who’ll come onboard.

Straatman has observed challenges for producers like Smith. There’s limited access to provincially inspected processing facilities  which are required so the meat can be shipped in BC. They tend to be farther away from and have less time options available for small-scale producers.

“We’re proud that we can help profile our farmers and help people vote with their wallets to move meat production in the right direction,” he says.

It was surprising to him that there’s a still a lot of infrastructure to be developed in BC from a delivery perspective. It’s happening, but slower than he expected and it seems that producers are either very small or very large.

“There’s no middle ground and I see a need for that,” he says.

Five years out, Straatman’s business plan aims to expand in BC, and replicate the model across other provinces as well as the US.

“More and more people will be eating plant-based meat and less meat, but meat is still very big,” he says. “The majority will still eat meat – better meat.”

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