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Originally published:

JANUARY 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 1

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Stories In This Edition

BC leads AI case count

Winter harvest

Eby appoints new ag minister

Generational change in BC potato busienss

Editorial: Good news, bad news

Back 40: Give us this day our daily bread

Viewpoint: Changing the playing field for farmers

Popham ends terms with strong ambitions

Higher food prices make little difference to farmers

Growers fail to block co-op consolidation

Sidebar: Co-op nomination process sidelines critics

Ag Briefs: Former BCFGA president, co-op chair dies

Ag Briefs: New chairs announced

Ag Briefs: COVID-19 response reviewed

BC loses a champion of agriculture

Canadian diary sector positioned well for growth

Honoured

Dairy producers raise alarm on costs

Flower growers shutter auction gallery

Sidebar: Talking turkey about flower sales

Risk management plans make safety sense

Biodynamic workshops receive funding

Producers reflect on past, plan for future

Pacific Agriculture Show on track for 2023

Sidebar: Stand up for the BCAC gala

Provincial priorities in focus at ag show

Berried treasure …

Islands farm show gears up for next month in Duncan

New opportunities but little progress for meat capacity

Roll call

Sidebar: Hub money

Meat producers need to focus on cost management

Greenhouse extends growing season, sales

Plant physiologist heads up BC grape research

Work-life balance is a fallacy for farmers

Pilot helps UBCO’s Feed BC initiative grow

Sidebar: Other factors at play

Drones provide a high-level view of scorch

Farm Story: Mum’s the word on fellow farmers

Bees better kept at a distance

Sidebar: Survey says

Woodshed: Kenneth’s MacGyver moment fails him

Climate, food secuirty motivate change

Jude’s Kitchen: Adventure with your new kitchen gadgets

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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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Pilot helps UBCO’s Feed BC initiative grow

Aggregation creates opportunities for more suppliers

UBC Okanagan executive chef Brad Vigue is working hard to source more locally produced food as part of UBCO’s participation in Feed BC and a pilot program with the North Okanagan Land to Table Network. MYRNA STARK LEADER

January 1, 2023 byMyrna Stark Leader

KELOWNA – A year-old pilot program at UBC Okanagan is showing that providing more locally sourced foods for students takes resources well as commitment.

Since September 2021, UBC has been working with the North Okanagan Land to Table Network to bring more local food to campus.

A participant in the province’s Feed BC program, which aims to increase local purchasing by provincially-funded institutions, the school currently sources between 30% and 35% of its produce from local suppliers, a marginal increase from 2021. However, there is potential for growth given that a typical UBCO student with a meal plan eats about 720 times during the school year.

“Some of the best product in the world grows within 30 kilometres of Kelowna so I’m always exploring,” says UBCO executive chef Brad Vigue, who grew up in Salmon Arm. “My goal is 50% of produce purchased locally by 2024.”

One of the first partnerships under the pilot was with Shuswap Organics in Enderby, which supplies UBCO with almost all of its potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts.

“In 2022, because our catering program ran over summer, we started buying from Shuswap in mid-July and can do so as long as products keep in storage, which can be February or March, depending on the item,” says Vigue.

Shuswap Organics owners Owen Madden and Emily Jubenvill have been farming about five years. To meet UBCO’s needs, they also started aggregating produce from other growers, including Mara Valley Produce in Grindrod, Loveland Acres in Salmon Arm, Pilgrim’s Produce in Armstrong, Wild Flight Farm in Mara, and Green Croft Gardens in Grindrod.

By working together, smaller local growers are able to meet UBCO’s needs while avoiding a series of small deliveries that can be logistically impractical and too labour-intensive for UBCO.

“Farms we’re aggregating from are in the one to 15-acre range,” says Jubenvill. “There’s lots of room to grow the amount of product sold. The university has real purchasing power and every dollar made at the farm is staying here in the community.”

Jubenvill says working with UBCO is an example of how small to medium-sized farmers who want to work with large facilities can do so.

“It’s possible to source locally, not only in our short growing season, but also by expanding capacity for winter storage enabling produce year-round. If we can grow the marketplace pie, it makes it viable for new farmers to start up,” she notes.

Partnership instrumental

Vigue says the school’s partnership with NOLTN, founded to help small to medium-sized farmers move beyond direct sales and farmers markets, has been instrumental in making connections with local suppliers.

NOLTN director Liz Blakeway says the developing relationships between UBCO and local producers are a big step towards regaining the infrastructure needed for local sourcing.

“There’s been a long-term de-investment in local food supply, supply chains and processing, which is a very real challenge,” she says. “We’ve largely lost local food infrastructure.”

UBCO has also partnered with Curlew Orchard in Vernon for organic apples grown on six acres. They also worked intermittently with

D Dutchmen Dairy Ltd. in Sicamous and Kyla King of Rad Jamz in West Kelowna for jams and jellies, as well as with a few local cured meat producers for charcuterie.

But meat supplies are an issue, especially for niche products like halal-certified meat – an integral component of butter chicken, which creates the longest line at UBCO’s dining hall when it’s on the menu.

“We are sourcing chicken from Vancouver because we want our poultry to be halal,” says Vigue. “While there’s really good high-volume poultry producers in the Okanagan, they aren’t halal.”

It’s the type of barrier he feels the university could help change.

“Local providers are motivated to find a way to work together. It’s in our shared best interests. I would rather buy from the farm that’s close than shipped from Vancouver, especially when we saw the impact of last winter’s road shutdowns disrupting supply chain routes. The more local we are, the more resilient,” says Vigue.

But keeping students who want more meal variety and more internationally influenced foods means food items and volumes required change when UBCO’s menus change. Gathering potential farm and food partners takes time, and a lack of staff to seek out suppliers and make arrangements complicates the task.

“The Okanagan produces beautiful pears available summer through the following spring. We should be buying them. We have farms within 10 kilometres, but it takes time to figure out aggregation, delivery and storage,” says Vigue.

While sourcing locally takes more effort, Vigue knows it’s worth it.

“When we got the first delivery of Shuswap product,

I was like a kid in a candy store running around with handfuls of carrots going, ‘Just try them. Don’t ask any questions. Just taste this. This is why we buy local,’” he says.

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