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September 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 9

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4 days ago

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays. ... See MoreSee Less

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays.
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Patti 😊

6 days ago

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7 days ago

The top five issues the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity identified in a recent survey were the cost of food, inflation, the cost of energy, keeping healthy food affordable and the Canadian economy. “We are seeing that environmental concerns are not in the top 10,” says Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattle Association’s public and stakeholder engagement program. “If you are concerned about being able to afford to feed your family, the environment becomes less important.” ... See MoreSee Less

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Ranchers get the backstory on public perception

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VERNON – Ranchers might be concerned about how the public sees their industry, but a producer-funded team at the Canadian Cattle Association has their back. Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattle...
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1 week ago

BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million. ... See MoreSee Less

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Lake Country packing house sold

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BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million.
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Who bought it ffs ?

Ted Nedjelski Karen Turner

One of my first jobs was apple grading in a packing plant in Vernon

Vivian, is this where you worked?

I’d hear the company that owns the big Cannabis company that owns the green houses all around this packing plant was buying up everything around to expand. Wonder if it’s them that got it.

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1 week ago

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Association's preparation for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/ ... See MoreSee Less

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Associations preparation  for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit https://www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/
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Rail corridor approval delayed

| ISLAND CORRIDOR FOUNDATION PHOTO

March 15, 2023 byPeter Mitham

A day before the March 15 deadline the BC Court of Appeal set for a decision on the future of the Vancouver Island Rail Corridor (previously the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway), the province announced $18 million towards planning and a recognition of First Nations interests in the corridor.

“Any potential future use of the corridor, whether it involves rail restoration or not, must involve First Nations participation and perspectives,” BC transportation minister Rob Fleming said in a statement. “By the early 2030s, Vancouver Island will exceed one million residents and with that growth we need to consider the future value of the corridor for the movement of people and goods.”

But for Dennis Comeau of Top Shelf Feeds Inc. in Duncan, the island’s only feed mill, restoration can’t come too soon.

Top Shelf has spent millions on additional shipping costs since 2014, when it became reliant on Seaspan to deliver raw inputs by barge following the end of freight service on the rail line.

“Since 2014, we’ve spent over $3.5 million extra,” Comeau told Country Life in BC last fall. “Those costs have never been passed onto the end-user.”

Comeau had high hopes during the Seapspan strike last fall that a decision to restore rail service would come this spring, and is disappointed at a further delay.

“[I’m] disappointed that there’s not a full-on ‘let’s get this going and we’ll access the money and get this railway built’ because it has absolutely hurt our business and obviously our producers on the island not having this rail intact,” he says.

Transportation costs continue to keep the price of feed high on Vancouver Island, Comeau said. While the price of some grains has come down since last fall, freight and fuel costs have not. Top Shelf can only absorb the costs so long before it has to pass those costs onto producers.

Comeau says Top Shelf supplies 40% to 60% of the farms on Vancouver Island, primarily smaller operations, and some may not be able to handle a sudden increase in feed costs.

“They’re just going to pull the plug. It’s not worth it for them,” he says. “A lot of customers rely heavily on us, and they could not get that supply from the mainland on a regular basis.”

With the island’s population growing, and the province focused on food security, Comeau thinks there’s no time like the present to build local transportation capacity that supports local communities.

“If we don’t start now, I think we’re going to see a definite negative outcome in the next two years for producers pulling off the island,” he says.

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