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Originally published:

MARCH 2022
Vol. 108 Issue 3

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Stories In This Edition

Lucky chickens

$227m rebuild fund

Glyphosate shortage looms

Province opens ALR to agritech development

Editorial: Divorced from the earth

Back 40: Broken supply chain weakens food system

Viewpoint: BC’s emergency response needs improvement

Building back better means avoiding past mistakes

Sidebar: Grand Forks initiative protects farms

Rural, urban areas prepare for extreme weather

Ag Briefs: Property owner appeals BC SPCA seizure

Ag Briefs: Province sued over mind ban

Farm income projected to reach new heights

Potato growers brace for higher input costs

Keeping cranberries cool a hot topic

Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

Sidebar: Farmers need not apply

Diversification drives growth of organic farm

Leadership skills can help farmers cope with disaster

Winter rainbow

Compost facilities facing pushback

Cheese leads the way as BC dairies seek capacity

Island yogurt producer boosting production

Grape growers prepare for climate change

The perfect solution for farmers on the go

Small-lot egg producer awarded quota

Sidebar: Future quota draws likely limited

Broiler health in spotlight for small-lot farmers

Pest data helps with management decisions

Research: Researchers discover a world of apple microbiomes

Farms meet the demand for local food

Better berry harvester meets growers’ needs

Farm Story: Spring demands the old heave-ho

Safety in the spotlight as farms recover

Woodshed: Henderson style has chins wagging

Chilliwack teams plow past the century mark

Jude’s Kitchen: Spring has sprung! Time to make bread!

 

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9 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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Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

Kootenay program expands to new regions

Kootenay rancher Dave Zehnder is the founder of Farmland Advantage and a strong proponent of payments to farmers for ecosystem services. SUBMITTED

March 1, 2022 bySandra Tretick

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 Farmers Institute (WDFI) was one of nine groups named in January to receive a share of $133,600 this year through the Columbia Valley Local Conservation Fund for projects to support fish and wildlife habitat, water quality and advance conservation in the region.

WDFI will receive $17,985 to provide incentives to 11 farms that are working to restore and conserve riparian zones.

The project is part of the larger Farmland Advantage program, the brainchild of Invermere cattle rancher and WDFI director Dave Zehnder.

Zehnder first worked with the farmers institute to seek funding for the program in 2009, when the conservation fund was established. The idea was one he thought could work in BC, rewarding farmers for delivering what was then known as ecological goods and services.

Such programs contract farmers to conserve and enhance natural values on private land and pay them for the benefits. Unlike carbon credits, which can be traded, the value of wetlands filtering and purifying water and forests that clean the air and provide habitat for wildlife have a social value.

Just 5% of the land in British Columbia is privately owned, and the majority of that is farmland in river valleys. Healthy riparian areas are important for water quality and as wildlife habitat.

Zehnder has always envisioned a province-wide program paying farmers for ecosystem services to the broader community, similar to how Switzerland pays farmers to maintain alpine meadows. US Department of Agriculture programs have paid farmers since the 1950s to take ecologically sensitive land out of production. Rents paid through the Conservation Reserve Program are aimed at reducing erosion, improving water quality and providing wildlife habitat. Something like this had never been tried in BC and Zehnder wanted to see if it could be adapted for local conditions.

Some small on-farm pilots laid the foundation for a five-year pilot that started in 2016. The name Farmland Advantage was adopted and a working group that included scientists and experts with knowledge of the top conservation issues in the various regions identified new sites. This gave Zehnder and the group a chance to try different mechanisms, develop the structure and flesh out how the contracts would work.

By the end of the pilot in 2021, more than 60 demonstration sites were operating across BC and more than 740 acres of prime riparian habitat was contracted for conservation and enhancement. Based on this success, the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC (IAF) agreed to take over delivery and administration in spring 2021. IAF engaged Upland Consulting to assist with program management. Zehnder continues to advise on program development.

“After the five-year pilot, we said ‘Hey, it’s ready. Is someone interested in taking it on?’ IAF had just done strategic planning and decided this was a good fit for where they wanted to go as an organization,” says Zehnder. “My dream has been realized in some ways in that it has become a program. That’s just a miracle to me.”

Farmland Advantage now works in several regions around the province to help farmers enhance the natural values on their land. In close cooperation with a local working group, WDFI oversees projects in the Columbia Valley. A working group on Vancouver Island focuses on the Koksilah River watershed and a Lower Mainland working group is addressing the Little Campbell River with input from the Langley Environmental Partners Society.

Farmland Advantage also works with ranchers and farmers in the grasslands of the South Okanagan and is partnering with the Shuswap Indian Band on projects to conduct riparian restoration along creeks on farms and ranches within reserve lands.

Funding comes from a wide variety of sources. Zehnder says it a good deal for the farmer, and a good deal for the funders and the community.

“We showcase what could be done, to help the funders understand what the potential of the program could be,” says Zehnder. “The farmer gets paid and the money they get offsets the costs they incur when they do these things. The farm doesn’t lose money doing this, and it helps improve the image of agriculture to society.”

Zehnder credits the Columbia Valley conservation fund for its long-term support and encourages other jurisdictions to embrace their model.

The funding structure itself is notable. It was the first conservation fund of this type in Canada. The funds come from property owners in the service area, each of whom pay a parcel tax of five cents per $1,000 of taxable assessed value, up to a maximum of $230,000 annually. It works out to about $20 per parcel. From its start in 2010 through 2021, approximately $2.5 million has been disbursed through 101 grants to local groups.

“The local conservation fund has been part of that story all along,” he adds. “It’s always been an important source of funds and one that we think has tremendous potential in other jurisdictions in BC. You think about the population of Greater Vancouver for instance, even a dollar per household could generate significant funds to support that region’s agriculture in their work in this area, never mind $10 or $20.”

Zehnder likes the combination of local people paying into a fund that supports local farmers to do things that benefit the local population but also society as a whole. Columbia Valley farmers – who would otherwise have limited resources to devote to stewardship efforts – have certainly benefitted. Over the years, WDFI has received $135,125 through the local conservation fund.

“[My] ultimate dream is that this could become a part of farming in BC,” says Zehnder. “Where this is part of the business of farming and we’re supported by the community and the community understands the value of agriculture beyond food.”

After last year’s catastrophic fires, Zehnder now has his sights set on getting communities to see the benefit of paying farmers to keep farmland green to act as a buffer between forests and communities.

“There are so many amazing applications for this model,” he says.

 

 

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