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September 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 9

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1 week 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 😊

2 weeks ago

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2 weeks 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 Cattleâ...
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2 weeks 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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2 weeks 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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Satellite surveillance on hold

November 20, 2019 byPeter Mitham

A controversial plan to use satellites to monitor activities in the Agricultural Land Reserve has been put on hold pending consultation with landowners.

A notice of intent to contract with Richmond-based MDA Systems Ltd., which the BC Ministry of Agriculture posted to BC Bid, the government’s procurement site, on November 13, disappeared November 18.

The notice indicated that MDA was uniquely suited to provide the ministry with “radar satellite-based change detection services,” and therefore the project was not put out to tender. The project would have involved analyzing satellite images of three overlapping areas, each of 4,500 square kilometres, in the Lower Mainland taken through February 2020 to see what changes, if any, occurred. Key activities of interest include fill, construction and commercial vehicle parking.

Critics immediately raised red flags about the project, however. The Sunshine Coast Farmers’ Institute and Alberni Farmers’ Institute joined forces to lodge a formal objection. Several landowners chimed in with their own letters.

Privacy, as well as the secrecy of the project, were key issues.

While the province has embraced technology to develop land use inventories and assess property condition following wildfires and floods, its use to monitor compliance raised privacy issues for landowners.

“The specific areas of interest cannot be identified without potentially compromising the value of the pilot,” the government’s notice stated. “It is possible that the land owners may behave differently if they are aware they are being monitored.”

Some noted the information collected could be made available to a foreign company. (MDA is owned by Colorado-based Maxar Technologies Inc.)

The use of satellite surveillance to monitor landowner behaviour also contradicted assurances landowners received during a seven-week public consultation on farming in the ALR that wrapped up November 15. Complaints, not surveillance, drive enforcement activities, landowners were told.

“The land commission is not out there looking for non-compliance,” said Kim Grout, CEO of the Agricultural Land Commission, at the meeting in Merville on September 19.

The contract with MDA was to be signed November 25. It was worth up to $70,000.

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