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Originally published:

MARCH 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 3

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Stories In This Edition

Province to make Premises ID law

A wee bit of green

No extension for groundwater

Pandemic trends a moving target as spring comes

Editorial: Safe and secure

Back 40: Making the most of a simple pleasure

Viewpoint: Regenerative agriculture is the way of the future

SlaughterRight training launched by ministry

Ottawa to bankroll foreign worker quarantine

Ag advocates honoured at virtual gala

Coping with adversity requires an open mind

Blueberry growers dodge US trade complaint

Open for business

Codling moth control strategy shows promise for SWD

Cherry growers continue to focus on export markets

Ministry prepares to lend support to tree fruit co-op

Delta farm entrepreneur built strong relationships

Dairy picks new entrant short list

Early advocate for farmworkers’ rights remembered

Markets consider allowing Alberta vendors

Ranchers plead with province to address elk issue

Sidebar: Fencing program protects hay

Falkland beef plant finetuning operations

District A sets ambitious agenda

Don’t underestimate scope of farmers institutes

Everlasting

Strict pandemic plan keeps workers safe

Growers face up to labour challenges

Time to tap

Sidebar: Housing key for SAWP workers

Tulip festival to bloom again in Spallumcheen

Hazelnut growers face increased disease, pest threats

Resources go online

Hope prevails as hazelnuts target expansion

Research: Wildfires influence pollinator offspring

Raspberry growers see improved IQF pricing

Raspberry researchers select for hardiness

Direct farm marketers prepared for new season

Sudden dieback now showing up in cherries

Viewpoint: Consumers need more than a Buy Local campaign

New framework to measure AITC outcomes

Farm News: Wishful thinkign for the winter that wasn’t

Ewe know it’s spring

Juiced up over local produce options

Peer groups help foster innovation, support

Sidebar: How to start

Sisters create website to help small producers

Woodshed: Divorce proceedings take off with a dog fight

Gardener pens book about mason bees

Jude’s Kitchen: Spring is coming

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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 😊

7 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 Cattleâ...
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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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Strict pandemic plan keeps workers safe

Fruitgrower didn’t have a single COVID-19 case last summer

KEEPING EVERYONE SAFE. The Carlson family of Carcajou Fruit Co. in Summerland employed strict COVID-19 protocols early on to keep their families and workers safe. Many of those protocols will continue after the pandemic ends. CARCAJOU FRUIT CO.

March 1, 2021 byTom Walker

SUMMERLAND – Carcajou Fruit Co. is a 160-acre family business that typically hires 60 domestic workers to pick their cherries over a six-week period each summer.

But the COVID-19 pandemic last summer changed the labour game for the family-owned orchard. While the farm was lucky to receive 13 foreign workers through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, the farm’s human resources manager and COVID-19 coordinator Claire Tamang gave growers attending the Lower Mainland Horticultural Improvement Association’s short course at the end of January tips on managing domestic workers during the pandemic.

“In the past, we have been able to recruit backpackers, both from overseas and eastern Canada,” says Tamang.

With the border closed to non-essential travel and interprovincial travel discouraged, Carcajou was forced to look closer to home for harvest help.

Carcajou has a colourful, friendly website where workers can apply. There are short descriptions of the jobs, working conditions and benefits.

“We were able to attract a number of local restaurant workers who had been laid off,” says Tamang. “They had accommodation in the area and transport, so that was positive for us, and we paid them for travelling time.”

Carcajou was also able to hire a number of tree planters whose season usually runs from April to June.

“They are used to piecework and they already had experience living in a COVID-safe camp,” says Tamang.

Unlike for foreign workers, farmers aren’t required to provide housing for seasonal domestic workers such as backpackers, but it’s no secret that good picker camps attract the best workers. For out-of-town workers, Carcajou has three separate picker camps. It charges workers $5 a day, which covers the cost of tent platforms, fully equipped kitchen shelters, washroom and laundry facilities, lockers, WiFi and a full-time cleaner. In 2020, anyone who used their own vehicle to drive themselves and others to the orchards did not pay the $5 daily camp fee.

This is a significant improvement over some camps that spring up in orchards over the summer.  But Carcajou had expectations of pickers in return.

“We are not a party camp,” says Tamang, noting that long-standing policies remained in place. “We don’t allow pets or outside visitors; this is our home, too. We needed people to stay put.”

All workers completed the AgSafe COVID-19 awareness training first, then attended a mandatory orientation session that set out Carcajou’s expectations.

“We ended up having a lot of first-year pickers,” says Tamang. “They weren’t as fast as some of our backpacker crews, but they were happy to have work and abide by our expectations.”

Employees were grouped in work units of five that would live, eat and travel to the orchards together. They would self-assess each morning, mask-up in close situations, use sanitizing stations as they entered the orchard and refrain from mixing with other groups. If there was a pause in the harvest, workers weren’t to be picking up jobs at neighbouring farms.

“If they wanted extra work on a Saturday we found something for them to do,” says Tamang.

And there were to be none of the usual summer bush parties.

“We were strict, but we figured the risk of a shut-down from COVID and not being able to bring in our highly perishable crop far outweighed replacing a worker,” explains Tamang. “It helped that someone else was making the rules, but we expect that we will continue most of our routines in future summers.”

Four workers had to self-isolate while waiting for test results and received isolation pay, but there wasn’t a single case of COVID among Carcajou staff the entire summer.

Retaining travelling summer help can be challenging, so Carcajou pays what it calls a “bitter-end bonus” of 2-4 cents a pound for workers who stay the entire season.

“We would often have pickers who would take the last week off to head to the beach before going back to school,” says Tamang. “But most of our crop are late season cherries that we pick right up till the end of August.”

Even so, there was still time for fun.

“We had someone volunteer to be the social director and they organized beach days and we had our usual year-end party, though it was not the traditional blow out,” says Tamang.

Two chefs among the pickers were hired to cater a take-out bowl party and there was a musician, but employees stayed in their work units.

“We didn’t want to be the source of an exposure right at the end of our season,” says Tamang. “Workers packed up their camps and were on the road the next morning.”

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