ABBOTSFORD – A new strategic framework for regenerative agriculture and agritech marked Pam Alexis’s first major event as the province’s agriculture minister when she addressed the Pacific Agriculture Show in Abbotsford on January 26. The framework puts a fresh stamp on the province’s development of a Regenerative Agriculture and Agritech Network (RAAN), a priority in …
Stan Vander Waal
Ag Days hit Victoria
BC Agriculture Council representatives stormed Victoria this week for meetings with cabinet ministers and MLAs as part of the annual Ag Days lobbying event. This year’s event was the first in-person meeting since 2019, following two years of Zooming in to make the case for agriculture to government. “This year’s discussions will focus on producer-led …
Disaster relief deadline passes
Fresh landslides in the Nicola Valley last week underscored the ongoing impacts of last year’s extreme weather as the deadline for applications to the federal-provincial AgriRecovery program unveiled in response to last November’s catastrophic mudslides and flooding approached. But just a fraction of the $228 million allocated to the 2021 Flood Recovery Program for Food …
Christmas sales on track
Christmas greenery was in strong demand and ample supply this week, despite some challenges shipping product to market in late November. “The actual interest in Christmas products at the retail level, it was probably one of the strongest years we’ve seen in many years,” says Stan Vander Waal, president of Rainbow Greenhouses Inc. in Chilliwack. …
BC farms deliver big impact
BC agriculture had an economic impact on the province of nearly $8.5 billion in 2019, according to a new study MNP prepared for the BC Agriculture Council and Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. The figure represents the total output of the crop and livestock sectors, as well as indirect impacts from spending on supplies and …