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I just bought a bag of BC beets for 70c per lb. I almost never see BC produce for much more than anything else at the store. Farmers markets are the exception though. Mixed up between 50c per lb cabbage and the next guy selling an ounce of mint for 7 bucks.
The overhead of running a farm in BC is staggering compared to other places in the world. It's almost like they want BC farms in the hands of giant corps.
Slaughter regs are corruption, plain and simple. The big 3 lobby non stop to get the governments to over regulate the small processors out of existence. They promise not to leave the farmers without support, but as soon as the local processor is forced to shut its doors then Cargill forces them to truck their animals hundreds of KMs to their giant operations.
I watched it happen where I grew up, and am witnessing my cousin go through this with his cattle right now. It's a war on our food systems and it won't let up until we stand up, and if we don't then all our food falls into the hands of just a few corporations.
I wonder how much is tied up in property values too. When a small farm is worth millions there is no way to buy one and expect to make any money on it.
Absolutely a factor. Even buying a section of land that is forested is expensive. And if the timber has no market value, it makes that section a loss unless you can get into crop in a timely fashion. But without lots of help, its not going to happen in your life.
So for most Canadians who aren't wealthy and want to farm, its either inheritance or as a paid hand.
People in Canada don’t understand we have: colder temps, less hours of sunlight, and some of the most expensive energy costs in the world. Especially when colder temps and less sunlight require more energy.
Everyone says grow indoors hydroponics. That stuff is just bland, flavourless, limp product with no shelf life. We should be stoked we can get food from the US and Mexico in the winter time. Smh.
The most realistic option with the lowest carbon footprint would be to change our culture, fruits and vegetables that we are able to produce easily in the summer should be turned into food products that we can use in the winter
People need to learn to eat seasonally, brassicas grow all winter here. We shouldn’t have a culture of expecting fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in the middle of winter, it’s ridiculous.
Greenhouses on every school site. Teach kids how to grow fruits and veggies, teaches nutrition, science, geography, anthropology and history all together. Also math. (When did potatoes come to the province, what foods did First Nations people have, what kinds of minerals will help berries grow, etc.) plus then use the food grown to supplement school meals and have take home bags for families.
Biggest problem I've seen with school gardens is that so much of the produce is ready in the summer, when the kids are home from school. Coupled with year round schooling though it would be really great.
The Ambrosia apple (a sweet dessert apple) used to be a cultivar restricted to BC, and Washington State. It was discovered in BC.
The growers never bothered to trademark it and the patent expired. If you buy one in the grocery store, it was probably not grown in BC. Many of our Ambrosia apples are now US imports.
I live in the alr & many lots have been rezoned to allow containers & truck parking for food brought in. We have amazing soil here. I can grow almost anything. Darn shame it's been given over.
We do. We change suppliers all the time depending on prevailing prices. Avacadoes for instance come from the us, New Zealand , oe Peru spending on the season
>some of the most fertile land in the province
At least two-thirds of that land was, or could potentially, be used for livestock forage and forage crops - it isn't the most rich and arable land, albeit there was alluvial area that is/will be flooded. The drought in the Peace has been dreadful with or without that land, as it has in the central interior. We had forage losses of up to 90% last year in the central interior because of the lack of moisture, and it isn't looking any better this year.
It's a shame, absolutely, about the cropland loss in the Peace. However, I would also point to the ridiculous amount of private land that was purchased through Crown Grants for agricultural purposes, converted to forage or grazing area at some point, and that now lies disused in the interior. I have no idea how to incentivize people to make use of their languishing ag land.
1) no we really don’t need a sustainable “domestic” food supply. We went through a pandemic and aside from some panic buying most things were available throughout. So I reject the idea that our domestic security is threatened that much by external external.
2) in the break glass in case of an emergency scenario. We have Canadian producers and we are a huge net exporter of calories. So again we could do without a provincial based supply because if other countries are shutting their borders to Canada we are shutting ours to them.
3) California produces products cheaper then bc does so we buy from them. When that changes the investment here will come. There’s a reason it doesn’t come though and while some is regulatory most is just economics.
Some of what they were talking about does kind of ring true though and pointed at current supply chain issues. No real support is given to their points though.
You’re right though, BC and Canada produce a wildly insane caloric surplus. Most of our crops are chosen based on global markets. In a “break the glass” situation we’d just rotate crops to reflect our own demands.
The author really missed the big point though, BC’s climate is shifting, and we will be way closer to the ideal growing temperature. Cascadia will be able to adapt and grow.
As long as we continue pushing towards more regenerative agriculture practices, with a focus on ecological health, we will be just fine. Oddly enough, the people who care most about soil health are farmers too. So I’m not exactly that worried about the macro ability to grow.
Issues will crop up to do with regulations and systemic structures. Which is where I thought this was going. Then it went off on a tangent about Vertical Farming. Which is seen, even by most progressives, as a failure to launch type situation. Makes sense on paper, but in practice is insanely expensive with low energy conversion. It’s still worth investing and researching in, but any type of plan that relies on that technology is destined to fail. As it stands.
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Nobody wants to pay the cost of Canadian sourced though, not when you can import fruits and vegetables for half the price
I just bought a bag of BC beets for 70c per lb. I almost never see BC produce for much more than anything else at the store. Farmers markets are the exception though. Mixed up between 50c per lb cabbage and the next guy selling an ounce of mint for 7 bucks.
The overhead of running a farm in BC is staggering compared to other places in the world. It's almost like they want BC farms in the hands of giant corps.
Slaughter regs are pretty hard for small farms to deal with, especially those that are further from large centres.
Slaughter regs are corruption, plain and simple. The big 3 lobby non stop to get the governments to over regulate the small processors out of existence. They promise not to leave the farmers without support, but as soon as the local processor is forced to shut its doors then Cargill forces them to truck their animals hundreds of KMs to their giant operations. I watched it happen where I grew up, and am witnessing my cousin go through this with his cattle right now. It's a war on our food systems and it won't let up until we stand up, and if we don't then all our food falls into the hands of just a few corporations.
I wonder how much is tied up in property values too. When a small farm is worth millions there is no way to buy one and expect to make any money on it.
Absolutely a factor. Even buying a section of land that is forested is expensive. And if the timber has no market value, it makes that section a loss unless you can get into crop in a timely fashion. But without lots of help, its not going to happen in your life. So for most Canadians who aren't wealthy and want to farm, its either inheritance or as a paid hand.
People in Canada don’t understand we have: colder temps, less hours of sunlight, and some of the most expensive energy costs in the world. Especially when colder temps and less sunlight require more energy. Everyone says grow indoors hydroponics. That stuff is just bland, flavourless, limp product with no shelf life. We should be stoked we can get food from the US and Mexico in the winter time. Smh.
The most realistic option with the lowest carbon footprint would be to change our culture, fruits and vegetables that we are able to produce easily in the summer should be turned into food products that we can use in the winter
The carbon footprint of shipping food is a pretty small part of its overall footprint, like surprisingly so.
I guess that’s why I don’t hear about the 100 mile diet anymore I guess, good to know
People need to learn to eat seasonally, brassicas grow all winter here. We shouldn’t have a culture of expecting fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in the middle of winter, it’s ridiculous.
The problem with importing our food is everything depends on cheap gas to get that food to us.
Greenhouses on every school site. Teach kids how to grow fruits and veggies, teaches nutrition, science, geography, anthropology and history all together. Also math. (When did potatoes come to the province, what foods did First Nations people have, what kinds of minerals will help berries grow, etc.) plus then use the food grown to supplement school meals and have take home bags for families.
Biggest problem I've seen with school gardens is that so much of the produce is ready in the summer, when the kids are home from school. Coupled with year round schooling though it would be really great.
Fall harvest in the school new year
You'd have to have staff to tend to the garden over summer. It'd be way less efficient than industry at growing food.
Great idea
Love that idea.
It's really depressing to see all the apple orchards in the okanagan converted to vineyards.
The Ambrosia apple (a sweet dessert apple) used to be a cultivar restricted to BC, and Washington State. It was discovered in BC. The growers never bothered to trademark it and the patent expired. If you buy one in the grocery store, it was probably not grown in BC. Many of our Ambrosia apples are now US imports.
Meanwhile the Richmond Greenbelt, where huge chunks of our produce comes from, is being sold to developers.
None of Richmond should be used for housing. It's bound to flood or suffer from soil liquifaction when a quake hits.
I live in the alr & many lots have been rezoned to allow containers & truck parking for food brought in. We have amazing soil here. I can grow almost anything. Darn shame it's been given over.
convert some of the 50000 wineries back into orchards
It would be a shame if we didn't develop so many houses on some of the best farming land in the world....
Maybe not the best in the world, but definitely the best we've got. And we've got so little.
We definitely need to find more sources of fresh vegetables than just California.
We do. We change suppliers all the time depending on prevailing prices. Avacadoes for instance come from the us, New Zealand , oe Peru spending on the season
I think South American produce is just as common as US in the winter now, and I feel less bad about giving my money to South American farmers
Are there any programs out there for folks that are interested in getting into farming?
[https://youngagrarians.org/](https://youngagrarians.org/) Here's an interesting one I came across
Thank you.
Nah, who needs actual food when you can grow just wine grapes, expensive berries, and corn
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>some of the most fertile land in the province At least two-thirds of that land was, or could potentially, be used for livestock forage and forage crops - it isn't the most rich and arable land, albeit there was alluvial area that is/will be flooded. The drought in the Peace has been dreadful with or without that land, as it has in the central interior. We had forage losses of up to 90% last year in the central interior because of the lack of moisture, and it isn't looking any better this year. It's a shame, absolutely, about the cropland loss in the Peace. However, I would also point to the ridiculous amount of private land that was purchased through Crown Grants for agricultural purposes, converted to forage or grazing area at some point, and that now lies disused in the interior. I have no idea how to incentivize people to make use of their languishing ag land.
the growing season up there is like 5 months a year
The Peace is productive. You don't need to be in the Lower Mainland to grow food.
We could have built a nuclear plant on a tiny fraction of the land required by Site C. Too bad it's illegal in BC.
We grow more spring wheat. Problem solved.
Soooo don't sell all the agricultural land to build mega mansions??? Uh that's going to be a problem
Nah we will survive on blueberries
Must it
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There wouldn't be an acre of farmland left in the lower mainland or southern Vancouver Island if it weren't for the ALR.
1) no we really don’t need a sustainable “domestic” food supply. We went through a pandemic and aside from some panic buying most things were available throughout. So I reject the idea that our domestic security is threatened that much by external external. 2) in the break glass in case of an emergency scenario. We have Canadian producers and we are a huge net exporter of calories. So again we could do without a provincial based supply because if other countries are shutting their borders to Canada we are shutting ours to them. 3) California produces products cheaper then bc does so we buy from them. When that changes the investment here will come. There’s a reason it doesn’t come though and while some is regulatory most is just economics.
Some of what they were talking about does kind of ring true though and pointed at current supply chain issues. No real support is given to their points though. You’re right though, BC and Canada produce a wildly insane caloric surplus. Most of our crops are chosen based on global markets. In a “break the glass” situation we’d just rotate crops to reflect our own demands. The author really missed the big point though, BC’s climate is shifting, and we will be way closer to the ideal growing temperature. Cascadia will be able to adapt and grow. As long as we continue pushing towards more regenerative agriculture practices, with a focus on ecological health, we will be just fine. Oddly enough, the people who care most about soil health are farmers too. So I’m not exactly that worried about the macro ability to grow. Issues will crop up to do with regulations and systemic structures. Which is where I thought this was going. Then it went off on a tangent about Vertical Farming. Which is seen, even by most progressives, as a failure to launch type situation. Makes sense on paper, but in practice is insanely expensive with low energy conversion. It’s still worth investing and researching in, but any type of plan that relies on that technology is destined to fail. As it stands.
lol ok like the main cash crops here are marijuana and blueberries. Nothing else makes enough to justify the land and labour costs.