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Country Life in BC • FEBRUARY 2017
Operating at a loss for a good cause Mainland Milk Producers donated over $100,000 in fresh milk to local food banks
Stories by DAVID SCHMIDT
ABBOTSFORD – Mainland Milk Producers posted a loss of over $80,000 last year but no one at the MMP annual meeting in Abbotsford on January 6 was complaining. That’s because most of the excess spending went to food banks in Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford and Chilliwack. Between October 2015 and September 2016, MMP donated over $100,000 in fresh milk to five area food banks.
“The food banks were very appreciative of the
donations,” MMP president Holger Schwichtenberg told the well-attended meeting. MMP also contributed another $10,000 to the student housing project at the University of BC Dairy Education and Research Centre in Agassiz and spent over $18,000 supporting Mainland Young Milk Producers.
Despite the loss, MMP treasurer Wim Kloot noted expenses actually came in $13,500 lower than budgeted. And now that the milk donation program has ended, next year’s budget will be much closer to break-even
and could even yield a small surplus.
BC Dairy Association president Dave Taylor complimented MMP’s efforts, calling it a strong organization.
“We’re only strong nationally when we have strong provincial associations, and we’re only strong provincially when we have strong regional associations,” he noted.
Taylor said the BCDA will continue to promote milk although there is “a little uncertainty” as to how that will occur.
The Western Partnership the four Western dairy associations formed to promote fluid milk is disintegrating as Alberta and Saskatchewan have turned over their fluid milk
promotion to Dairy Farmers of Canada. DFC already manages all industrial milk promotion in Canada and fluid milk promotion from Ontario east.
Although the BCDA has not yet decided whether to follow suit, Taylor promised that whatever happens, “your dollars will continue to go to fluid promotion.”
He also complimented
producers for taking up proAction, calling it critical to retaining public trust. Having producers adopt proAction is “really important for us as leaders who constantly talk about it to the public,” Taylor told them. While proAction is focused on milk, he said dairymen need to be just as diligent on environmental issues. He urged everyone to take the time to do an Environmental Farm Plan and to be responsible when spreading manure.
BC Agriculture Council executive director Reg Ens seconded that, noting the new agricultural waste control regulations now being drafted by the BC Ministry of Environment will require farmers “demonstrate that manure is being used as a resource, not a waste.”
Smith honoured
Producers also took time out to thank Wally Smith, who will be completing his term as DFC president in July, for his efforts on behalf of the industry. Smith responded by saying it is up to everyone in the industry to stand up for supply management. “Continue to fight the
fight,” he told them, stressing “(public and political) pressure on supply management is relentless.”
Board acclaimed
Producers clearly supported the MMP’s
initiatives of the past year, re-electing Derek Arends, Gary Baars, Nelson Dinn, Jeff Kooyman and Ron Neels to new three-year terms and choosing Andrew Vink to fill the position vacated by Ken Vandeburgt.
Residence “farming-chic”
AGASSIZ – The new University of British Columbia Dairy Education and Research Centre Student Residence Building in Agassiz has been named the best school residence and one of the world’s 10 best housing projects of 2016 by Azure Magazine, one of Canada’s leading architectural publications.
Officially opened last May, the residence has space for up to 32 students although only 16 were occupying it at the end of December.
The new residence has “made our lives much better,” Bruna Silper told the Mainland Milk Producers annual meeting in Abbotsford on January 6.
MMP committed $10,000 per year for five years towards construction of the new residence, an amount matched by the BC Dairy Association. Azure Magazine called the new residence “an ideal micro-campus for scientific learning and knowledge work.” The magazine notes the new residence not only allows students and researchers to live closer to their work and each other but it “promotes collaboration through community spaces, four-person residential modules, and an X-shaped courtyard. Rigorous, utilitarian, and representative of the latest in agricultural science – you might even call it farming-chic.”
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