16 Auston pulls up stakes for Ontario by DAVID SCHMIDT
ABBOTSFORD – After working with and for BC farmers for almost 25 years, Geraldine Auston has pulled up stakes and moved to Ontario.
“It is going to be a change for me and my family but we are looking forward to new opportunities,” Auston told Country Life in BC. “I have lots of great memories and am fortunate to have made friends with so many people. It has been a privilege to work with the four major berry groups, the mushroom sector, many of the animal
agriculture groups, livestock
transport and more. I am honoured to have been trusted by so many to represent them.”
Auston began her career as the executive director of the BC Blueberry Industry Development Council in 1994, a position she held for over 12 years. She has also been executive director of the Mushroom Industry
Development Council, general manager of the BC Farm Animal Care Council and project co-ordinator of the Canadian Livestock Transport Certification Program. Most recently, she has been general manager of the BC Hog Marketing
Commission and BC Pork Producers Association (since 2012) and the director of marketing and
communications for the BC Cranberry Marketing Commission (since 2006). “It’s going to be hard to replace someone as talented as Geraldine,” says BCCMC executive director Heather Carriere, who also worked with Auston during her tenure with the BCHMC.
Carriere says the BCCMC has not yet decided whether to replace Auston and is currently looking at its options, adding she expects Auston will continue to support the sector.
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“She has a soft spot for the cranberry industry and will always be there to answer questions.”
In Ontario, Auston is expected to continue to consult for Mushrooms Canada and the Ag & Food Exchange, two of her other clients.
“In my heart, I will always be a BC girl and will miss everyone. I hope that from time to time our paths may cross as I move to Ottawa to continue consulting on a national level in my never- ending support of agriculture. I remain the city girl who moved to the country and never looked back,” she says.
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • DECEMBER 2016
Executive director for egg board
by DAVID SCHMIDT
ABBOTSFORD – After a successful three-month probation, Katie Lowe had the “interim” removed from her title and was officially named the executive director of the BC Egg Marketing Board as of November 1.
“Katie has done a solid job of managing the organization over the last three months and has the full support of the board of directors and her fellow team members for this role,” says BCEMB chair Brad Bond.
The BCEMB has had a checkered history with executive directors over the past few years, with all but Al Sakalauskas holding the position for only brief tenures. The board’s most recent ED, Dwight Yochim, held the position for less than a year. Lowe, who moved over to the egg board after a long tenure at the BC Chicken Marketing Board over a year ago, hopes to change that.
“I’m hoping to be here for a long time,” she says. “It’s a good industry to be part of.” Since being named interim ED in August, Lowe has begun rebranding the BC Egg Marketing Board to make it more responsive to consumers.
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“We’re going to put a face to our farmers. Consumers have a lot of questions and we have to educate them as to who we are,” she says, insisting “we have a really good story to tell.”
She notes the industry needs to tell consumers about the robust food safety and animal care programs it has in place. Bond says that is part of the board’s efforts to become “more inclusive, transparent and engaging of its stakeholders.”
The BC egg industry
includes 120 producers with a total of about 2.5 million birds in production, an average of about 21,000 birds per farm. In 2015, individual farms ranged in size from as few as 2,300 to as many as 119,000 birds. Those numbers continue to increase as the board has issued new quota three times in the past two years. Lowe says the next few years will be “interesting” for the board and producers, noting the Retail Council of Canada has called for all laying hens to be cage-free by 2025.
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