30 BREWERIES want level playing field
requirement to use 50% local product, given that hops and barley “are not major farm products in BC.” “Advice from stakeholders was that further consultation with experts should be undertaken prior to making any final recommendations or drafting any regulations in this area,” the report stated.
Accommodate innovation
Ken Malenstyn, who has joined with other farmers to establish a new brewery at Fraserland Farms in Ladner, says he feels the land commission should accommodate innovation. The brewery in Delta will use malting barley Fraserland planted as a rotation crop and currently sells to Gambrinus Malting Ltd. in Armstrong and an organic brewery in Washington State. Malenstyn is developing a hopyard that
will supply the brewery. While he loves what
Persephone has done, Malenstyn says its location doesn’t make it a suitable place for growing the ingredients for beer. Persephone also operates a cidery that’s in compliance with land commission regulations but the conditions just aren’t right for a brewery. “Where are they going to
grow grain over there? It’s not practical,” he said. He believes letting
landowners set up processing operations on farmland with marginal production could open the door to operations that have ambitions other than farming. “You open a lot of
opportunity for speculators to come in and buy two- or three-acre pieces of farmland and put a couple of rows of hops and put a brewery there,”
he said. Malenstyn’s planned
venture, and Crannóg Ales in Sorrento, which Persephone Brewing cites as a model for its own operation, show that viable operations are possible. Crannóg launched in 2000 with the blessing of the Agricultural Land Commission. “As long as our building was less than 900 [square feet], they had no issue with our operation,” owner Rebecca Kneen says. “[Commissioners] were very pleased with our proposal to build something which genuinely tried to support the farm by using farm-grown ingredients, balancing farm water needs with brewery needs, and using all brewery by-products to enhance the farm.” The one regret that she has was that she didn’t submit an application for the commission
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to consider, something commissioners encouraged her to do in order to establish a precedent for similar applications in the future. Now that there’s a push to change the regulations to treat breweries, meaderies and distilleries like wineries and cideries, Kneen is supportive. She also recommends safeguards to prevent the abuses Malenstyn fears. “We recommend restricting the amount of the land used for breweries to be right-sized for both the parcel and surrounding community,” she says. “We would also support policies which require that water use be restricted in a ratio of water used to beer produced, that all outgoing water be treated onsite to irrigation standards, and that the farm unit be evaluated separately for its independent viability.”
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • APRIL 2017
AI training hits the road
by TAMARA LEIGH DUNCAN – The BC Poultry
Association has expanded its emergency operations centre (EOC) and incident command structure (ICS) training to include producers beyond the Fraser Valley. This training is part of a provincial effort to make sure the industry is prepared for an avian influenza outbreak. Sessions were held in Salmon Arm and Duncan. “It is important to be aware
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of the process and response protocols in case of an avian influenza outbreak,” says Clayton Botkin, industry specialist for poultry and regulated marketing for the BC Ministry of Agriculture. “We tend to focus on the Fraser Valley, but it could happen anywhere. We expanded the training to equip regions with internal resource capacity.” The half-day course was specially designed for the BC Poultry Association by the Justice Institute, and combines EOC operations training and an introduction to the incident command structure. The incident command structure is the foundation of responding to emergencies, whether it be floods, fire or disease. The system is used by all levels of government and by groups such as firefighters. Building emergency
response capacity within the poultry industry has led to faster response times and enabled the BC Poultry Association to participate in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s 2014 Joint EOC briefings. “The poultry industry in
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the Fraser Valley is one of most experienced in the incident response protocols,” says trainer Stuart MacDonald, referring to the outbreaks in 2004-05, 2007- 08 and 2014-15. “They have been through the process a lot, and the response over the years has really improved.” In Duncan, participants highlighted challenges included transporting high volumes of carbon dioxide on ferries and the lack of a specialized poultry vet. “It gives a peace of mind,”
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says Bev Whitta, a broiler producer from Nanoose Bay who attended the training. “We’ve never had an outbreak like this on Vancouver Island, and in some ways we are protected a bit more because we are so spread out, but now we know who to contact, and that there’s a formal structure in place.”
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