JANUARY 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Organic production set for a major boost Winery owner leading the movement in Okanagan


by PETER MITHAM


KELOWNA – An ambitious push to convert the entire Okanagan to organic production by 2020 has won the backing of significant players.


Most of the region’s municipalities and First Nations have signed on to the initiative, spearheaded by Stephen Cipes of Summerhill Pyramid Winery in Kelowna, to convert their jurisdictions to organic production by 2020. Among the municipalities and aboriginal groups endorsing the initiative is the Osoyoos Indian Band, which operates the Okanagan’s largest vineyard and supplies wineries including Jackson- Triggs and Summerhill. “First Nations are the natural leaders,” Cipes says. “They grow our grapes organically and have for 25 years, but they didn’t certify it.” Cipes says organic


certification for the band’s vineyards would give organic practices a higher level of recognition and boost the status of organic production in the valley as whole. While the neighbouring Similkameen Valley has long had a reputation for being the organic capital of Canada, Cipes believes the Okanagan has a fair shot at organic practices itself.


“The momentum is


catching on,” he says, noting that Kelowna banned the cosmetic use of lawn pesticides in 2009 and the community in general have endorsed the vision. “I have thousands of signatures, people who are willing to change their lawns into gardens and do xeriscaping.”


Faculty and staff at


Okanagan College and UBC- Okanagan have also lent their support to the initiative. “We’re going to hopefully put some organic foods into both the college and the university for the students to eat,” Cipes says.


Collaborative effort


The movement began in 2015 with the formation of a nine-member committee that includes Cipes and his son, Gabe Cipes, as well as Summerhill winemaker Eric von Krosigk; activists Wendy Wright and Michael Lavigne; UBC-Okanagan indigenous studies professor Tirso Gonzales; as well as Rheece Hartte, Matthew Jensen and


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Perlagh Shulamis. Summerhill has practiced organic


viticulture since its founding in 1991 but it has long been an exception in an industry that nevertheless prides itself on low-input practices. According to Cipes, just 3% of


oils are all that we need.”


It’s a similar story in other sectors, Cipes argues.


STEPHEN CIPES


vineyard acreage in the Okanagan is organic. Cipes said the lack of new organic vineyards despite the wine industry’s dramatic growth concerned him. “I single out wineries because, number one, the chemicals used for grape growing are the most toxic of all chemicals,” Cipes says. Worse, application manuals for viticultural chemicals are tailored to areas other than the Okanagan – an area that has relatively low pest and disease pressure.


“We’ve proven that we don’t need any of those things,” he said. “We can get away with sprays that are approved to be certified organic. Basically, sulfur and


“Commercial fruit growing in the valley can thrive without any chemicals at all – it can all be done organically. And we’ve


proven that. And it can be done


economically,” he says. But not everyone agrees, especially as new pests enter the Okanagan.


Sheltered locales such as the Pemberton Valley have typically favoured organic production because they’re remote, while the well- travelled Similkameen enjoys winds that blow a pest’s chances of becoming a problem.


But in the Okanagan, Western Cherry Fruit Fly and Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) make some form of chemical control necessary. “If an organic solution … is found for [SWD], I could see some people transitioning and making a change but at this point no one’s figured it


out yet,” says Erin Carlson, manager at Carcajou Fruit Company Ltd. in Summerland. She returned to her family’s farm in 2011 after studying organic agriculture at the University of Guelph and found that the Okanagan, while the country’s biggest sweet cherry producer, isn’t a place where organic cherries grow easily.


“I came home all excited to grow some cherries and I found out that it’s really, really difficult,” she says. “It’s something that I think about a lot, and I think that through all of that thinking and all of that process we practice what some might call ‘thoughtful agriculture’ – we make sure that we’re doing things because we need to, and we’re trying to make sure things are done well and safely.”


But if many growers pursue low-input agriculture, few have certification – an issue the province is tackling head-on through tighter regulation of the term “organic.”


The province passed legislation in early 2016 that will require certification for any products that market themselves as organic. Despite federal legislation that regulates products moving between provinces, there


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hasn’t been similar legislation regulating the use of the term “organic” on products produced and sold solely within BC.


BC approved regulations in December 2016 under the new Food and Agricultural Products Classification Act that restrict the use of the term “organic” to those products that certified through a recognized federal or provincial organization. Beginning in September 2018, violators will face various penalties including a $350 fine.


“We want to make sure that when they’re making these choices, they’re making informed choices,” BC agriculture minister Norm Letnick said when he unveiled the changes in autumn 2015. And, if Cipes gets his way, the Okanagan will be a leading source for many of those products, following in the footsteps of Bhutan, widely expected to be the world’s first wholly organic country, and Denmark, which also aims to shift its food production entirely to organic practices.


“We’re in very good shape. I think it’s even feasible to step over the 50% mark by 2020,” Cipes says. “If a whole country can do it, certainly a little valley can do it.”


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