JULY 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


those at home. Shifting patterns of production and trade hit horticulture harder than most as pre-war market gardens gave way to development and refrigerated truckloads of cheap produce came in from California. Some people turned back to the land, others launched farmers’ markets to support local growers, but it wasn’t until after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001 that security of all sorts – including food security – came into focus. Cross-border shipping


A shift to high-density plantings mean most fruit growers don’t use horses in their orchards anymore, but a century ago they were essential to getting work done. BCFGA PHOTO


originally conceived as an outlet for their fruit, a value- added opportunity. The world was changing, and growers knew they would have to


innovate to meet the challenges to come. The years following the Second World War brought further changes: the green


revolution of synthetic fertilizers made farms more productive, and global trade agreements opened international markets and


protocols tightened and people began taking a second look in their own backyards for food that used to come in from abroad. Organic, local and sustainable became catchwords that made people feel like they were making a positive difference in a world of uncertainties. Sustainable often meant green, and green often meant greens – from kale to cucumbers, as well as a host of other local produce. Health-conscious urban eaters opted for more vegetables, eschewing the meat favoured 150 years earlier – rightly or wrongly – in the belief that it was a low-impact option. This was good news for urban farms, many of which focused on small-lot production of greens just like the market gardens of yore. Further up the Fraser Valley and into the


PRODUCTIVE·COMPACT FUEL EFFICIENT·TELEHANDLER ON THE MARKET·COMFORTABLE


MERLO IS THE MOST ·SAFEST


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Interior, fruit growers and dairy farmers, hop growers and grain producers found fresh opportunities that are transforming the province’s agricultural economy.


Back to the future There are also steps to


make agriculture an option for new groups of farmers. Unlike east of the Rockies,


treaties with indigenous peoples were often an afterthought in early BC, an oversight that continues to play out today as governments grapple with claims for lands now worth billions of dollars. Yet agriculture also


provided employment and opportunities on and off reserve lands, both as subsistence for families as well as providing work and experience that laid a foundation for ventures including Nk’Mip Cellars – North America’s first indigenous-owned winery – and Tsawwassen Farm School, a partnership between Tsawwassen First Nation and Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Whatever history has


delivered in the past 150-plus years, agriculture has persisted through it all – feeding the appetites and aspirations of BC, and creating ways for everyone to honour their forebears, and leave a legacy for their children.


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