4 Vice grip It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or even an agronomist, to smoke out the


fact that BC agriculture has gone to pot – literally. The signs are everywhere. As often as not, they read “No Trespassing,” as


regulations require growers hide their activities from public view. But there are other signs as well. Greenhouses that were once thriving


producers of tomatoes and peppers are now riding high on cannabis. The recent CannaTech West conference at the Pacific Agriculture Show attracted 150 people, showing just how much interest there is. This should come as no surprise, as there is more money to be made in catering to people’s vices than in catering to their stomachs. This has always been the case. In the 1930s and 40s, the Fraser Valley was a hotbed of tobacco production – one can still see remnants of the oasts dotting the eastern Fraser Valley landscape. When a virus ripped through the valley and put an end to the tobacco, many of those fields were replanted in hops, with that crop covering thousands of acres of productive farmland in Abbotsford and Chilliwack. Although those fields disappeared after brewers were able to access cheaper hops from the Yakima Valley, hops are back, fuelled by a surge in craft breweries. Chilliwack’s biggest-ever industrial development, a massive new Molson-Coors brewery, is about to come into production, increasing the demand . This is not happening only in the Fraser Valley. Over the past few decades,


vineyards have replaced orchards in the Okanagan Valley as growers discover there is more money in grapes than apples. Governments are not only letting it happen, but moving heaven and earth


to help. They have legalized cannabis and changed regulations to make it easier for wineries and craft breweries to establish themselves. Again, no surprise. After all, given the taxes governments apply to beer, wine, liquor and cannabis, the products represent a huge revenue source when their primary ingredients thrive. Government makes a lot more money from a hectare of hops, grapes or cannabis than it ever will from a hectare of raspberries, tomatoes, apples or forage. Perhaps recognizing that, it seems ready and willing to throw traditional food crops under the bus. Why else would governments stall on funding the berry breeding program, intended to help growers both respond to changing consumer preferences and better compete with other global production? Why else would it allow


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • MARCH 2019


other countries to ship in ever-increasing amounts of milk and milk products while agreeing to cap our exports and therefore our production? In its words, governments stress the importance of maintaining the


Agricultural Land Reserve for food production now and in the future. Its actions, however, tell a different story.


the ALR for vice security instead of food security. How sad! Snow days make good days for seed selection There is something paradoxical about being up


to your boot tops in snow and up to your elbows in seed catalogues at the same time. There is snow to push and pipes to thaw and whatever is in your barn is getting impatient for its next meal.


The Back Forty BOB COLLINS


Even though the Weather Channel says it’s going


to stay cold for at least another two weeks, you can’t raise your head without coming face to face with the mountain of spring work piling up. This reality flies in the face of the Little Golden Book Fun on the Farm version that informs the urban perception of winter on the farm or ranch as a season of ease and frivolity, a joyous respite which eventually gives way to sunshine and songbirds. The dictionary defines respite as the delay, or cessation for a time, especially of anything distressing or trying, and I do find a measure of it in the seed lists and catalogues. I can never open one without thinking of my grandmother and the crops


and gardens of 60 years ago. Seed selection was a welcome respite for her, made even more enjoyable by its necessity, and memories of the crops and garden of her youth. Much has changed since Grandma’s day. The


single, slim catalogue that landed in her mailbox has been replaced on my desk by seven full colour offerings that total more than 1,000 pages. Add on all the brochures and flyers that have come my way and the daily barrage of email and online offerings and I might soon need a respite from the seed selection respite. There is a truly extravagant selection available in many crops. One of our direct market specialties is pumpkin.


In a single catalogue, there are over 70 choices. We usually hope to cover our bases with a dozen


varieties. How many of each is always a bit of a guessing game and it’s always better to err on the side of caution. The inevitable outcome always includes too much of one thing and not enough of something else.


Sometimes stuff just happens. The mislabeled


variety that was planted last year was followed by an apology and a refund from the supplier. Pumpkins we never intended to grow turned out to be a hit with customers who snapped up all we had in no time. The main large variety we had high


Publisher Cathy Glover


The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 Vol.105 No.3 . MARCH 2019


Published monthly by Country Life 2000 Ltd. www.countrylifeinbc.com


604-328-3814 . publisher@countrylifeinbc.com Editor Emeritus David Schmidt 604-793-9193 . davidschmidt@shaw.ca Associate Editor Peter Mitham news@countrylifeinbc.com


Advertising Sales & Marketing Cathy Glover sales@countrylifeinbc.com Production Designer Tina Rezansoff Production Ass’t Naomi McGeachy What's the craic, PW!


hopes for didn’t find much favour while the variety we grew just so we wouldn’t have all our eggs in one basket was cleaned out in short order. Some of the reliable old standbys are a given and the disappointments drop off the list, but there’s still a bunch of hemming and hawing to do in the middle.


The same dilemma presents itself with


sunflowers for the cut flower trade. According to a quick search online, Living Coral has replaced Millennial Coral as the ‘in’ colour for 2019. Living Coral seems to be a no-go in the sunflower selection so maybe we’ll take a chance on the Year of the Pig Feng Shui choices and go heavy on red, orange, pink and white. The grass mixes for over-seeding the horse field and the far field should be an easier and more practical choice and the vegetable line-up is pretty well set. But it’s looking like I’ll have to save the rest of


this respite for another day. There are snowflakes the size of the hubcaps on my grandad’s old ’49 Ford gusting past the windows again, and the cows are starting to rattle their stanchions and speculate about the whereabouts of their evening meal. Bob Collins raises beef cattle and grows produce on his farm in the Alberni Valley.


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