DECEMBER 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Langley farmers launch local


farmers’ institute Group set to give voice to local farmers, facilitate collaboration


by RONDA PAYNE LANGLEY – The province’s


newest farmers’ institute came into being at the end of November with the formation of the Langley Farmers’ Institute.


While the official


incorporation papers have yet to be filed, a constitution and bylaws were drafted following a meeting at the end of October that attracted more than 50 Langley farmers from various commodities. The meeting saw more than 20 people express interest in membership, says Ava Reeve, program coordinator with the Langley Small Farm Network and a partner with her husband Jeff in Reeve Pastures, an 18-acre sheep farm. “We only needed five


[people],” she says. The new farmers’ institute will hold its first official meeting December 15 to enroll members.


Langley has not had a


farmers’ institute since the late 1990s, according to Reeve. The Township of Langley funded the October meeting based on its agricultural viability strategy. “One recommendation was that farmers in Langley need a stronger voice,” says Reeve of the strategy. A farmer’s institute was the example given by the township for a non- commodity-based group. According the Chris Zabek, superintendent of farmers’ institutes for the province, there are approximately 40 farmers’ institutes around the province. This gives the Langley group a choice of models to follow. Farmers’ institutes also


have the support of BC agriculture minister Lana Popham, who convened the province’s first-ever conference of institutes in November 2018, and organized a second one for November 29.


Identifying issues


During the preliminary meeting at the end of October, Reeve had farmers choose issues they cared most about from eight different options written on note cards. The top concerns in the room were obvious based on the number of farmers in each group


January30 February 1, 2020 ~


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discussion. Changes to regulations governing the Agricultural Land Reserve topped the concerns. “As a previous farmer, I can see that people are having some challenges with the new [ALR] regulations,” says Amanda Smith, agriculture program coordinator with the Langley Environmental Partners Society. “It’s important for people to get together to discuss not just the negative but also the positives in farming.”


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A number of farming commodities were present to discuss farming issues, like the Agricultural Land Reserve, at an October meeting that resulted in a new farmers' institute. RONDA PAYNE PHOTO


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