JANUARY 2020 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Trade deals remain


top issue Compensation coming, but challenges remain by DAVID SCHMIDT VANCOUVER – Dairy


Farmers of Canada


accomplished a lot in 2019, DFC president Pierre Lampron told producers at the BC Dairy Conference in Vancouver, November 28. Not the least of those accomplishments is the $1.75 billion compensation package for trade concessions Canada made in CETA, the Canada-EU trade agreement, and CP-TPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership). “Those were tough negotiations,” DFC executive director Jacques Lefebvre said, adding DFC’s success shows “the power of speaking with one voice.” Lampron said DFC is now


working on a compensation package for CUSMA, the new trade deal with the US and Mexico (which has yet to be ratified), adding he hopes this is the last compensation the dairy sector will need. “During the last election,


all parties committed to no more dairy concessions in new trade deals,” he said.


Significant challenges Despite the successes, the


dairy industry is facing significant challenges, not the least of which is a well- funded activist movement whose goal is the complete elimination of animal agriculture. “We need to be bold in


promoting dairy,” Lefebvre told producers. He called CUSMA another


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Rotary Rakes Dairy honours Jim Thompson


UBC research centre in Agassiz is a lasting legacy


by DAVID SCHMIDT


VANCOUVER – Jim Thompson is the recipient of the sixth annual BC Dairy Industry Achievement Award. Thompson received his award from BC Dairy Historical Society president Jim Byrne during the gala dinner concluding the 2019 BC Dairy Conference in Vancouver, November 28. Raised on a dairy farm in the Shuswap, Thompson is a professor emeritus of applied animal biology at UBC and a distinguished BC educator and innovator. He is best known in the


dairy industry as the director of the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre in Agassiz. UBC established the


centre in 1997 after Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada decided to end its dairy research program in Agassiz, merging the herd from the UBC research farm at Oyster River with the remnants of AAFC’s herd. DERC’s founding director, Thompson


19


Jim Thompson, who recently retired after 20 years as the director of the University of BC Dairy Education & Research Centre, received the 2019 BC Dairy Industry Achievement Award from BC Dairy Historical Society president Jim Byrne. DAVID SCHMIDT PHOTO


remained in charge until retiring at the end of 2018. Under his guidance, UBC


replaced Agassiz’s dilapidated barns with state-of-the-art dairy facilities – first a large dairy barn and parlour, then a second dairy barn, a heifer barn and finally a calf barn. They also added classroom


space and, most recently, a student residence. In the process, Thompson


created a world-renowned dairy research program which has attracted hundreds of students and scientists from around the world. The centre has focused much of its efforts on animal welfare research,


making major contributions to the Canadian Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Dairy Cattle. In his final act as director, Thompson was instrumental in negotiating a new lease with AAFC which will allow DERC to continue in Agassiz for another 20 years or more.


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