Susan Smith, P.Ag. Please take a moment to welcome Emma Holmes, our new Industry Specialist for Organics! She is based at the Agriculture Centre in beautiful Abbotsford, and while serving a temporary assignment for the Ministry of Agriculture as the New Entrant Agrologist, Emma successfully competed for the Organics Specialist position. Emma is an alumni… Keep Reading
From Seedling to Success Story Moss Dance If you’ve ever bought a box of sprouts in BC, it’s highly likely that they were grown at Eatmore Sprouts in K’ómox Territory, on Vancouver Island (Courtenay, BC.) Behind that delicious package of sprouts, there is a story of earth-conscious principles, community, and dedication to the organic movement.… Keep Reading
Charles Z Levkoe and Michael Ekers Originally published by Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario in “Ecological Farming in Ontario”. This is part 3 of a 4 part series on research into unpaid farm labour. While the research was conducted with farms in Ontario, much of the findings likely carry over to BC. This article is… Keep Reading
Learning From Italy’s Thriving Agriculture Co-operatives By Chris Bodnar Over two weeks in June, I had the opportunity to join other farmers and a group of Vancity Credit Union staff on a study tour in Bologna, Italy. The focus of the tour was the agricultural co-operative sector. The Bologna region is unique because of its… Keep Reading
Saikat Kumar Basu Clover is the common English name for different species of plants belonging to the genus Trifolium comprising over 250+ species distributed across the planet. These are legume plants that belong to the plant family Leguminaceae (Fabaceae) indicating these are plants capable of successfully fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Clover is commonly used as a… Keep Reading
Emma Holmes The Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) is a no-charge, voluntary, and confidential program in which producers receive one-on-one support from a qualified Planning Advisor to highlight their farm’s environmental strengths, identify potential risks, and set realistic action plans to improve environmental stewardship. It also supports farmers in taking advantage of tools, techniques, and funding… Keep Reading
Cait Murphy It’s early on a Friday morning and Matthew and his mother Ali have just spent 30 minutes driving to Tsawwassen. They drive this way every week for an opportunity that Ali has described as life-changing. The opportunity? Farmwork. Taller than any of the staff he works with, it would be easy to assume… Keep Reading
Making Positive Change to Farmland Biodiversity in BC Susan Smith, Alison Speirs, and Dave Zehnder Farmland Advantage is a research and development project that works with farmers to conserve and enhance critical natural values in British Columbia. These natural values are often referred to as ecosystem services, which are services of a natural environment that… Keep Reading
How one woman’s journey to worm-free fruit led to the birth of a new business Marilyn Roberts In the early 1900s, Kaslo was a major fruit producer in British Columbia, sending boxes of huge cherries as far away as England. Hence, there are many old overgrown orchards in the area. When I bought a place… Keep Reading
An Important Solution for Conservation of Bees and Other Insect Pollinators Saikat Kumar Basu Insects such as bees (Order-Hymenoptera), some species of flies (Order-Dipetra) and beetles (Order-Coleoptera), moths and butterflies (Order-Lepidoptera), under the Class-Insecta and Phylum-Arthropoda constitute an important army of natural pollinators that help in the process of pollination in several important crops and… Keep Reading
