Farming in British Columbia

My guest this episode is Les Willms, one half of the ownership of LH Willms Incorporated, a 3000 acre grain farm in the Peace Country. If you’ve been a listener of the show for a while, you’ll already know Les, since he was a regular participant in last year’s Farming in BC Yearbook project. Mentioned in this episode: an interview I conducted in 2023 with Public Health Scientist Bruce Lanphear.

The show today has two segments, both concerning undesirable amounts of water. In segment one, Dave Russenberger wrestles with a public plan that carries serious implications for his dariy farm in the Sumas Prairie. In segment two, greater Vernon farmers talk about the impacts of a mandatory 70% reduction to their annual irrigation allocation. Some believe this sacrifice could and should have been...

For this episode I wanted to explore the value of a good agricultural weather network, and to learn about an online resource for our sector called BC Agriweather . The person I invited to speak to this topic is Andy Nadler. Andy is an agricultural meteorologist with a company called Peak HydroMet Solutions who has worked closely with the BC government to improve and maintain a province-wide networ...

This episode we explore Canada's Next Agricultural Policy Framework , and how farmers can have a say in the policies and programs our governments create for farms and farmers. In the episode we discuss some surveys BC farmers are being asked to fill out. Here are some links: Provincial Ministry of Ag Survey: Takes about 15 minutes to complete Deadline: Wednesday, June 10th Survey link: https://sub...

I think the title for this episode does all of the necessary heavy lifting. Take a break this time, Show Notes. farminginbc.ca/submit to contact me.

This ep: my interview with the farmers of Cedar Isle Farm near Harrison Hot Springs, where Hannah, Diane, Jim, & Rosa told me about growing wheat, oats, barley and rye for their Grain CSA and for regional bakeries. We discuss their production & marketing, the stress of ensuring farm longevity & succession amidst a 500K tax bill, farmers-as-paragons, and ideas for strengthing farm commu...

Today on the show, my conversation with Butcher Matt Kemp, a week after he figuratively cut the ribbon at the Okanagan Butcher Hub, a new meat cutting facility located in Spallumcheen, just a hair north of Vernon. Built by the Smallscale Meat Producers Association with support from multiple levels of government, it’s hoped that this butcher hub will help address a capacity issue that has dogged th...

This time on the podcast: my conversation with Robin Hunt of Big Rock Ranch. Back in 2016, Robin moved from Squamish up to their grandparent’s property near 100 Mile House to start a market garden business and live the truly rural life they’d been craving for years. There was a steep learning curve for Robin and their business partner Johan, but in short order the two established themselves as a f...

Today on the show, listener submissions about the permanent time change announcement, and then we head to the central interior, where residents of Dunster, a rural community in the Robson Valley along highway 16 south of McBride, have been grappling with a decline in population that some say is connected to a single corporation having bought up a substantial amount of the farmland there. You’ll he...

For many years, the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission ’s authority has only covered southern BC. But in 2024, the commission announced its intention to expand its regulatory authority over production in northern BC. The news was met with surprise and suspicion by some in that farming community who opposed the specifics of what the commission was envisioning. Eventually, this opposition came togeth...

It’’s been a while since I’ve featured a long-form conversation with a BC farmer, but this episode I’ve got one to share with you. Danny Turner is one half of the ownership of Just A Mere Farm in BC’s Creston Valley. For year’s Danny’s main cash crop has been organic cherries, but the last time he turned a profit on the crop was before Covid. So Danny has gone all-in on organic blueberries, and he...

This bonus episode: you heard a couple of media clips of Werner Stump, BC rancher and current President of BC Cattlemans , in the episode with George Abbott released yesterday. In this bonus episode, Werner joins me to discuss his concerns about aspects of BC's approach to reconciliation and the potential impact to decisions like Cowichan. In our conversation he references the Provincial Agreement...

Today on the show I wade into the reconciliation discourse, because lately I’ve felt surrounded by it. Last August 7th the BC Supreme Court released its Cowichan Tribes decision , which recognized Cowichan Tribes' Aboriginal title to part of their traditional lands in Richmond. Some lands owned by the City of Richmond & the Federal government were declared invalid, and the decision also found...

This episode, a conversation about the Kootenay Co-op , a Nelson based, co-operatively owned, 21000 square foot grocery store that turns 50 this year, and which spent four million dollars last year purchasing products from farmers and processors in the Kootenay region. My guest is Amanda Verigin, who joined me to tell me about the store’s beginnings as a bulk food buying club in 1975, and how the...

In this final episode of the 2025 Farming in BC Yearbook Project, each farmer who participated joins me on the phone to compare the goals and anxieties they expressed at the head of the season to what actually happened. If there's anything you want to share with the show, visit farminginbc.ca/submit. Potential advertisers can visit farminginbc.ca/advertise for info on how to sponsor the show.

This episode, I ask a few of the province's ag sector leaders to reflect on the year we just went through. You'll hear from: Lana Popham, BC's Agriculture Minister Peter Mitham, Editor & Writer at Country Life in BC Julia Smith, ED of Small Scale Meat Producers Association Casey Prium, Chair of BC Dairy Theresa Burns, BC's Chief Veterinarian To submit a voice memo to the show, visit farminginb...

This is a bonus episode featuring a segment of my recent interview with BC's Agriculture & Food Minister Lana Popham that won't be included in next week's episode featuring her reflection on the 2025 Farming Year. Herein, I ask the Minister if Buy BC should get cheeky with our grocery sector oligopoly, whether her ministry plans to address the massive water license application backlog, and why...

Early this year I recruited 14 farming professionals from around BC to send me updates all year, with the hopes of turning it to some sort of Farming in BC Yearbook. Here, you'll here part one of a multi-episode series to close out the year. This time, you'll hear a summary of the 2025 farming season as a series of messages sent to me by project participants. You can contribute your own farm summa...

Early this year I recruited 14 farming professionals from around BC to send me updates all year, with the hopes of turning it to some sort of Farming in BC Yearbook. Here, you'll here part one of a multi-episode series to close out the year. This time, you'll meet the project's participants and hear about their goals and their anxieties heading into the 2025 season. You can contribute your own far...

This show: Saltspring Island Farmer & author Abey Scaglione joins me to discuss her new book, Radical Farm , which argues that animals are essential to ensure the health of our soil, ourselves, and our food system. Then: did the BC Agriculture Council go to Victoria to ask that our Ag sector be deemed an essential service? Yes! Also, no! BCAC Executive Director Danielle Synotte joins me to exp...

This is a rebroadcast of an episode of my original show, The Ruminant, from 2019 or so. New episodes coming soon! Special thanks to Kirk Smith for recording this episode with me.

This ep: My guest on the show today is Katie Sardinha, an orchardist who runs Kaleidoscope Fruit Ranch based in Summerland. Katie wrote an op-ed in the August issue of Country Life in BC focused on the grocery oligopoly in Canada and the problem this poses for farmers. Katie thinks it’s a big problem, actually. Or not even ‘a’ big problem, but ‘the’ mother problem. I wanted to ask her to expand on...

My guest today is Abra Brynne. Abra’s not a farmer, but she comes from farmers, and early in her career she turned her passion for place-based food systems into a career dedicated to advocating and agitating for changes that would strengthen those systems. I’ve sat on a board or two with Abra, and I’ve chatted with her at various farming-related events over the last couple of years, and she is an...

Today on the show, I bring you some tales from some farmers in the trenches of BC food and beverage regulation. First you’re going to hear from one of the recipients of new milk production quota under BC’s supply management system. After that, an Okanagan winemaker expresses concerns about the potential extension of the exemptions that allowed a battered wine sector to make BC wine from non-BC gra...

This episode you’re going to hear my conversation with Julio Senties, a migrant farmworker from Mexico who has been coming to BC for seasonal work since 2017. In recent years Julio has been returning to Carcajou Fruit Company, a farm in Summerland that grows cherries, mainly for export. I interviewed one of Carcajou’s owners, Erin Carlson, for a couple stories for CBC radio a couple of years ago,...