You will be able to renew your membership for the 2011-12 year at this time.

We are also looking for new directors, so if you would like to make a difference in agriculture, this is your chance! We look forward to seeing you there.

Sincerely,

GFBRAS Board of Directors

Deadline: March 31, 2011

About CBAN: The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) is coordinating a campaign with farmer and organic sector groups to stop genetically modified (GM) alfalfa. For information and updates please contact us or visit http://www.cban.ca/alfalfa CBAN Members are: ACT for the Earth (Toronto), Biofreedom (Edmonton), Canadian Organic Growers, Check Your Head, Coalition for Safe Food (B.C.), Council of Canadians, Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario, Food Action  Committee of Ecology Action Centre, Halifax, GE Free Yukon, GeneAction  (Toronto), Greenpeace Canada, Inter Pares, National Farmers Union,  P.E.I. Coalition for a GMO-Free Province, Saskatchewan Organic  Directorate, Society for a G.E. Free B.C., Union Paysanne, USC Canada.http://www.cban.ca

The Request: Please tell us how GM alfalfa will affect your farm and farm business. The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) is asking farmers to send testimonials about the direct impact you foresee with GM alfalfa. Your testimonial could be as short as a few lines and will be used to help educate politicians and consumers about the important role of alfalfa in food and farming, and to push for the moratorium on GM alfalfa.

The Issue: GM alfalfa has been approved for planting in the US and is one step away from being sold as seed in Canada. Farmers’ voices on the impacts of GM alfalfa have been heard in House of Commons Agriculture Committee hearings and have been influential in making a motion for a moratorium on GM alfalfa happen. The motion is currently being debated in the Committee with support from all parties except the Conservatives.

Your Testimonial: We will post your testimonial on our website and use it in communications to politicians and consumers. We just need your testimonial and your permission to publish it with your name and region, we will not publish your contact details. Your testimonial could be as short as a couple of sentences or a couple of paragraphs. Please see below two examples from other farmers. Please write what you want politicians and consumers to know about what GM alfalfa would mean to you.

Please send your testimonial by March 31, 201 or direct any questions or other comments to Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, coordinator@cban.ca Phone: 613 241 2267 ext 25 Fax: 613 241 2506, 431 Gilmour Street, Second Floor, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2P 0R5 or contact us for more information.

In addition, you can send your testimonial directly to your MP and members of the Agriculture Committee. Visit http://www.cban.ca/alfalfa for contacts.

Thank you so much for your contribution and for sharing your experience and perspective with us!

Best regards,

Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network

Ann Slater, Ecological Farmers of Ontario

Tom Rudge, Organic Farmer, Yukon

EXAMPLES:

From Ann Slater, organic farmer, Lakeside, Ontario:

I am a small certified organic market gardener in southwestern Ontario. Even though I am primarily a market gardener, alfalfa is a key ingredient for my certified organic vegetables. The sheep I raise, to produce manure which I make into compost to fertilize my garden, rely on alfalfa as their main source of feed over the winter months. In addition, I use alfalfa hay or alfalfa/grass hay as mulch in my fields, again adding valuable nutrients which allow me to grow and market certified organic vegetables.

As an organic farmer, I am well aware of the contamination issues faced by organic farmers in western Canada both with canola and more recently with flax. Organic canola farmers lost a market, and therefore, a crop in their rotation and marketing plans because of genetic contamination. Canola is wind pollinated, alfalfa is insect pollinated – the potential for genetic contamination is greater with alfalfa than it was with canola. If GE alfalfa is approved and grown in Canada, without some stringent regulations requiring the growers of GE alfalfa to make prevention of contamination a first priority, we will see the organic farm community decimated across the country. Alfalfa is simply irreplacable as a feed for livestock and as a nutrient source, in many forms, for crops from vegetables to wheat. Organic standards do not allow the use of GE technology in any form on our farms.

I am an organic farmer, but I also live in a rural area surrounded by non-organic farms. I have asked many of my neighbours what benefit GE alfalfa will have for them. I am still waiting to hear a farmer tell me they want GE alfalfa to be approved – that they can see a benefit for their farm operation. After these discussions, I must conclude that it is not farmers who want or need GE alfalfa, therefore, it must be the company selling the seed who wants to be able to sell one more higher cost input to farmers.

From Tom Rudge, organic farmer, Yukon:

Alfalfa is an essential source of nutrients and organic matter for any organic rotation including feed or soil building green manure. It is grown in many places and is a major export regionally, nationally and internationally as pellets, cubes, fodder, sprouts and seed.

It is evident with canola, that no containment is possible and growing organic canola is virtually impossible. It would be worse with alfalfa. With the flax crisis, export markets were severely affected and there has never been any epidemiological study done on any genetically engineered crop.

Here, in the Yukon, we have possibly the last buffered region in Canada to prevent the contamination of pure seed and we also have feral alfalfa growing in several communities that wildlife relies on for nutrients into the long harsh winters. Organic farmers and chemical farmers alike grow alfalfa here for a burgeoning local livestock market and for green manure.

We don’t export alfalfa, however, alfalfa feed and seed is shipped up the highway to the Yukon to supplement our own small production and if genetically modified alfalfa seed is ever approved in Canada, the Yukon will be contaminated even if it is not cultivated here. Organic growers will loose their ability to grow one of the best crops available to them and possibly lose their livelihood in the process. There is zero containment possible, canola proved this. My choice as a farmer has been unilaterally taken from me, I will have contamination, my livelihood is taken away and no one is held liable. No one is accountable; not the company that supplies the seed, not the farmer who will grow it nor the government who put in place the regulations allowing the contamination to occur. That is a devastating scenario.

I cannot stand against any company like Monsanto and their billion dollar budgets for marketing, lobbying and legal enforcement. There are thousands of small farming families across Canada who cannot possibly stand up against the multinationals. This is why we rely on the due diligence of our elected representatives in the house of parliament.

www.cban.ca

Support the Moratorium on GM Alfalfa! Take action at http://www.cban.ca/alfalfa

Donate today to support the campaign! http://www.cban.ca/donate

Subscribe to the CBAN News and Action Listserve http://www.cban.ca/About/CBAN-e-News

Date: March 24

Time: 7 pm

Where: Selkirk College

This meeting aims to bring together KVFC Producer Members as well as local producers, who are not currently members, to discuss the upcoming growing season. We hope to gain insight into what farmers are planning to grow/produce and perhaps to influence this planning to ensure our Consumer Members’ needs are fulfilled.

We plan to present preliminary results from our Members’ survey which will lend insight into what our members are asking for in terms of produce.

This meeting will also be an opportunity for backyard farmers, market gardeners and producers of the Boundary to discuss marketing opportunities with KVFC.

If you know of anyone who would be interested, please forward, the more the merrier!

Sincerely,

Kate Haddow

Director

Kettle Valley Food Co-op

For more information call (250) 443-4989 or email boundaryseedbank [at] gmail.com

1.    Choosing whole foods over processed foods;

2.    Getting a small, energy-efficient refrigerator and getting rid of extra refrigerators;

3.    Replacing animal products with grain and vegetable-based proteins;

4.    Drinking tap water instead of processed beverages;

5.    Choosing food that was grown in a region well-suited to the crop, using methods that build soil and rely primarily on sunshine for energy and rainfall for water.

By combining tactics we can eat well using much less energy than we currently do. An understanding of the food system helps put our various food choices in context. Following a single, hard-and-fast rule—even a seemingly-obvious one like “always eat local food”—can lead us astray.

To read the full article click here.

Many of the people who attended the unveiling of the draft agricultural plan for the Boundary region were not convinced that the big picture direction provided by the author of the plan, James Calissi, is enough.

The regional agriculture plan was unveiled last week as the consultant opened the draft up for feedback from the community at two meetings, one in Rock Creek and the second in Grand Forks. While the actual document was not available for comment, Calissi provided a presentation of some of the key issues and his vision for moving the industry forward.

Calissi’s major recommendation was to hire an agriculture development officer for the area who can then move forward many of the recommendations in his report and start to address issues facing the industry in the region.

“You could write volumes on different farming practices, but I don’t really think that is the intent of this report. It’s not so much to come up with specific cropping options but to lay ahead various programs that the region can take into consideration to move things ahead,” said Calissi. “An agriculture development officer, for example, can do a lot of work with individual producers that want to look at cropping options, bring information together, create a forum to exchange information, and so on. I think that’s more valuable.”

Many of the issues facing agriculture industry in the Boundary were touched on by Calissi in his presentation such as zoning and housing restrictions, economic viability of agriculture, the need for secondary processing facilities, challenges for livestock procession, marketing and distribution, and finding resources to support the industries needs. One key area that Calissi did not touch on much, but which producers identified as critical is labour and they felt he is not addressing the crisis.

“You pointed out that we should be encouraging young people to pursue a career in agriculture – get real,” said Bill Williams, owner of Mobetta Farms. “I don’t see that. Not with the imports, not with today’s pricing, it’s not there. So how about a plan?”

Other attendees wanted to see more emphasis on meat production challenges, climate change impacts, more focus on regional distribution of product as opposed to the suggestion from Calissi to focus on the United States markets, and a need for secondary processing facilities.

While the planning process was welcomed by the agriculture community, there were concerns over the next steps.

“Will it be the responsibility of the regional district to ensure that what comes out of this plan is in fact used in the future and it isn’t a dusty thing that it actually becomes a working tool,” asked Sheila Dobie of Spencer Hill Orchard, “and the regional district in fact ensures that it be a working document for either the agricultural advisory committee or some entity within the regional district that has some kind of authority to move this plan forward?”

The plan was started by the Boundary Economic Development Committee, but Mark Andison, director of planning for the RDKB, said the plan will need to go to the RDKB board and they will determine implementation.

“There are a lot of strategies here and, as has been raised, the key to those strategies is having an agriculture development officer,” commented Andison. “As I look at the strategies the one really big issue that we’ve got in this area in terms of agriculture is capacity and the capacity to improve the agricultural sector in the area. Without somebody to specifically take these strategies forward it will be difficult.”

The plan has been in the works since early in the year. The process has been overseen by a committee chaired by Regional District of Kootenay Boundary Director for Area D Irene Perepolkin.

Source

An Ontario non-profit called Local Food Plus (LFP) is creating a new standard for B.C. farmers who don’t want to be labeled either ‘organic’ or ‘conventional’.

LFP developed a “local sustainable” label for farmers in southern Ontario. It’s based on integrated pest management practices, which allows the use of certain pesticides under certain conditions, unlike organic standards.

Like organic certification, farms are inspected by a third-party agency. The label local sustainable also includes standards on the treatment of animals, working conditions, biodiversity and native habitat protection, and on-farm energy consumption.

“Organic isn’t always sustainable, and sustainable isn’t always organic,” said LFP founder and president Lori Stahlbrand, at last night’s Food and Beerspanel discussion on building a local food economy.

“I think there are a lot of consumers out there who want to support farmers and want to support their local economy and their local culture. There are a lot of pluses to it,” said Stahlbrand. “But it’s very hard to know how to identify it. So we said, let’s create a way to identify it. And the certified local sustainable label is a way to do that.”

In Ontario, Stahlbrand has used the label as a way to market local food to large public institutions. The University of Toronto partnered with LFP five years ago to bring local food into its food services procurement policies. Now, one residence on campus spends 22 per cent of its budget on local food.

LFP writes the language that goes into requests for proposals for food service contracts, and also helps connect food service departments with its certified growers.

“These institutions are spending millions of dollars on food every year,” said Stahlbrand. “It helps to scale up the whole system, it helps to educate the public through these institutions, it’s a part of how these institutions can meet their climate change requirements.”

Stahlbrand added that there is a perception within these public institutions — hospitals, schools, municipal buildings — that international trade agreements like NAFTA prevent this kind of procurement. But those fears are unfounded, she says.

“It’s not an issue,” Stahlbrand insisted. “The food in most institutions is provided by food services companies. The food service companies themselves are not covered by trade agreements. We’ve come up against this so many times, and for every argument that you get, there’s an answer to it.”

Stahlbrand said LFP received funding from the McConnell Foundation to replicate the sustainable local model in B.C., and is partnering with Farm Folk/City Folk to get it off the ground.

Source

Farm animals in Bella Coola are at risk of starving to death after recent floods washed away or soaked tonnes of stored winter feed and hay, says Dayna Chapman of the Bella Coola Valley Sustainable Agricultural Society.

Chapman issued an appeal on behalf of the town’s farmers, asking for financial support.

“At this point, our community has lost over 270 tonnes of winter feed, along with livestock, fencing, equipment, tools, heritage seeds, heritage fruit trees, corrals and paddocks, barns and shelters, market gardens, pasture, and actual acreage washed down the river,” she wrote in a letter distributed to food security listserves and non-profits. “Our community’s efforts to support local farmers and increase the resiliency of our agricultural sector, as well as increase our community’s ability to feed itself, are in jeopardy.”

Chapman said so far she’s had responses from an agricultural society in Grand Forks, Stellar Seeds, and the Horse Council of B.C., but “the Ministry of Agriculture has basically said they can’t do anything. . . they said they could help pay for disposal of carcasses of any that died in the flood.”

Chapman said the town lost about 15 cattle, a flock of sheep and “lots of backyard chickens” along with infrastructure.

But because all the farmers in the valley work off the farm in order to make ends meet, they are ineligible for Provincial Emergency Assistance being offered to residents in the flood zone, said Chapman. According to provincial Disaster Financial Relief guidelines, farm owners must demonstrate the farm is their primary source of income in order to qualify.

“People in our region have always had diversified incomes, and have pieced together a livelihood that allows them to live here,” Chapman wrote in the letter. “On farm income is an essential piece, and an important economic generator for our region.”

Source

The world food situation is starting to get very, very tight. Unprecedented heat and wildfires this summer in Russia and horrific flooding in Pakistan and China have been some of the primary reasons for the rapidly rising food prices we are now seeing around the globe. In places such as Australia and the African nation of Guinea-Bissau, the big problem for crops has been locusts.  In a world that already does not grow enough food for everyone (thanks to the greed of the elite), any disruption in food production can cause a major, major problem. Tonight, thousands of people around the world will starve to death. So what happens if things get even worse?

Many agricultural scientists are now warning that global food production is facing dangers that are absolutely unprecedented. Crop diseases such as UG99 wheat rust and the “unintended effects” of genetic modification pose challenges that previous generations simply did not have to face. The outbreak of a real, live global famine looks increasingly possible with each passing year. So are you and your family prepared if a global famine does strike?

Already, there are huge warning signs on the horizon.  Just check out what agricultural commodities have been doing.  They have been absolutely soaring.

A recent article on the Forbes website noted a few of the agricultural commodities that have skyrocketed during this year….
Here’s what’s happened to some key farm commodities so far in 2010:
• Corn: Up 63%
• Wheat: Up 84%
• Soybeans: Up 24%
• Sugar: Up 55%
Are you ready to pay 84 percent more for a loaf of bread? You better get ready – these raw material prices will filter down to U.S. consumers eventually. So what is going to happen if the world food situation gets even tighter?

Don’t think that it can’t happen.

The following are 5 potential dangers to global crops that could dramatically reduce the world food supply….

UG99 Wheat Rust

UG99 is commonly known as “wheat rust” or ”stem rust” because it produces reddish-brown flakes on wheat stalks.  The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico believes that approximately 19 percent of the global wheat crop is in imminent danger of being infected with UG99. Ultimately, it is estimated that about 80 percent of the wheat on the globe is capable of catching the disease. There is no known cure.

This current strain of wheat rust was discovered in Uganda in 1999 and has spread into areas of Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen and Iran.  It is feared that this crippling disease will spread even farther into south Asia, devastating the fertile growing regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. If that happens, you might as well kiss world food stability goodbye.

A recent article in the Financial Times contained an absolutely stunning quote from one prominent agricultural scientist….

“You can talk about crying wolf,” says Ronnie Coffman, director of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project at the University of Cornell in the US, “but it is a wolf”, he asserts, driving across the corn fields of Kansas.

Later on in the same article, Coffman warns that this disease could cause a devastating famine in which literally millions of people would die….

“It can be absolutely devastating if environmental conditions are right,“ he says. “You can count the number of people who could die from this in the millions.”

Mad Soy Disease

Mad Soy disease is spreading at an alarming rate among soy farms down in Brazil.  Previously the disease had been confined to the north part of the country, but now it has been increasingly spreading south.  This disease retards the maturation of infected plants, and it has been causing yield losses of up to 40 percent.  The USDA says that “there are no known effective treatments.”

Verticillium Wilt

Verticillium Wilt is a fungus that prevents lettuce from absorbing water, causing it to quickly grow yellow and eventually wilt.  This dangerous fungus is very hard to get rid of totally because it can stay in the soil for up to seven years.

Today, Verticillium Wilt is spreading all over Monterey County, California.  Considering the fact that Monterey County produces more than 60 percent of the lettuce in the United States, that is very bad news.

Late Blight

In 2009, a disease known as “late blight” attacked potato and tomato plants in the United States with a ferocity never seen before.  According to a press release from Cornell University, late blight had “never occurred this early and this widespread in the U.S.” when it started showing up all over the place early last year.

Late blight begins as ugly brown spots on the stems of potato and tomato plants, and as the spots increase in size, white fungal growth develops until finally a soft rot completely collapses the stem. This was the disease that was responsible for the Irish potato famine in the 1850s.  A major new outbreak could occur without warning.

Genetic Modification

While it may or may not technically be a disease (depending on how you look at it), genetic modification is having a very serious affect on crops around the globe.

For example, about 10 years ago Chinese farmers began to widely adopt Monsanto’s genetically modified Bt cotton.  Well, researchers have found that since that time, mirid bugs that are resistant to the Bt pesticide have experienced a complete and total population boom.

Today, six provinces in Northern China are experiencing what can only be described as a “mirid bug plague”.  Mirid bugs eat more than 200 different kinds of fruit, vegetables and grains.  Chinese farmers in the region are completely frustrated.

In the United States, a different problem is developing.  The complete and total reliance of so many U.S. farmers on Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide has resulted in several varieties of glyphosate-resistant “superweeds” developing in many areas of the United States.

The most feared of these “superweeds”, Pigweed, can grow to be seven feet tall and it can literally wreck a combine.  Pigweed has been known to produce up to 10,000 seeds at a time, it is resistant to drought, and it has very diverse genetics.

Superweeds were first spotted in Georgia in 2004, and since then they have spread to South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri.

In some areas, superweeds have become so bad that literally tens of thousands of acres of U.S. farmland have actually been abandoned.

But that is what we get for trying to “play God”. We think that we can just do whatever we want with nature and there will not be any consequences. One of the most frightening things about genetic modification is that it actually reduces that amount of crop diversity in the world. For example, if nearly all farmers start using the same ”brand” of genetically modified plants that are all virtually identical, it sets up a situation where crop diseases and crop failures can cascade across the planet very easily. Genetic variety is a very desirable thing, but today our scientists are just doing pretty much whatever they want without really considering the consequences. It has been said many times that genetic engineering is similar to “performing heart surgery with a shovel”. The truth is that we just do not know enough about how our ecosystems work to be messing around with them so dramatically.

Perhaps even more frightening is that once these genetically engineered monstrosities have been released into our environment, it is absolutely impossible to recall them.  They essentially become a permanent part of our ecosystem. But can we afford to make any serious mistakes at this point? The truth is that we already live in a world that is not able to feed itself.

Tonight, approximately 1 billion people across the globe will go to bed hungry.  Every 3.6 seconds someone in the world starves to death, and three-fourths of those who starve to death are children under the age of five. It is currently being projected that global demand for food will more than double over the next 50 years. So what is going to happen if we start seeing widespread crop failures in the coming years?

The global food supply is not nearly as stable as most people believe.  At some point, it is going to be tested severely.

Original Article

This video was sent to the Minister of Healthy Living and Sport, the Minister of Agriculture and Lands, and the Premier of BC, and has been seen by the MLA for Vernon-Monashee in mid September 2010.

The video, made in the North Okanagan, tells the story of the unique needs of the small-scale farmer and presents the case for all small-scale farmers in BC, who agree to slaughter in a safe and humane way, to have access to an ‘E’ license under the Meat Inspection Regulation.  Anyone with an ‘E’ license would be allowed to legally slaughter on farm and sell at the farm gate.

As of October 23, 2010, the provincial government has not yet informed us how ‘E’ licenses will be awarded throughout the entire province.  This could have a significant impact on the sustainability of small-scale farming.

Please take the time to watch “A Disappearing Lifestyle? Small-scale Farming in BC”.
Part 1 at: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=D-ct-M4mH6A
and Part 2 can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Tqn8XFauuko

But, of course, what we are really hoping for is that you will write to the provincial government to express your support for small-scale farming and the awarding of ‘E’ licenses to those farmers that would like them (and can demonstrate they will slaughter in a safe and humane way).

As you are likely aware, the provincial government went through a cabinet shuffle yesterday (October 25th).  As a result, the Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport no longer exists!  It has been confirmed for me today that the Meat Inspection Regulation now sits under the Ministry of Agriculture.  There is a new Minister of Agriculture – Ben Stewart.

I would ask that those of you wishing to write the government about the Meat Inspection Regulation to send your comments to the Honourable Ben Stewart at the following email address: ben.stewart.mla@leg.bc.ca

Or to the Ministry of Agriculture Office at the following snail mail address:

PO BOX 9043, STN PROV GOVT.
Victoria BC
CANADA
V8W9E2

I would also suggest that you send your comments to your MLA.  You can find contact information for your MLA at the following address:

http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/3-1-1.htm

Thank you!

Regards,

Buffy Baumbrough