After a devastating winter for B.C. farmers, the outlook of many attending the BC Fruit Growers convention this week was bleak.
Okanagan farmers are less than positive about their prospects after a cold snap destroyed crops and they’re calling for governmental support to help them carry on.
It’s a message the province is well aware of, according to a statement released Friday.
“We recognize the challenges that farmers are facing. Farmers are dealing with compounding hardships like climate change and inflation, which is why we have been proactively working on strengthening support for farmers so that they can carry on with their vital work, and maintain a stable, sustainable food supply,” Agriculture and Food Minister Pam Alexis said.
Alexis said a historic $200-million investment in agriculture and food security last year can be seen through projects that support emergency planning and preparedness; irrigation, water storage and delivery; and replacing unproductive, diseased and damaged crops with high-value, in-demand, climate-resilient crops.
“We continue to urge farmers to enroll in programs that can provide financial assistance when times are tough. For example, approximately $27 million in production insurance claims were paid out to grape growers in 2023, mostly stemming from losses due to last winter’s freeze event,” Alexis said.
“We’ve been working with B.C. tree fruit growers, particularly within the apple industry, on a stabilization plan that helps growers improve competitiveness, production, and sustainability. This includes funding for a market development strategy that will boost the competitiveness and profitability of B.C. apples in domestic and export markets.”
Alexis said the government is also funding projects that improve farmer climate preparedness and resiliency to wildfires, flooding and extreme heat, including things like retrofitting farm buildings in preparation for wildfires, protecting wells and improving barn cooling systems.
Corky Evans, former NDP agriculture minister, was at the BCFGA meeting speaking about politics, the Agricultural Land Reserve and support for farming in general.
The latter, he claimed, is in short supply.
“My message essentially is it’s a very weird and unfortunate contradiction that we live in the part of Canada and North America with the best support for agricultural land and the worst support for the work that goes on for farming,” Evans said.
“This year, of course, there’s freezing, and that’s a crisis, but it wouldn’t bankrupt people if they were solvent.
“In every other province in Canada, the support for farming is two or three or sometimes four times what it is in British Columbia. We essentially abandoned support for the work of farming way back in the 1980s and every year they publish a list of all the provinces and how much they support farming. B.C. has been the last on that list, below Newfoundland, for 30 years because demographics mean you can be the government of B.C. without winning a single seat past Hope, because all the people live down here.”
Evans said no organization is out there advocating for farmers anymore, which may be why all the money in farming goes to retailers these days.
“There’s an advertising program for apples that growers support but they show where the money has gone,” Evans said. “It all goes to the retailers. The farmers never get a dime more.
“The retail sector in B.C. is like the iron fist and farmers get nothing.”