Show Notes
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 that the granting of private property by the Crown on these lands unfairly infringed on the Cowichans' Aboriginal title, which was never extinguished. The ruling said a lot more than that. It’s over 800 pages long. But the much shorter summaries that have typified most media coverage of the case have led to a lot of public anxiety that suddenly, private property might be under threat. This anxiety extends into pockets of the farming community. My guest on this episode is George Abbott, who was an MLA for his Shuswap riding for seventeen years starting in 1996. He held multiple portfolios in Premier Gordon Campbell’s cabinet including Education, Health, Sustainable Resource Management, and Indigenous Relations. He went on to obtain a PhD in Political Studies, and he currently sits as the government-appointed commissioner at BC’s Treaty Commission. He's also the author of Unceded: Understanding British Columbia’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now. George joined me via video conference a few days ago to offer his insights about private property concerns, and to talk about 160+ years of settler-indigenous relations in our province. *** To learn more about the Organic BC/SSMPA Grazing Workshop advertised at the head of this episode, click here or visit farminginbc.ca/grazing
More from Farming in British Columbia
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Belatedly. Herein: a hodge podge. It's fun. LISTEN TO IT.
This episode: my interview with Chris Bodnar, a University of the Fraser Valley professor and long time Abbotsford-based farmer. Chris is the primary author of a recently published report titled Farming at the Edge, commissioned by the BC Agriculture Council and BC Dairy. In it, Chris presents a financial analysis of our sector that tells a different story than the one that Statistics Canada has told in its most recent report on BC’s Farm Economy. This analysis led Chris to a bold set of policy recommendations for our sector that he shares in the report. Chris joined me on the phone in mid-September to talk about his findings. Here’s that conversation. Also featured: a visit to the Farming in BC tradeshow to learn about a conference Holistic Management Canada is hosting in Kamloops November 20-22.
Today on the show, a conversation with Richard Hebda about seed security and seed conservation. Richard is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Victoria and an expert in botany and paleontology, and a curator of botany and earth history at the Royal BC Museum. Richard has published research for decades on many topics, but what’s worth noting here is that much of his research has focused on the impacts of climate change on natural and human-influenced ecosystems. Richard joined me to talk about a project aimed at preserving and adapting heritage seeds in the context of a changing climate, although mostly we talk about what's going well, and what's lacking, in our collective efforts to slow down the loss of our seed diversity. You can learn more at heritagepotato.ca, although the URL will soon change to cropclimate.ca
The BC Ministry of Ag has proposed rule changes for food processing in the ALR that would make it much easier to build food processing facilities on classes 4-7 land, with a much lower requirement for the use of BC-produced food. I've already produced two episodes about this; in this one I'll share some listener feedback about this topic. ******* The proposed rule is as follows: On class 5-7 soil (and class 4 if the parcel is serviced by the date this rule is implemented), ALC approval is not necessary to build food processing plants in the ALR, so long as 5 percent of the primary product used in the processing is grown or raised in the province. Read the Ministry of Ag's proposal and discussion paper here. You can tell the government what you think of this proposal by emailing Ag Minister Popham at [email protected]
The BC Ministry of Ag has proposed rule changes for food processing in the ALR that would make it much easier to build food processing facilities on classes 4-7 land, with a much lower requirement for the use of BC-produced food. This is part two of my coverage. Part one dropped Aug 17th, 2026. Herein: four more perspectives on the proposal. The proposed rule is as follows: On class 5-7 soil (and class 4 if the parcel is serviced by the date this rule is implemented), ALC approval is not necessary to build food processing plants in the ALR, so long as 5 percent of the primary product used in the processing is grown or raised in the province. Read the Ministry of Ag's proposal and discussion paper here. You can tell the government what you think of this proposal by emailing Ag Minister Popham at [email protected]