Dave and Ann C., sorry to be so tardy in replying but this is a busy time
of the year, especially since our spring seems to have started at least a
month early this year. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is as far
from us and as useless to us as the government in Ottawa. Up to two or
three years ago we also had a BCFA but it imploded and disappeared. Good
riddance. Our oldest local ag society the Cowichan Agriculture Society had
annual dues of $25, of that $20 went to the BCFA and they supported the CFA
(also financed by gov't tax money). Bureaucratic minded farmers have tried
creating a new province-wide ag central but with little success. The CAS
had it's own problems. They started a very successful AI clinic and the
Society slowly became a private dairymen's club with lots of money in their
bank account (they have divested themselves of the AI Clinic). At the
present the CAS is struggling to broaden their membership (I'm again on the
board of directors) but in the mean time a widely represented group named
The Smallholders has created a parallel organization and have made a huge
success out of the weekly farmers' market. In the end Ann, little or no
attention is paid by us to the CFA or the successor of the BCFA. If
anything is going to happen we have to make it happen right here, locally.
In the BC provincial government the Ministry of Ag and Fisheries has the
smallest budget and the least influence at the cabinet table. Ten years
ago the Ag Ministry filled a six-story building (and then was on the short
end of the provincial budget) they now only partly use two floors of the
same building. In addition the District Agriculturalists are forbidden to
do any extension work, they have become computer-tied paper-pushers. We
are now trying to figure out how to set up a volunteer bureau for extension
work, at least to assist new farmers to get up and running. Finished lunch
and gotta run, manure to spread.
Don Maroc
Vancouver Island, Canada
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 11 2000 - 22:02:08 EDT