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FARMING FACTS OF LIFE by Jenny MacLeod

How many of you like to eat organic foods? How many of you treasure the idea of a fresh, free-range egg for breakfast?

You would think that because we live in a rural area with many small farms on our very own island that this is not a difficult urge to fulfill. Not now it isn't, but after September 2007 it may be not only difficult but also nearly impossible to get fresh, free-range meat at the farmgate of your local farms.

I am using the term "smallhold" to describe our local farms. This differentiates the local traditional farmers from large commercial agricultural operations.

There is a two-pronged dilemma that faces our smallhold farmers. The first is the new regulations for abattoirs, the place where a farmer takes the stock to be safely and humanely slaughtered for food. Small farms on Gabriola and other Gulf Islands have been able to slaughter their stock themselves and sell it themselves in "Farmgate" operations.

The new regulations about to be imposed in September will affect this process.

The new regulations say that unless very costly upgrading takes place, farmers will not be able to slaughter and sell their own product (lamb, pork, chicken, turkey and duck as well as specialty meats like emu and bison etc.) to the public. Not only will they not be able to sell you their carefully raised meat, but also they cannot slaughter other farmers' animals and present that for public sale either.

Since all upgrades call for an inspector on site before and during the slaughter, this means bathrooms (male and female) being installed to accommodate the inspector on the slaughterhouse premises. That is just one regulation out of many.

The other change involving inspectors is that each animal or bird must be inspected pre and post mortem. That raises the costs of production of each animal or bird, as these inspectors must be paid by the hour.

The Provincial government has stated that they will bear the cost of inspection services until 2012, but this is a government promise, and could change at any time to the farmer having to pay for these inspectors.

The facts are that animals are raised in a seasonal manner. How are we going to get inspectors all over the province at the same time for proper slaughter supervision? It is sure that rural areas are going to be kept waiting, and that increases the cost of feed and that is cost increase is borne by the farmer.

Mobile abattoirs have been proposed and one has been built. The how and where the by-products of slaughter will be disposed are still under discussion. Health authorities are only being consulted in April this year. Staging points (where the slaughter will take place) have not been decided, and these decisions should involve the Ministries of Health and Environment and in some cases, Fisheries.

Once the slaughter has been accomplished in the mobile abattoir, the meat must be chilled and cooled. The mobile abattoirs cannot fulfill this function. Farmers must immediately hang this meat and there are few facilities that could accommodate the volume of slaughter that a mobile abattoir would produce in a far rural area in one visit.

Before going further I would like to point out that there have been NO official complaints or incidents of illness or death involving Farmgate sales of meat in BC. Neither have there been any incidents of illness or death regarding the owner/operated abattoirs on Vancouver Island that cater to the specialty order (small farms, small orders). Restaurants do not have this kind of inspection although the incidence of food poisoning is significant compared to farmgate sale products.

All the incidents of e-coli contamination of meat at the source have been at the large feed-lot abattoirs that handle thousands of animals. These are the supposedly "safe" venues of slaughter.

The second part of the problem for smallhold farmers is that regulations for raising poultry across Canada are being changed. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) all poultry should be raised under cover. In the Province of Quebec as of January 2006, for the last year and a bit, all free-range poultry are banned from public sale. This is a fact. This also affects the free-range egg producers.

Since free range and organic meats and eggs are the fastest growing market in Canada and around the world, and the Federal Government website is aptly named the Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-Business, with Monsanto featured prominently as the provider of barns, equipment, special feeds and all the drugs needed for this special environment (a steady diet of antibiotics and growth hormones), I find these new proposed regulations suspect. I believe that the large commercial producers are pushing this agenda of forcing smallhold farmers out of the market.

Agri-business (or industrial agriculture) is characterized by large scale barns where hundreds or thousands of chickens are raised for eight weeks. Their floor is not cleaned and they remain confined all their short lives until the chickens are "harvested".

These are supposedly safety measures advocated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to ensure biosecurity measures and protection from Avian Influenza contamination. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency pointed to wild migratory birds as the source of infection, hence the indoor rule.

Well, Avian Influenza is a virus, and it comes in many forms. Most forms in North America are low pathogenic strains that do not cause severe illness or death in poultry or in humans.

According to David Brown, a Canadian genetic virologist, you cannot filter viruses out of a closed air system because the virus is smaller than an air molecule.

According to new scientific research from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the agricultural arm of the United Nations, Highly Pathological Avian Influenza, the highly virulent form of Avian Influenza that kills poultry and sometimes people, is not the result of wild bird migration. Wild birds have been infected with High Path Avian Influenza by grazing on land fertilized with the floor sweepings from the large commercial barns. Google FAO PPLPI (Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative) and click on the Avian Influenza tab on the top right corner for the policy brief and the Report by Johns Hopkins.

These findings are also supported by a study done for Waterbird Journal, a publication for and by highly qualified scientists and ornithologists. See "Waterbirds", Journal of the Waterbird Society, Volume 29, Number 3, Pgs 243-406.

This dangerous practice, spreading manure from large commercial barns, is ongoing in BC, where these commercial barn by-products are trucked to the interior of BC and sold as "fertilizer" for farming operations. This "fertilizer is spread on open fields where wild birds and animals and people are then exposed to any potential Avian Influenza virus. That is how the wild swans died in France last year, and how numerous wild bird populations were killed by High Path Avian Influenza around the world.

The really good news in these studies is that free-range poultry are 75% less likely to be affected by, to sicken or die, from Avian Influenza, than their confined cousins.

Poultry in an enclosed commercial barn environment (my description of hundreds or thousands of birds enclosed in one barn) are highly susceptible to sickness for many reasons and viruses become dangerous to the birds because of the weakening of their immune systems:

1 they are kept on broad-spectrum antibiotics all their lives, drugs which are useless against viruses and stress their immune systems;

2 they are produced to a formula of two and a half pounds of feed to produce two pounds of meat, so hormones are part of their nutrition and this meat is not recommended for people recovering from cancer, pregnant women or peri-menopausal or menopausal women or anyone with a compromised immune system;

3 space is at a premium. Heating/cooling costs are minimized by crowding the birds as much as possible. This is a huge stress factor;

4 the barns are cleaned when the chickens are "harvested" so that high levels of ammonia and effluent build up and also becomes a stressor for the birds as well as a source of infection;

5 birds kept in this closed environment become a disease vector, a place where a virus can mutate easily from a low pathogenic form to a high pathogenic form;

6 the fact that the birds are genetically the same, all produced as hybrids from a few parents and hatched in huge commercial barns and are sold as day-old poults, means that there is no genetic diversity in the population in the large commercial barns;

7 the stressed immune system, the crowded living conditions and the lack of genetic diversity, creates the ideal conditions for the Avian Influenza virus to develop from a mild form into a highly virulent form, (high path Avian Influenza) because the virus easily assimilates into the genetically similar population and does not need to keep the host, the bird, alive. The virus has enough new hosts for instant migration and the average time high path Avian Influenza takes to kill off all the chickens in a commercial barn once it has mutated is twenty four hours;

8 so - raising poultry in these commercial barns actually increases the health risks and the incidents of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza in our food source.

The end product of this commercially raised poultry is the poultry that you will find in any supermarket, in the chilled sections of chicken and turkey. None of this meat is without antibiotics or growth hormone content unless so labeled.

When you take this information and look at the CFIA recommendations about raising poultry under cover, it does not make a lot of sense. It looks like these regulations are aimed at the smallhold farm and farmer, levelled like a weapon that could go off at any time. These regulations make it impossible for a smallhold farmer to raise meat locally, because there is no way to slaughter.

The suggested regulation about raising all poultry under cover is now proven to be based on bad science. Even so, people in Quebec are still not allowed free-range poultry or eggs.

Remember that the provincial government, the BC Ministry of Agriculture and the BC Ministry of Health, as well as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are all involved in making these options legal or illegal.

The new abattoir regulations do not make a lot of sense for our small farmers, or for our existing local small abattoirs on Vancouver Island that have not had any problems with their product or services to date.

The new BC Meat Regulations are geared to a producer who wants to export his product. That is why the inspection regulations are so stringent. They are driven by trade agreements with other countries. They are driven by the commercial, corporate world of food production, where animals are not social creatures, they are only commodities.

BC wants to set the "high bar" meat regulation standards that the US is pushing for.

Local farmers do not want to export. They want to sell to their community, and to other communities in their areas.

The BC Meat Regulations were brought in September, 2006, they are in force NOW. The Government decided to delay implementation of these regulations until September 2007 because of a prompt backlash from farmers and the realization that the destruction to the agriculture community would have been too devastating. The shock value was too high, so the government backed down and BC farmers got a reprieve.

There is no danger to the public by keeping farmgate slaughter and sale of meat to the public. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

If you want to buy local meat and eggs, we have the farmers who want to sell local meat and eggs.

We all need to remember that we have a deadline. September 2007 is the cut-off date for farmgate sales in BC unless we all work together to stop it.

We all need to speak out, all the farmers and all the 100 Mile Diet People, people who want healthy choices and local food.

The Nanaimo/Cedar Farmers Institute has just started to put a resource list of their members together, maps to the farms and lists of products at those farms. I am also in contact with all the farmers institutes in District A, that is, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, all the Farmers Institutes in District A.

I think its time we all woke up to the facts of life. Unless we do something about this now, we will lose the food choices left to us as consumers in the future. I have a copy of a letter to Premier Campbell that protests the BC Meat Regulations, copies to Pat Bell and everyone I could think of as relevant to this issue. You can read that and hopefully add your signature to the hundreds I have already collected. (See Appendix A)

I really think that each of you should write an individual, snail mail letter to these folks in power as well. It's more effort and a bit of a pain. That's why it's more efficient at getting the message across. It translates to those in power that you cared enough to take the time and made the effort to do this.

We can continue to educate ourselves and the public in general.

We can educate our politicians. Most of them do not have a clue about all of these issues.

We can write to our local papers and ask why this issue isn't being reported in the regular press.

We can help reduce the effects of Global Warming by eating local. We do not need to import food for thousands of miles with the resulting high oil price tag.

We can support our local farmers by buying local and ensure that they can continue to produce the fine meat and eggs and vegetables for our communities that we all enjoy! Appendix A

BC Meat Regulations.
I suggest that you copy this letter, attach your own name to it and send it by e-mail individually.

Leonard Krog is our local MLA so if you live in a different constituency, just substitute your MLA's information for Leonard's and send a copy of the letter to your local constituency office.
Sending a copy individually by snail mail would be even more effective.

Addresses are in place, and e-mail addresses are as follows:

Premier Gordon Campbell

3615 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V6R 1P2

gordon.campbell.mla@leg.bc.ca

Cc:

The Honourable Pat Bell

BC Minister of Agriculture

103, 770 Central Street
Prince George, BC
V2M 3B7

pat.bell.mla@leg.bc.ca

The Honourable George Abbott

BC Minister of Health

202A-371 Alexander Street NE
Box 607
Salmon Arm, BC
V1E 4N7

george.abbott.mla@leg.bc.ca

Corky Evans

Agriculture Critic

204-402 Baker St
Nelson, BC
V1L 4H8

Corky.Evans.MLA@leg.bc.ca

Adrian Dix

Health Critic

5022 Joyce Street

Vancouver, BC
V5R 4G6

Adrian.Dix.MLA@leg.bc.ca

Leonard Krog

MLA

4 - 77 Victoria Crescent
Nanaimo, BC
V9R 5B9

Leonard.Krog.MLA@leg.bc.ca.

Subject: BC Meat Regulations

Dear Premier Gordon Campbell,

We believe in the right of smallhold farmers to raise and to slaughter for food and for sale their own stock and the stock of other smallhold farmers.

These smallhold farm facilities have been under BC Health and BC Agriculture jurisdiction for years. In this time there has never been an incident that jeopardized the health or life of any BC citizen.

We believe that changing the status quo regarding the new meat regulations for the BC smallhold farmer is unnecessary and certainly not a good use of public tax money.

If the issue is a health standard for meat for export then a second set of meat regulations for export only should be in place to satisfy the international meat market standards. To apply the same criteria to smallhold farm operations that service a small and local community within provincial or Canadian boundaries is impractical and destructive to the industry.

While the cost of fossil fuels needed to transport animals and animal product rises, the idea of a mobile abattoir becomes interesting. But this solution is problematic to the actual needs of the smallhold farmer.

The problems of disposal of offal and other by-products of the slaughter process has not been fully discussed nor acknowledged.

This mobile abattoir solution is also not going to be able to cover all the needs of smallhold farms in all the isolated areas at the traditional times of slaughter.

Large animals cannot be regulated like the agri-business mass-produced poultry. There is a time and a season for breeding. Because of the natural cycles involved, the results of this breeding all come along at roughly the same time This creates a need for slaughtering facilities all across the province at the same time.

With one mobile abattoir in the whole of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, and no possibility for smallhold farmers to slaughter their own product, you will be severely damaging the smallhold farmer's ability to slaughter and process stock for sale to the public, You will, in effect, be putting the majority of smallhold farmers out of business.

The restrictions most established abattoirs have on the kind of animal they will accept (and refuse) and their existing capacity for slaughtering is a restrictive force on what farmers can, at present, produce for sale to the public. If you then remove the ability of the smallhold farmer to slaughter his own stock and the stock of other smallhold farmers for sale to the public, you will be damaging the BC farm industry beyond repair.

Please reconsider this unwise use of public funds. There is no reason, for public health or for better business practice, to officially adopt these new regulations. There is no health hazard. There is no need for more stringent inspection practices. There is no need for this at all.

Respectfully,

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“We retail from our farms, cutting out the middle man, who will take up to 60% of the food value taking none of the risk of growing our products leaving us with 40% after carrying the store for one month…

Other farmer's like to have their product pre-sold and work towards maintaining the product not knowing what the consumer wants and needs from their product, only relying on [the store] to tell them what the consumer is saying. Most customers don't say anything, they just stop buying the product leaving the farmer not knowing what is going wrong with sales losses.

Buying direct from the farmer is fair to the consumer who will know and sometimes pick up their products on the farm and can see and talk to the farmer about how their products are grown…The farmer loves customers to come to their farm because we are always listening to what you need from us to better serve you. Direct sales means more money to the people who actually grows your food. Buying direct from the farmer also saves on food travel time, fuel costs, and the product you eat is fresher, has more vitamins and flavour than other non-local products packaged, stored and travelled to reach your dinner plate.”

-Betty Benson from (Cedar Valley Poultry Farm)