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I must confess that I stole most of the title, A Fresh Approach, from the theme of the Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada’s (FVGC) annual general meeting that was held March 5 to 7 in Ottawa. My first day on the job started at three in the morning as I hustled to the airport to catch an early flight across the country. Of course, I would never dare complain about early mornings to a group of farmers, the original early risers. It was well worth the trip. What a privilege it was to start this new position in our nation’s capital, surrounded by the best and the brightest from across commodities and across the country.
So many of the folks I met at the FVGC meeting are paragons in their field. Some are second or third generation farmers and many have been involved for more years than I’ve had birthdays. The awards given out at the banquet honoured a number of these veterans of horticulture, including my predecessor, Glen Lucas. Glen, who is retiring after 26 years at the helm of the BCFGA, was awarded the Doug Connery Award that publicly recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to the improvement and advancement of the industry. It was a conference filled with accomplished and esteemed leaders in horticulture, but any bit of intimidation I felt quickly vanished as I was warmly welcomed into the group.
I write this update from my newly inherited office, where there is a plaque that reminds me that the BCFGA was a founding member of FVGC in 1922, then the Canadian Horticulture Council. The BCFGA is 135 years old. A Fruitful Century, by Dendy and Kyle, is a fantastic history lesson on the fruit industry and BCFGA from 1889 to 1989, and I’m sure an equally compelling volume could be written on 1990 to 2024. Our farmers have demonstrated their resilience and dedication to their craft and the land time and time again. There is a legacy in our industry and a tradition in our valley that deserves respect and honour.
And yet, it doesn’t seem to be enough. Our local fruit growers are hurting and this is a theme I heard from growers across commodities and across the country. The world is vastly different than it was 135 years ago. Heck, it’s vastly different than it was 10 years ago. Independent grocers have largely been replaced by powerful multinational chains that don’t seem to care much for where in the world their fruit comes from as long as they can get it as cheaply as possible. The empty produce shelves of the Covid era are no longer top of mind, and local food security has fallen back down the priority list of the government and the public alike. We need the public to value local and we need a food system that is capable of feeding our own in times of crisis. We need a fresh approach.
Extreme climate events continue to pummel our fruit growers, year after year. Heat domes, droughts, fires, smoke and sudden cold snaps. Each disaster brings its own challenges for that year, but in a perennial system like tree fruit, the cumulative impacts of perpetually stressed trees can’t be ignored. The world continues to ask our farmers to do more and better for the environment, but rarely stops to realize what the environment is doing to farming. The safety net for growers is a suite of business risk management programs, but these programs were designed for maybe one really tough year per decade. They were not designed for today’s reality of one tough year after another, never mind a devastating year like the one ahead of us. We need a fresh approach.
The increasingly warm weather means more pressure from the pests we already have and our globalized world means that new pests are on our doorstep, threatening. Tighter restrictions on pesticides mean fewer products are available to growers and weird weather patterns means that old spray timings can no longer be relied upon. We need a fresh approach.
Labour, trade, increasing red tape and regulations, data management — the list of challenges that our growers face goes on and on. In fact, when you look at the list, it’s a wonder that anyone is willing to farm at all. But when you meet our local growers and growers all across the country, you see the deep commitment to the land and putting food on our tables. At the FVGC meeting I was struck by the fact that the farmers in the room had more in common than they had differences.
The same could be said for the growers in our valley. Apples, cherries, grapes, peaches and tender fruits — no matter what our growers produce, they are struggling at the moment. They are all in need of fresh approaches to meet the ever-changing reality of growing fruit. And the only viable way forward will be through collaboration and cooperation: between growers, industry associations, all levels of government and the public. The province’s Tree Fruit Industry Stabilization project provided an opportunity for our local industry associations to work more closely together than ever before and the Cross-Commodity Support Project has provided our valley with some much-needed capacity to support collaborative work on many of these pressing issues.
In spite of the daunting list of challenges ahead, I am optimistic that by working together we can find a way through. I want to live in a region that truly values local food production and supports our farmers and I think the rest of the residents in the valley do too. I look to Dendy and Kyle’s book to remind me that our industry has survived tough times before and I look to my colleagues locally and across the country to work together to come up with solutions. A fresh approach, together.
Melissa Tesche is the general manager of the BC Fruit Growers’ Association.