raw milk

A round-up of some things we’ve been following this week:

Milk co-op under threat. After a lengthy legal battle, Alice Jongerden has resigned from her work at the Home on the Range milk cooperative in Chilliwack after being ordered earlier this week to stop milking the cows. In order to circumvent laws against the purchase and sale of raw milk, cooperative members purchase shares of dairy cattle and pay Ms. Jongerden to take care of them. While the provincial health authority maintains that raw milk is hazardous to health, raw milk activists are vocal supporters of consumer choice.

Underfunded. An Auditor General report reveals that BC’s Agricultural Land Commission is too underfunded and lacking in resources to adequately do it’s job. The report notes that the Commission is understaffed, is unable to put adequate resources into enforcement and relies on outdated maps and information. The Agricultural Land Commission is meant to protect farmland from development, but much of that land is at risk.

Eat Vancouver. Metro Vancouver unveiled a plan to promote local food. Among other things, they intend to create special labeling for local products, establish a farm school and to purchase farmland for a public trust.

Olympic Village. Negotiations continue between the City of Vancouver and prospective non-profit operators of the social housing units in the Olympic Village. Many non-profit organizations that had initially expressed interest in operating the units have expressed concern that the City’s terms and conditions would make it difficult for them to afford to manage the units.

Declining literacy. By 2031 it is estimated that 1.3 million Vancouver residents will have low literacy skills. However, I’m not sure why the Vancouver Sun chose to run this article with a picture of kids at school in Bountiful, BC. It seems unfair to implicate Mormon enclaves when the article specifically mentions that immigrants and the elderly are the targets of concern.

Image credit: Brett Beadle photo for The Globe and Mail