{"id":56398,"date":"2021-01-10T16:43:42","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T21:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=56398"},"modified":"2021-01-10T16:43:42","modified_gmt":"2021-01-10T21:43:42","slug":"last-days-for-bcs-apple-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=56398","title":{"rendered":"Last Days for BC\u2019s Apple Industry?"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article__header\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__header\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<h3 data-bind=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2021\/01\/08\/Last-Days-BC-Apple-Industry\/\">Last Days for BC\u2019s Apple Industry?<\/a><\/h3>\n<p data-bind=\"teaser\"><strong>COVID-19 and bad weather have hammered Okanagan orchardists. But low prices are the biggest threat to their survival. First of two.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"featured-media\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"02-organisms\/article\/featured-media\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<figure class=\"figure \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/figure\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-img\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2021\/01\/07\/JCB-4.jpg\" alt=\"SukhdeepBrar.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">Not only does Sukhdeep Brar have to spend more time and effort to pick the apples on his farm this year, thanks to COVID-19 and bad weather, he also has to sell the apples for much less due to retail consolidation and competition from Washington state.\u00a0<span class=\"caption__media--credit\">Photo by Jeff Bassett.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<article class=\"article__body main-col-container\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__body\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid clearfix \">\n<p class=\"lead-in\">Between COVID-19, labour shortages and bad weather, Sukhdeep Brar has had a rough year growing apples. But as giant grocery chains drive wholesale prices down to pennies a pound, he says the struggle to keep apple production in B.C. started long before this COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"aside hide-on-narrow-vp\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/aside\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"fact-box\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/fact-box\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<p class=\"title\"><strong>HOW BC HELPS WASHINGTON GROWERS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>British Columbia\u2019s apple growers point to a bitter irony in their competition with Washington state apple producers.<\/p>\n<p>In 1964, Canada and the U.S. ratified a treaty to manage the Columbia River \u2014 the Pacific Northwest\u2019s largest river which flows through B.C., Washington and Oregon on the way to the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next decade, three dams were built in B.C. and one in Montana to help with flood control and hydropower generation. B.C. is entitled to a share in the benefits of the increased power production in the U.S., an entitlement worth about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/columbiarivertreaty\/faqs\/#:~:text=Under%20the%20Columbia%20River%20Treaty,%20the%20United%20States%20provides%20the,energy%20and%20capacity,%20not%20money.&amp;text=The%20Canadian%20Entitlement%20is%20worth,the%20Province's%20general%20revenue%20account\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$120 million a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But the current provincial government has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/columbiarivertreaty\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">acknowledged<\/a>\u00a0pre-treaty consultations with local communities and First Nations were \u201cinadequate to non-existent by today\u2019s standards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The treaty led to the flooding of fertile farmland in B.C. On the other side of the border, in Washington state, it brought a stable supply of water that could be used to irrigate vast swaths of agricultural land, including apple-producing areas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"aside \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/aside\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<section class=\"messaging-block messaging-block--ask\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/messaging-block--ask\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/aside>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Days for BC\u2019s Apple Industry? COVID-19 and bad weather have hammered Okanagan orchardists. But low prices are the biggest threat to their survival. First of two. Not only does Sukhdeep Brar have to spend more time and effort to pick the apples on his farm this year, thanks to COVID-19 and bad weather, he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[30818,30,94,1912,23884],"class_list":["post-56398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-alex-nguyen","tag-apples","tag-british-columbia","tag-food-production","tag-thetyee-ca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56399,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56398\/revisions\/56399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}