A meat licensing system announced July 20 in British Columbia is expected to make it easier to buy and sell locally produced meat.
“It’s simplifying the licensing system,” said Lana Popham, B.C. minister of agriculture, food and fisheries. “There’s an increase in inspections from a health perspective and it’s increasing markets for small to medium-scale producers.”
The previous system, in use since 2008, was complicated and made it hard for farmers to know which licence applied to them. It was also more difficult for them to sell products locally.
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The new system will eliminate some of those issues.
“Instead of having a bunch of different licences with titles like A B D E, we wanted to make sure the title of the licence reflected what the opportunity was,” Popham said. “So we came up with three different licences.”
The three are Farmgate Licence, Farmgate Plus Licence and Abattoir Licence.
Farmgate is entry-level, allowing producers to process up to 5,000 pounds of meat per year, which they can sell at their farmgate or at farmers markets within their regional district and within 50 kilometres of their farm.
Farmgate Plus allows them to process 25,000 lb. per year, which can be sold at the farmgate, farmers markets, retail outlets and restaurants throughout the province. This will replace class D and E licences.
The Abattoir Licence is for fully inspected slaughter, which will be available in all areas of the province. This will replace class A and B licences.
Popham and other members of the provincial agriculture committee took a “meat regulation tour” where they collected information for recommendations to government.
“It was all members of the legislature, both sides of the house, the third party, everyone participated, so I felt really confident in the recommendations that were coming back.”
Response to the new system has been positive.
“Some of the feedback we got (was) from producers who told us they were about to walk away from producing meat in rural B.C. and now they feel confident that they can do it and it will meet the needs of their business planning,” she said.
Raquel Kolof, a small-scale B.C. farmer, said she also knew of producers thinking of leaving the industry but have now reconsidered.
“The new regulations now allow me to sell throughout all of B.C. and that’s very exciting to me, being so close to Vancouver.”
Although Kolof was certified under the former licencing system, she said the new farmgate licence will help attract newcomers to the industry.
“The demand for local, regeneratively raised, ethically raised meat is through the roof,” she said. “We need 20 of me on the Sunshine Coast.”
There’s also a need for more butchering and cut-and-wrap facilities.
“There are, for some, a year wait (to get an animal processed). For some, the quotas are so high small-scale farmers can’t get in … so this is only one piece of the puzzle.”
