LILLOOET, B.C. – From farms accessed by logging roads to U-pick operations lining tourist corridors, the British Columbia Farm Women’s Network is working together to make a difference in agriculture and rural living.
The group of 60 women in B.C. and the Yukon, founded in 1987, annually holds an educational seminar and conference and lobbies on issues ranging from weed control to grassland preservation to water supply.
This summer day, board members Lorraine Jerema and Helen Horn travelled three hours by car from their farms in central B.C. to discuss the group’s work over lunch in a Lillooet café.
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Jerema, who operates a bed and breakfast and small cattle operation at Lone Butte, is glad she found the time to join BCFWN.
“You get to meet these people and see what they’ve done and how they’re managing their farms,” said Jerema.
Meetings provide practical information, ideas and farm tours for members ranging in age from 30 to 80, but also a bit of fun, she said, citing a session with a humour therapist.
The network has lobbied to retain purple gas exemptions for farmers, erect fencing to keep cattle off busy highways, better control weeds alongside highways and improve telecommunications in rural areas.
Horn and Jerema said members who cannot attend meetings are kept up to date through a website and regular newsletters that include special features on members.
In addition to promoting awareness of agriculture, the network also lobbies for the specific needs of its members, who include cattle producers, wine makers and market gardeners.
They have supported the use of cannons to scare birds off the grapes, fought for the preservation of a herd of water buffalo facing extermination and railed against the costs of disposal of downer animals and growing demands for water exports.
Jerema and Horn believe the stronger the lobby, the greater the impact and likelihood of change.
When the provincial government was set to start enforcing the use of purple gas in farm vehicles, BCFWN sent a letter of support to continue the use of purple gas for all farm vehicles, including snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles. Farmers were previously exempt from this enforcement.
“B.C. cattlemen and several in agriculture wrote letters, to protest, and we stopped it,” Jerema said. “We got right on top of it.
“We’re only one small voice so we have to hook up with other voices.”
The network soldiers on and provided a seminar in June on farm safety. The members hold auctions and solicit funds from business to cover their costs and offer a post-secondary scholarship to members and their children.
They operate on a modest annual budget of $4,500 to $6,000, receiving funding from the Farm Women’s Bureau in Ottawa, the B.C. government and the provincial Women in Agriculture initiative. Members’ annual dues and seminar fees also help cover the organization’s costs.
The group hosts meetings throughout the province and the calendar year, recognizing its members are spread over a wide geographical area and represent diverse commodities.
This year’s annual meeting will be held Oct. 13-15 in Prince George while the farm safety seminar was held in Cache Creek, 300 kilometres away.
Horn, who operates a 300 head cow-calf operation on 4,000 acres at 100 Mile House, noted the importance of connecting farm women in remote locations.
“This is a place where they can meet,” said Horn.
Jerema added the network also gives them support and a fraternity of friends and contacts.
“It gives women an outlet to get away from the daily grind and enjoy the company of other women and learn,” she said of the range of farm operations represented in the network.
“It gives us some understanding,” added Horn.
Loretta Simpson, BCFWN president and a cattle producer at Dunster, said the group was founded to provide women with opportunities to be involved off the farm.
She explained how men generally attended farm commodity meetings and women tended to farm and family duties in their absence.
“BCFWN was formed to ensure women got a chance to be out there and hear what was going on,” she said.
“It’s important for all people to be involved and it’s important for women to get as many opportunities as men.”
