This ep: My guest on the show today is Katie Sardinha, an orchardist who runs Kaleidoscope Fruit Ranch based in Summerland. Katie wrote an op-ed in the August issue of Country Life in BC focused on the grocery oligopoly in Canada and the problem this poses for farmers. Katie thinks it’s a big problem, actually. Or not even ‘a’ big problem, but ‘the’ mother problem. I wanted to ask her to expand on what she meant, so I asked her for an interview.

My guest today is Abra Brynne. Abra’s not a farmer, but she comes from farmers, and early in her career she turned her passion for place-based food systems into a career dedicated to advocating and agitating for changes that would strengthen those systems. I’ve sat on a board or two with Abra, and I’ve chatted with her at various farming-related events over the last couple of years, and she is an Interesting Person, and so I’ve known for a while I wanted to interview her for the show.

We talk about Abra's Ph.D research on decolonizing farmland. If you want to contact her about that, email Abra at abra.brynne@dal.ca

Today on the show, I bring you some tales from some farmers in the trenches of BC food and beverage regulation. First you’re going to hear from one of the recipients of new milk production quota under BC’s supply management system. After that, an Okanagan winemaker expresses concerns about the potential extension of the exemptions that allowed a battered wine sector to make BC wine from non-BC grapes in 2024.