Blogging at the Big Dog

The family farm, which has provided Bulkley Valley residents with local food choices for more than a century, has died.
It was 107.
The farm suffered a non-lethal but life-threatening case of Regulatory Disease (RD) in 2004 when the B.C. government enacted its new Food Safety Act and Meat Inspection Regulation. It finally succumbed to complications of RD including corporate land-ownership, globalization, biotechnology and genetic engineering in September 2007.
Those that knew the family farm well remembered it as a generous and environmentally-friendly provider.
“I always enjoyed knowing where my food was coming from, how it was produced and that copious quantities of chemicals and fossil fuels didn’t need to be used to bring it to my table,” said the health-conscious consumer, a close friend of the family farm.
The farm was born in 1900 when Gabriel Lacroix became the first non-Aboriginal settler of the Valley, setting up an operation on the east side of the Bulkley River.
He was soon joined by the Fred Heal family arriving in 1903 to farm on the east side of Tyee (now Tyhee) Lake.
As the area prospered with the founding of Smithers in 1913 as the divisional headquarters of the Grand Trunk Railroad, the family farm flourished.
In 1919, it gave birth to a strapping child, the Fall Fair. It became a grandparent to the Smithers Farmers’ Market in 1992.
The family farm is predeceased by its cousins the pot luck dinner and children’s adventure camp, which also recently passed away from bad cases of RD.
It is survived by brother wild game hunting, although Regulatory Disease is known to be genetically carried and many fear it is only a matter of time before wild game is also diagnosed.
Also barely hanging on are ailing relatives personal freedom and free speech, which are suffering from a particularly virulent strain of RD known as political correctness.
In memory of the family farm, a great-grandchild, the Northwest Premium Meat Co-op, will begin operations later in the fall.
The Co-op intends to honour its deceased forebear by pooling the resources of formerly independent producers to keep local food options available.
An open funeral will be held on Saturday Sept. 22 starting at 1 p.m. at the provincial government building on Alfred Avenue.
In lieu of flowers, mourners are asked to send a letter of protest to Bulkley Valley-Stikine MLA Dennis MacKay.

Living in big cities all my life, I never much thought about where my meat came from.
I knew, of course, there were people out there growing and killing things to fill the coolers of my local Superstore, but I didn’t much care about the politics of farming.
Last week, I made my first farm gate purchase, a big juicy chicken and a dozen farm-fresh eggs. They were really good and I felt a little more connected to my food.
If I’m being honest, though, if it weren’t for the impending new regulations banning farm-based slaughter operations, I would likely go happily on my way being disconnected, exercising my choice to support Safeway for being conveniently located and packaging stuff in easy-to-use portions for me.
I don’t share the same philosophical attachment as many Valley residents do to locally-grown food.
What does pique my outrage, is the relentless attack on personal freedom and responsibility. Our humanity is being legislated into obscurity. Our liberty bought and sold by mega-corporations and special interest groups like a commodity of the modern age.
What is truly insidious about all of this is the powerful lobbies are able to sell their oppression to unwitting politicians and bureaucrats by capitalizing on the current health hysteria. Take the latest innovation of the anti-smoking zealots. The Town is considering making public places Tobacco-Free Zones. It won’t be a “law” or “regulation” says head zealot Karla Biagioni – although you can bet your life that won’t be long in coming.
It will be a suggestion and encourage the poor, besieged majority of non-smokers to further publicly ostracize and demonize their fellow man, who chooses, even if it may be a poor choice, to light up.
She cites statistics about the thousands of British Columbians, smokers and non-smokers alike, who supposedly die every year of “smoking-related diseases.”
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the millions of cars on B.C. roads or the factories, mills and power plants belching carcinogens into the atmosphere or sedentary lifestyles, fast food and industrial chemicals coursing through the water supply.
No, it’s the evil, inconsiderate smoker. It’s not enough to relegate them to outdoors and specially designed smoking rooms — which local bar owners spent tens of thousands of dollars on to accommodate non-smokers — they must be completely deprived of any possible avenue to enjoy their personal freedom and take responsibility for their own choices.
By extension, business owners must be deprived of their right to cater to any clientele they want.
I purposely juxtaposed a sympathetic group, small farmers, with a non-sympathetic group, smokers, to make a point. Try substituting the word Jew or Indian into the propaganda and see how fast it gets shut down.
It’s a slippery slope and nothing short of widespread public defiance is going to stop the infringement on our rights to live as we see fit.