This week the BC NDP government released its third budget after delivering a throne speech last Tuesday. The B.C. Ministry of Agriculture received a $2.8-million reduction in funding for 2020. The reduction is primarily targeting travel and office expenses, a freeze on hiring and anticipated program slippage. Out of all the provinces, British Columbia continues to have the lowest government expenditures in agriculture as a percentage of agriculture GDP.

In our collective effort to improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gases, who knew that plants and crops were the problem? Officials at the Metro Vancouver Regional District think so as a Metro committee called “Climate Action” is proposing to regulate naturally occurring emissions from plants. Starting with cannabis, Metro Vancouver is proposing to regulate the natural scents and compounds that come from plants and trees.