Course:IGS585/OK2020WT2/GuestGeorge Bush

George Bush - Chairman of the Cawston Irrigation District

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	Reflection Authors and Commenters
Author	Janna Wale	Adam Kunis	Ayla de Grandpre	Joshua Ayer	Ian Chambers
Commenter	Adam Kunis	Janna Wale	Joshua Ayer	Ian Chambers	Ayla de Grandpre

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Janna Wale I really appreciated the diversity that George Bush brought to our class discussions in the sense that he was not the traditional academic voice that we have (for the most part) heard from consistently throughout the term. His lived experience was something that I really enjoyed hearing about, and it made him a lot more personable; it felt like more of a conversation than a presentation, which I find helps to relax the discussion and give it a less formal feel, which is definitely where I feel the most comfortable asking questions and expressing ideas. I found that like Lauren’s presentation, he was well spoken and was clearly able to articulate his ideas around Keremeos. Something that I really liked about his presentation was his ability to speak about both the past and the present state of the fruit industry in Keremeos, and give us more of a lived/historical lens rather than reading about it from a website. Hearing about how things have changed in his lifetime really made me reflect on the changes that I have experienced in my own lifetime, and how this affects both the direction of my life as well as the direction of my research. In Indigenous research, the researcher’s voice is very important in terms of positionality and framing out the work. Hearing about his life experience allowed me to think more broadly about the changes that Keremeos has already experienced, and how they have influenced where the community is at today. Something that I had not considered prior to George’s talk was how the operations side of the fruit production has drastically shifted. His point about employing foreign labour to work in the fruit sector really reiterates how little capacity Keremeos now has when looking at their aging population in terms of employment. Thinking about our term project, this makes me wonder how this shortage in labour connects to the historic profile of Keremeos, and if there were other changes that occurred around that time that could possibly affect the resilience of the community today. Since I have no agricultural/fruit growing experience, I was also ignorant of the fact that fruit businesses are now either small family run operations, or large scale industrial operations. I had no idea there was such a divergence, with not very many companies occupying the middle ground. This makes me wonder how the implementation of each of these style businesses affects Keremeos. Moving forward, hearing George discuss the differences will allow me to better frame out my thinking in how things are being done in Keremeos, while allowing me to consider how they have been done in the past. Adam Hi Janna, I totally agree that George's background made him more personable and that our time together was a conversation and not a presentation. I found the experience of talking to him a really great exercise of communicating with plain language and practicing listening. While not surprised about how much things had changed, the anecdotal experience helped make it more real and vivid. I found it interesting how you identified a correlation between Indigenous research and George's presentation as he did spend a significant amount of time sharing his origin, his brother's origin, and his family's origin. For me, it is interesting seeing a similar transition in the agriculture industry as there are a number of similarities between what happened in the US and what is happening here in BC. Coming from a state with a deep agricultural history, I am hoping that individual farmers can survive the competition of conglomerates and international pressure.

Ayla De Grandpre

I really enjoyed hearing a more pragmatic perspective from someone with a lot of lived-experience like George. This talk was particularly pertinent to my own research, which centers around agriculture and food production, though I do believe I learned some valuable information that will be valuable to the term project as well. I was really interested in what George had to say about the past and the current state of agriculture in the Similkameen Region. In particular, George brought to light an issue that I hadn’t yet considered: the fact that farms have now become either very small, family owned and run operations, or extremely large agri-businesses often owned by foreign investors and managed locally. I am curious to learn more about the sustainability and resilience of farming culture in this region: whether these small family farms are sustainable, in that the older generation is able to successfully hand the farm down? And whether the larger operations have as much of an environmental ethic as the smaller producers, given that the ownership may not be as supportive of more expensive methods that are better for the local environment, but not as good for their profit.

This reminds me of conversations that I have had with producers about sustainability. I have found that producers often think of environmental and economic sustainability as competing objectives. By this, I mean that they see implementing something that is perceived to be better for the environment (e.g. drip irrigation) as an impediment undermining their financial sustainability. My impression is that they favour financial sustainability because it has a more proximal consequence (e.g. if money isn’t coming in, the business will go under). Environmental consequences, on the other hand, are often materialize more slowly and insidiously (e.g. soil degradation, climate change). This makes me think that perhaps we need to support producers to transition to more sustainable methods through subsidies and incentives, in order to reduce the friction between environmental and economic objectives. While this is likely beyond the scope of a town like Keremeos, I think that advocacy and education could go a long way.

Joshua Ayer

In reflecting on George's comments regarding foreign investment, I had forgotten about its relation to the small family farm/operations and I really like the questions you raised. From personal experience, I know an acquaintance of mine has had significant trouble handing their farm 'down the line' as it were, and eventually had to sell it to a much larger company; to make matters worse, the former owner had always prioritized organic crops, and I was there with them the first day the new owner sprayed the whole field with chemicals and I just remember how devastating it was for the former owner. In raising this memory, your reflection (as a whole) makes me think of two things: 1, as you ask, how sustainable are the smaller farms and thus how likely are they to be bought up by wealthier people; 2, if the majority of land is owned by those wealthier producers do they have a greater capacity to shift to more sustainable agricultural practices, or do the scale of their operations inherently render sustainability a mute issue? In the end, I would suspect the larger the enterprise the more profit-oriented they are likely to be, but I'm not sure. On the one hand, they would have the resources that smaller farms wouldn't have to make a shift in practices, but on the other their motives would be completely contradictory to that direction. I know I haven't taken these thoughts any further than your own, but your reflection really got me thinking. Regarding incentivizing farmers to pursue sustainable practices, I also wonder if there needs to be something similar to incentivize independent famers to enter the market so that those properties aren't all bought up by large-scale corporations.

Ian Chambers I really enjoyed listening to George talk about his experience living in the community we have been spending so much time studying. It was refreshing to get a first-hand perspective on Keremeos and the challenges that people living there have faced and continue to face. It brought a sense of realism to all of the work we’ve been doing; I think I’ve slipped into focusing so much on the academic side that I’ve somewhat ignored the reality of people living in Keremeos. It was also really cool hearing George briefly talk about the sterile insect technique as that is part of what I am mathematically modelling for my thesis project. It helped me also bring a sense of realism to that work which I haven’t had yet as I haven’t had a chance to interact with the orchardists who actually use the technique. I also enjoyed hearing George’s perspective on the agriculture industry in Keremeos and how that has changed through the years. George stated that many of the orchards are either small family-owned practices or part of a large corporation. This must have a pretty large affect the economy in Keremeos as agriculture is one of their main industries. I imagine large corporations don’t support the local economy as much as smaller locally owned orchards would. For example, large corporation probably import much of the equipment needed whereas smaller ones would be getting what they need from within the community. Additionally, George mentioned the number of foreign workers that are needed in agriculture, which again would not be supporting the local economy as much as individuals living there. Using the process that Marg outlined for addressing sustainability issues, I wonder what practices or plans could be applied to this vulnerability and if Keremeos has already began trying to address it. George also talked about many agricultural practices switching to higher cash crops which made me wonder how that might compound these issues. I imagine larger corporations will have an advantage to make these changes as they have larger budgets, which could lead to more money leaking out of the local economy. Ayla De Grandpre Ian, Thanks for your reflection. Like you, I really appreciated the pragmatism that George brought to the context of sustainability and resilience challenges in Keremeos. I think that as researchers it is really easy to get caught up in theory, and we can forget to incorporate the lived experiences of those stakeholders who are experiencing the challenges that we are studying on a day-to-day basis. I also really liked hearing George talk about the changes in the agricultural industry over the years. I hadn't considered the potential economic implications of having many large agri-businesses, and think that you might be right in that there may be less support for local businesses (e.g. they may seek out service providers and farm input providers that are based outside of the community). This is a tricky issue, given that the RDOS and the Village of Keremeos likely have little influence over how these agri-businesses are supporting (or not supporting) local business. This would be an interesting area for further research, as the Village is trying very hard to promote growth in the local chamber of commerce as part of their larger growth strategy. An issue like this would likely have a huge impact.

Adam Kunis George Bush gave a very refreshing presentation on Keremeos and what life is like as a community member of the village. While presentations such as Marg’s gave a good overview of the situations and challenges faced by the community, George made his presentation very personable. Speaking with George was a good reminder of why we do the work we do. I find it easy to get lost in the theory and literature as to what it means to be sustainable and why we need to move in that direction. George’s presentation was grounding and reminded me that our work and decisions can affect individuals. One of the things that I had never considered in amenity migration is moving to a warmer region for health reasons. I did not realize that the warm weather can reduce the severity of a number of medical conditions and as George cited, his parents’ joint issues. For me, this is an important consideration in understanding the demographics and desires of Keremeos’ population. It is now harder for me to pass judgment on those who leave during the winter months, although I do believe there needs to be some form of economic reparation for those who take up land, drive up housing prices, but do not contribute to the economy for a portion of the year. Lastly, hearing George share the history of Keremeos reminded me of the book All Over Creation which we read as a part of Dr. Garrard’s course. There seemed to be a lot of similarities in the setting such as a formerly large town that had recently shrunk (seven gas stations to one), few employment opportunities, and a growing influence of foreign direct investment from conglomerate corporations. While this book focused on potato crops (a core food), I found similarities with George’s concern that amenity crops on agricultural land is quickly replacing core agricultural products. I imagine that this could increase vulnerability in food security, and I am curious about its impact on soil sequestration. It’s important to note and George highlighted that as a society we don’t treat food the same. Fresh cherries are shipped to Japan and fewer people are practicing canning preservation. I think this is a direct influence of the “now culture” where patience has been greatly reduced and we expect everything with minimal wait times. Life doesn’t naturally work like this, but science has made this a possible reality should we deem the exposure to vulnerabilities worth the risk. Janna Wale Adam, I totally agree on how personable George was. For me, this made it much easier to connect with and form my own ideas around some of the points he made throughout his discussion. I absolutely agree that it is very easy to get wrapped up in "academia" and forget that there is a world outside of this little bubble. I was also surprised to hear that moving was related to health issues. It also made me wonder about what kind of primary health care is available in the Keremeos region, as I know for my own community travel is often required to see a doctor. I wonder with the aging population if we will see people past a certain age deciding to move closer to where they can access that care more readily. I wonder about food security in the region as well. I imagine that this would fluctuate seasonally, as demand would shift with fewer people around in the winter and fewer stable sources of food around in the winter.

Joshua Ayer I am really glad that we got to hear from George on Friday and get his perspective as someone who has lived in the Keremeos-Crawston area his whole life. I had never heard of the ‘fruit wars’ and didn't know that much about the BC fruit board, BC Tree Fruits, or the BC Fruit Grower's Association but I found the article online that George mentioned in class and have got to say it’s a fascinating bit of history.  I realize that obviously George cannot represent everyone who lives in the area, but it was still nice to have a face to put to the community, and also a great opportunity to get a sense of the culture and opinions from someone who calls the area home.  To this extent, I heard him talk a lot about family (staying close with his Brother and working together) and needing to work hard and be capable of adapting to the challenges of the area.  One of the things I got from his story was that in the Southern Interior you are far away from a lot of opportunities and authorities that have control over your life.  the boards and associations that control the producers’ ability to sell are all miles away in Kelowna, their fruit is shipped all the way out to Vancouver, but especially, if there is trouble in production there are not many alternatives to farming.  On this note, I found it interesting to hear him refer to the school board as a major employer, as I hadn't considered the elementary school as 'an employer' of the community before.  Though even at the Elementary school, it was notable that for George, full-time work was difficult to come by. Between the climate, and the regulations/bylaws that people like George are subject to, making a consistent living sounds difficult in Keremeos-Crawston. I don't remember who asked the question (I'm pretty sure it was Adam), but I really appreciated hearing George reflect on how the area had changed.  It was especially interesting to hear him talk about the new developers that were coming to the area and buying land. The observation he made about investors in China buying the land and hiring someone to manage it I think would create an interesting dynamic, and here I was intrigued by the evaluations he made regarding foreign investment/development, where the strategy being employed by China (hiring someone to manage from afar) was more suspicious than immigrants who bought the land and worked it, typically as a family.  I am curious to know more about the absentee land-lord situation between foreign investment and local managers. I am particularly interested to know if this is a growing trend, at what rates, and what effect it is having on the community. Ian Chambers Josh, I too really enjoyed having a face to put to the community and hear about life in the area from somebodies lived experience. It helped me on some level take the academics out of it and remember that these are real people facing real challenges. George also gave me the impression that full time work to support a family has been hard to find in Keremeos, not just currently but also in the past. This emphasized the need to diversify the economy in Keremeos and attract new businesses. I like that you pointed out how far Keremeos is from many of the opportunities and authorities that affect local life. When you are isolated from these I think it is easy to be left out of decision making processes and somewhat forgotten about meaning your interests and well-being aren’t fully considered. I wonder if there would be ways for Keremeos and it’s residence to better connect with these opportunities and authorities to have their perspective more included.