By Cheryl Jahn

Nechako Valley the new Fraser Valley?

Jun 15, 2022 | 4:02 PM

VANDERHOOF – Dieckmann Cattle out of Abbotsford is the newest operation on the block in Vanderhoof, something the District of Vanderhoof would like to see a lot more of in the future. There is a move to make the Nechako Valley the new Fraser Valley and a case can be made for it.

“Obviously the affordability of the land that we have here,” says Mark Parker, Director with the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako. “It’s going up but in comparison to what it is in the Lower Mainland, it’s very attractive at this point. And the availability to grow forage up here. We can do that now. We have a little longer season, it seems, than we did twenty, thirty years ago. So it’s giving us a little more options for growing a lot of forage, which can attract dairies and that kind of operation.”

The body that advocates for the agriculture sector in BC says there absolutely is an appetite to expand agriculture outside of the Fraser Valley. But there first has to be the regulatory regime that supports it.

“There’s also critical mass involved,” explains Stan Vander Waal, President of the BC Agriculture Council. “So you need to have critical mass, whether it’s dairy, whether it’s cattle. You have to have a certain amount of production in an area to supply the processors. So it’s bringing all those things together and then creating the foundational regulatory regime that allows that process to function in that area.”

BCHL Playoffs

Langley's goalie steals game one over Spruce Kings

4h ago

ckpg news special

The Resource Reality

23h ago

Crime

Paramedics injured after object thrown through ambulance window

Apr 03, 2026

The most recent example of supply chain issues caused by a natural disaster was the flooding in the Lower Mainland last November. Locally, not only did that create havoc with food supply, it came on the heels of forest fires that cut off food supplies in 2017 and 2018. It has driven home the concept of diversifying food supply.

“I would sure hope so,” says Parker. “That would be my hope. It showed what could happen. If you do centralize everything, which happened in the dairy industry years ago. It’s all centralized to the Lower Mainland. That cuts off the supply to us. I think that’s made a huge difference on every level of agriculture.”

There has been a move in food consumption in recent years that lends itself naturally to what folks in Vanderhoof and the Nechako Valley have in mind. Consumers are much more interested in knowing where their food comes from and buying local.

“You can learn, you can read, you can understand your food. What’s in it, and where did it come from? Who grew it? Localized food, now, is becoming a big thing.”