Hybrid Grapes and Free Trade Agreement

Free Trade Agreement: Until the late 1980s, grape growers in B.C. grew hybrid grapes that were used to make cheap wine. A 1968 law required B.C. winemakers to buy 80 per cent of their grapes from vineyards in-province, but the Free Trade Agreement of 1987 and threatened to remove those protections. In 1988 the hybrid varietals were removed and vitis vinifera vines were planted, leading to the eventual growth of an industry specializing in high quality wines. Whereas there were 17 wineries in the Okanagan in 1990, today there are 235, and the region is the second-largest producer of wine in the country behind Ontario Niagara region, according to Rabble. While the has existed in Canada since 1966, it has only been open in B.C. since 2004. Now, an estimated 1,500 workers come to the Okanagan each year from Mexico and Jamaica. They work in fruit orchards and vineyards, tending to some of the vines that were planted 25 years ago as a result of trade protections removed by and British Columbia Okanagan Valley is a breathtaking, 20,000 square kilometre strip of sagebrush-topped hills that slide into narrow lakes, where southwestern desert morphs into mountainous lake country in the space of an hour drive. It is the hub of fruit growing and winemaking in B.C., industries that have been significantly if at times invisibly transformed by the North American Free Trade Agreement. It is also home, for eight months of the year, to 1,500 temporary migrant farmworkers. Meanwhile, 4500 kilometres to the south, free trade had a significant impact on the Mexican economy. Imported agricultural products from Canada and the U.S. brought down the value of Mexican-grown crops, forcing 2.3 million farmers off the land . The price of all Mexican produce fell between 1997 and 2005, sometimes as much as 67 per cent. Farmers who could no longer make a living in Mexico sought opportunities elsewhere, some fleeing over the border into the States, others entering Canada through guest employment programs like the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.