On November 23rd I wrote about the fight to stop a suburb of Vancouver from rezoning rare first-class farmland for industrial development, a move that is described as “killing the goose that laid the golden egg”.
Retired Ministry of Agriculture agronomist Dave Sands chastised the land commission for even considering exclusions of top grade farmland from the Agricultural Land Reserve, especially as population pressures increase.
The ALC’s mandate is to protect farmland for present and future generations, he said, but having an application process sends a message that the ALR is there for development. Sands pointed out that the local agriculture sector is very successful and “people will also need to eat. The ALR is not an ULR, an urban land reserve.”
Here’s newspaper report on the meeting.
To find out how you can help, please visit the Farmland Watch web-page.
POLLENATRIX 