LETTER—ALR response
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This is a response to Doug Floer’s letter to the South Delta Leader (ALR redundant, Nov. 6, 2009, South Delta Leader). Mr. Floer uses opinion rather than fact to argue that the ALR is redundant.
I would argue that the ALR remains relevant, as it is unwise to assume current levels of food production can be maintained indefinitely.
The fossil fuel we use to create nitrogen fertilizers, power machinery and transport food will not be available forever: a hard, but necessary, fact to acknowledge.
When this occurs, what mechanisms will we have in place to assure access to food?
And it is disputable that the free hand of the market can solve problems of scarce resources; examples of its inadequacies include the collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery, industrial pollution in the Great Lakes (which represent 20 per cent of North America’s fresh water), and the recent global market downturn.
Given the long-term implications of disbanding the ALR, is it wise to leave farmland in the hands of the free market?
David Bradbeer,
Program coordinator
Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust
