Leave what's left of farmland alone
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Updated: October 22, 2009 8:25 AM
Why is it proving so difficult to protect and defend what’s left of the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in Surrey?
We are now growing less than one half of the municipality’s foodstuffs, and more than one third of the 52 per cent we import comes from California – a state with such huge and increasing water-supply problems that its future as a food exporter must be in question. The implications should be self-evident. What’s the role of the vaunted Sustainability Charter in this controversy?
It was bad enough when construction of golf courses was allowed on agricultural land, with the flimsy and unconvincing rationale that they could be put back into farming if the need ever arose.
Now there’s a proposal to build a bio-chemical research facility on Class 3 farmland (187 Street & 16 Avenue) when alternative industrial sites are available. This proposal has received very little publicity and minimal opportunity for public discussion.
Is this either good or appropriate use of farmland?
There are many other instances of several gravel parking lots for trucks being established on farm land throughout the productive Hazelmere Valley. We don’t eat gravel.
Recently, five applications to create parking lots on ALR land have been rejected by the Agricultural Land Commission.
Will Surrey back the Commission or will it give in to would-be developers? We must hope that crop production will be deemed more important than parking facilities.
It’s high time that the City of Surrey takes a firm stand and states publicly and unequivocally that what is left of our farmland, the ALR residue, must remain sacrosanct and that no application for use other than farming will be entertained unless there are extremely compelling reasons to do so.
The other side to this story is that farmers need to be able to make a living from their farming. This economic dimension should be also recognized and factored into decision-making and consumers should support local producers wherever and whenever possible.
Dr. Roy Strang writes weekly on the environment for the Peace Arch News. rmstrang@shaw.ca
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