It is imperative that vital growing areas be preserved
The Delta Farmer's Institute states that "as an agricultural group, we cannot support any golf course proposal because it erodes the land base that is essential to our business."
Institute secretary Noel Roddick says "golf courses and farms next to one another will generally have a bit of friction."
One of the concerns of the farmers is that if the number of farms drops, processors, with their contract crops (peas, beans, sweet corn, etc) may lose interest in the area.
Roddick says this problem has resulted in vacant farms in Richmond.
Roddic says he is concerned about talk of large residential developments accompanying the golf courses and the letter reminds council that "housing is not legal on agricultural land."
"There's a lot of talk about developing farmland. We're saying it is developed. We developed it. We ditched and drained it and dyked it. We plowed it and planted it. It is developed. It's a farm."
FROM ARTICLE IN DELTA OPTIMIST MARCH 3, 1989
There is ever increasing pressure to have lands rezoned from farming to other uses.
There is no protection for our agricultural land when the provincial government can take land out of the Agricultural Land Reserve in spite of objections by the Agricultural Land Commission.
Less than 10% of British Columbia is suitable for agriculture, either grazing or tilling, and only 3% is suitable for arable use such as growing crops or supporting dairy cattle. To build on this scarce primary resource is suicidal.
Agricluture is the largest industry in Delta and always has been. We very often feel that we are taken for granted and not appreciated. We cannot afford to lose any our land base if we are to prosper and grow. We produce 35 million dollars worth of crops annually in Delta, and those that we employ, directly and indirectly, number in the thousands.
Ken Bates President Delta Farmer's Institute
It is the nature of delta to increase its area over the years. We, however, have dyked our delta. Thus we protect what we have, while at the same time we prevent any expansion. This fertile soil is re-usable, but not a renewable resource. This is it, this is all there is. Once it’s gone we'll never get any more.
The farming community is turning away from chemical management of land, but the usual practice in the year-round grooming of golf course greens is to use great quantities of fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides. In this naturally wet area, these will leach into the ground water. This in turn, by contaminating both the farm land, the marshes and the eel-grass beds of the Bay where the young salmon live, will affect a whole food chain.
Looking at this situation in a world context, the increasing uncertainties of global weather patterns and global politics demand that we preserve all the good agricultural land we have. Our lives depend on the production of food. Shall we put ourselves in peril by throwing away our capacity to feed ourselves?
This part of B.C. is unique in being able to rely almost entirely on adequate rainfall, rather than irrigation. It is madness to destroy this precious resource.
It is time we put our hearts and will into giving farmland and those who work on it the protection and respect they deserve.
-Daphne Solecki
