Delta's agricultural advisory committee met this past week and received a delegation for an update on the Southlands development. Although there are some details to iron out, the development is moving full steam ahead as we all know. Project manager Brad Semke described for us all the nature of the intended farming activity on the site.
The 50-acre or so parcel known as the Southlands Community Farm and Market Square will be leased back to Century Group from the Corporation of Delta. Century will manage this portion of the land on a 10-year lease with an option to renew. An agricultural precinct building will be built and shared by farmers and will include washing stations, storage and likely cold storage areas for crops.
The "Red Barn" will be the centerpiece of the market square and will be brought up to code for electricity and plumbing. At least one facade of the beautifully restored building will be opened up and slightly expanded to house the intended farmers market.
These buildings will be owned by Deltans. To the north and south of the barn will be two 10-to 20-acre farms and incubator farms. Between the larger farms will be several one-half-to twoacre farms designed to attract new and younger farmers.
Although I don't meet the criteria for new and certainly not the one for young, I am happy to say I will be farming one to two acres on this site with my Project Pickle initiative. The idea here is that kids from the Delta School District will grow, harvest, process, merchandise and retail several types of pickled cucumbers, beets and other veggies.
All of this will occur on site and the young farmers and entrepreneurs will gain valuable farming and business experience.
All of this opportunity would not have been possible without compromise in an extremely complex land use deal. Questions around drainage and irrigation are being answered and farmers who will farm the additional 320-plus acres on the site will not have to worry as much about their crops.
Farmer, councillor and agricultural advisory committee chair Ian Paton had lots of questions about drainage and irrigation on the Southlands and Hugh Fraser from the Corporation of Delta was able to describe the implementation process in our meeting. Fraser also gave an update on pump stations, irrigation and drainage issues in East Ladner.
Farmers face huge challenges to produce our food and water isn't the only one. As Ted Murphy noted in a recent editorial, land use is the biggest issue around here, particularly in South Delta. Requirements of industry and the port, ALR considerations and land speculation make for a daunting scenario for farmers.
That is why we need a strong local and informed voice in our provincial government so we can manage our local land use issues effectively. Our mayor, council, CAO and senior staff support our farming community and have been assertive in dealing with provincial and federal counterparts to ensure our farmers are not steamrolled.
They have delegated in Ottawa on port-related issues on more than one occasion and are perpetually involved in ongoing discussions provincially with Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick and staff discussing farming and our local land use.
The millions of dollars in benefits to our local farmers in the Southlands deal did not come easily but they did finally come.
Mike Schneider is founder of Project Pickle and likes to write about growing, cooking and eating food. He is a Jamie Oliver Food Revolution ambassador.
