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Minister’s search for younger farmers should lead to Delta

The new minister of agriculture was in town this week and the Optimist had the opportunity to interview her.

The new minister of agriculture was in town this week and the Optimist had the opportunity to interview her. Lana Popham, MLA from Saanich South, maintains she will strengthen the Agricultural Land Reserve and ensure it doesn’t turn in to a land bank.

She also reminds us the ALR is used to grow food. This is the obvious intention but a difficult reality in many cases. Although I fully support the sentiment, I know there are practicalities that prevent this noble goal from becoming reality.

Even if we were able to grow food on all ALR land, who would be growing it and how would they afford to buy the land and take on the operational costs associated with farming?

Popham recognizes this challenge and states, “Our mandate is really focused on encouraging young farmers to get into farming and from my travels around the province the last eight years, I’ve noticed young people really do want to get into farming but they can’t afford the land. So we’re focusing on how do we get people onto the land base so that they can become farmers. There’s farmers from a different generation that are retiring and we want to make sure there’s energetic young people in their place. We’re working with stakeholders to figure out the best way to make that happen.”

I wish her and the ministry the best of luck and hope that she looks at what is happening in the Delta School District as a good model to engage potential young farmers.

On the flip side of ALR protection goals, the new NDP government seems to be at least partially conflicted with its election promise to tackle housing affordability. Although densification and rezoning is the likely solution in urban cores, I can see plenty of opportunity within strategic pieces of ALR land where it would make sense to develop and ease the housing crisis.

Dora Dueck wrote a thoughtful letter to this paper last Friday in which she thanked Community Comment colleague ML Burke for her recent article on housing. Dueck emphasizes that no community is immune to change and I agree with her.

I, like many in our community, am considering downsizing but there is currently no housing form that meets our needs here and I would prefer to stay local. Additionally, I am concerned that young people will have little chance to own a home in Metro Vancouver or other major cities.

I would like to be relatively close to my extended family but that prospect is looking increasingly bleak. I am hoping that our municipal governors and planners will look carefully for opportunity to create infill housing in strategic areas in South Delta.

There seems to be lots of housing choice in Ladner and from what I have seen, the buildings blend well with the community.

I know many people are afraid of densification and feel it is an assault on the character of our small towns but the needs of the many need to be considered.

Not many of us get to die in our family homes and the need for varied housing type will likely affect just about all of us.

Let’s keep an open mind and embrace change because it can be good.

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.