There were some interesting announcements from Victoria this past week. The NDP stated it would be forming an "opposition select standing committee on agriculture." The committee will be headed by Saanich South MLA Lana Popham.
A couple of days after this interesting proclamation, it was further decreed that Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington would join the committee as vice-chair.
So what is the committee going to do? Likely replicate strategies and goals already identified by government and industry stakeholders is my guess. And why? This committee will not be able to make any policy decisions.
Popham, in the Times Colonist, said, "In 15 years they (Liberals) haven't developed a long-term agriculture plan and they have put our provincial food security at risk."
This is simply not the case.
She went on to say, "British Columbians can't afford to wait for action on agriculture in the face of climate change and missed economic opportunities. We must have a long-term, sustainable agriculture and food plan in order to be resilient."
An extensive agriculture plan, created in 2005, contained 23 strategies to address this important contributor to the economy of B.C. The plan was always a living document and has been followed, tweaked and, in 2012, morphed in to five-year plan called the Agrifood Strategy that currently has 46 action points on the agenda with the ministry's agricultural advisory committee.
Minister of Agriculture Norm Letnick chairs the committee that has more than 20 stakeholders from all across the agrifood sector within its ranks.
Letnick said the last thing he wanted to do was "turn food in to a political issue," adding that Popham and Huntington "are doing what politicians do, which is to try to attract attention to their cause."
He went on to say the advisory committee will meet in the coming weeks to go over the ministry's draft plan. "That's really the benefit of having that committee structure with industry players on it as opposed to politicians," he said.
If there is anything that comes
through as common in municipal, provincial and federal agriculture planning, it is the agreement that there needs to be better engagement amongst our youth to stimulate interest in farming and the agrifood sector of the economy. Education is the key pillar here.
As it happens, the Ministry of Education announced last week it will be undertaking an Innovation Strategy to promote individualized learning. This may be the moment in time when government could be well positioned to assess common ministry goals.
Introducing a more robust individualized curriculum that includes lessons in agriculture and the larger agrifood economy will afford our youth with opportunity to consider careers in farming and the broader food system. This has been missing in the traditional curriculum.
We are lucky in Delta in that this convergence is already underway. Hundreds of youngsters work and learn on school neighbourhood farms throughout the school year.
Whether it be composting, planting, harvesting, marketing or nutritional eating, the district's Project Pickle initiative has been able to follow through on the simple notion that kids should have the opportunity to dive in to a fun and healthy learning environment. And why not?
