When I was just a couple of years out of high school I worked for two seasons at a farmer's market on 52nd Street near Robert's Bank, which at that time was just a coal port. The market was owned by the Guichon family and run by one of the Guichon sons, Tim. Throughout the spring, summer and fall, we would get fresh produce from all over Delta, usually brought to the market in the back of various pick-up trucks. There was a bumper-sticker on one of those trucks that has always stuck with me. It said "Farming is Everyone's Bread and Butter."
As noted by SmartGrowth B.C., "urbanization is eating our foodshed. Presently, British Columbia loses an estimated 300 hectares of farmland per year to urban land use." While this is due in part to the increasing population of the province, and of the Lower Mainland specifically, it also reflects a more basic dynamic: The very qualities that make land desirable for agriculture are also the characteristics that cause it to be valued by developers and homeowners, namely level grades and temperate climates.
From a European standpoint, we live in a very new corner of the world. The Southlands has only been cultivated for less than 90 years. And though its agricultural potential has been attenuated due to development pressures going back to the early seventies, it still boasts some interesting statistics:
-In experiments in growing wheat in the area, a Canadian record of 207 bushels an acre were harvested, which was just two bushels short of the North American record for wheat production.
-The earliest potato crop of the season in all of Canada was grown and harvested here for many years
-The site enjoys the most sunshine and the most frost-free days of all farmland in Canada
When development was first proposed for the Southlands, it was said that the reason for the sale of the farm was a death-tax assessment that had valued the land at a residential rate and left the Spetifores with a considerable debt. As the years went on, urban encroachment was cited as grounds for the unsuitability of the land for agriculture. It took many years before the poor quality of the land itself was advanced as a rationale for development.
As a person who advocates the preservation of the Southlands as agricultural land, I have been told that I am afraid of change. However, I believe that the retention of arable land can also be understood as the anticipation of change. The growth seen in the Lower Mainland has been tremendous and it shows no signs of slowing. As the population increases, the food requirements of that population also increase. Of course, we can continue to import fresh produce from the United States and Mexico. Most of this produce crosses the continent to meet us via tractor-trailers with reefer units, all running off diesel. I don't think it would be an unreasonable hypothesis to predict a future where the price of fresh imported produce is tied to the price of oil. It is also not unreasonable to assume that the conflicts we face here in our community between urbanization and farming are being faced elsewhere, with farmland being developed for housing, commercial and industrial purposes throughout North America.
At the website for the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries I came upon an interesting article regarding the urbanization of farmland. One passage about the loss of agricultural land to urbanization stood out:
"Often land is simply left idle and in a derelict condition giving the appearance of agriculture's demise, promoting a community attitude that anticipates the eventual end of agriculture. This important dynamic has been referred to as the 'impermanence syndrome' and is characterized by the sale of land for hobby farm and rural estate residential use, disinvestment in farming and shifting agricultural use resulting in an under-utilization of farmland."
The writer goes on to say that "the increased farming of land leased, particularly on a short term basis, rather than owned can have a number of direct negative effects, including a reluctance to undertake necessary soil management practices," as well as causing disincentive to maintain or upgrade farming property or purchase and maintain the equipment necessary to farm it.
This is the fate of the Southlands, overvalued because of its development potential and farmed sporadically with no view to the long term.
Dave Staniforth
