Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

April 20: Farmers need support, not competition

Re: “Mayor calls CRD proposal for farmlands trust unfair,” April 13. I applaud Metchosin Mayor John Ranns for bringing this to the public’s attention.

Re: “Mayor calls CRD proposal for farmlands trust unfair,” April 13.

I applaud Metchosin Mayor John Ranns for bringing this to the public’s attention.

It is commendable that the Capital Regional District is concerned about food security for the future, but I know this is not a concern to the degree that local municipalities need to get into the business of farming. Leave that to the folks who understand agricultural “supply and demand” — the farmers.

There is a reason that only 50 per cent of the CRD’s ALR land is in production, and it comes back to supply and demand and Economics 101. During our local growing season, farmers have to compete with produce from the U.S. and Mexico, and thus we end up with a food surplus. The last thing our local farmers need is for the CRD to be in competition with them; increased food production would simply drive down prices.

If the CRD is so concerned about food security, it should be approaching it from the opposite direction: support, not competition. There are lots of ways that municipalities can support local farmers. Mayors, councillors and the CRD need to get out and talk to farmers and find out what local government can do to support them and then be a voice for the farmer.

I work on a local farm, and have talked with local farmers. They are getting increasingly frustrated with government bureaucracy that is impeding them from doing the very thing the CRD is so concerned about: food production.

Tilda Madsen

Sidney