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Food • Writing • Poetry

Following on the heels of the Farmlands Dispute program, here’s a video about a long-running local battle for farmland south of Vancouver. The current owner is a developer..

“Saving the Southlands” tells the story of the 30-year battle to protect a 500-acre parcel of prime farmland in Tsawwassen from proposed housing development – set against the backdrop of an emerging food security crisis in BC. The film features a number of Tsawwassen residents, Richmond City Councillor and ALR co-founder Harold Steves, agrologist Arzeena Hamir, and also profiles several local community farming success stories. Funded entirely by local citizens, a number of whom were also involved in the production, its release comes in the midst of a landmark public hearing after which council will vote on whether to apply to the Agricultural Land Commission to return the Southlands to the ALR. The property was removed 30 years ago under questionable evidence, but has remained protected by its municipal agricultural zoning thus far. Owner Century Group has been ramping up its efforts over the past year to get that changed. Now inclusion in the ALR could finally bring this saga to a close, opening the door to other potential models, such as a land trust with urban farming and nature conservancy components, favoured by many in the community.
– Common Sense Canadian

Yesterday’s episode of CBC’s The Current included a segment called Farmland Disputes, a discussion of what happens to farms that are swallowed by cities. It’s uncomfortable territory.

There is no doubt we need to protect growing land for food, but those lands, particularly when they are overtaken by the city limits, are too expensive for farmers to buy, particularly when farmers are paid so badly – and in careers that lack pension plans. When retirement comes, many of our aging farmers hope to sell their land, or rezone it for development, in order to make up a retirement fund. But that takes more land out of the food production picture. The program reported that

• Only 6% of Canada’s land is suitable for farming
• Class 1 farmland, on which you can grow almost any crop, makes up about .5% of the total
• Between 1971 and 2001, Canada permanently lost 14,000 square kilometres of its best farmland to urban growth
• Almost half of Canada’s urban land is sitting on dependable farmland
• The population of all our cities is growing beyond the limits of existing housing

Where land is being protected – and developers do tend to be winning the battles – much of the land sits idle, because there are not enough new farmers. And aspiring farmers often cite the cost of land as one of their chief obstacles. Until we have governments that back farming and promote a national food policy, we’ll go on losing land. Meanwhile, we must sit watching it slip away until the crisis point is passed.

Turning one’s worried face to the sea, here’s another handy fridge guide for sustainable seafood, courtesy David Suzuki:

Ah, Spring. Victoria’s Seedy Saturday was heaving again this year. I didn’t make it to any of the talks, and was too preoccupied to make thorough visits to all the stands, but once again the interest in seeds – both flower and vegetable – was there in (ahem) spades.

The seed swap was as popular as ever. Bring something to trade, or put a loonie down and take your pick of local seeds:

Gabe and I were there representing the Gorge-Tillicum Urban Farmers (GTUF) on the CR-FAIR table, and were pleased to find so much interest in neighbourhood food security.. and meet a couple of new members too.

Linda Geggie’s “Test Your Seed Smarts” was hugely popular. A few sniffed they didn’t need to see the back of the card to know what the seeds were, but most who stopped found the self-test highly entertaining,

particularly the younger gardeners.

Haliburton Farm was there; and LifeCycles.

Dan Jason with some Salt Spring Seeds.

And many more besides.

Can’t believe it’s over.

Actually, it’s not: many more Seedy Saturdays (and Sundays) still to come across the country.

We were in the company of about 150 others last night, at the Harvey Stevenson Southam lecture given by Ojibwa story-teller Richard Wagamese.

Invoking the likes of CS Lewis and Norval Morrisseau, Wagamese spoke on the roles of stories in self-actualization; affirming childhood’s freedom with narrative; community building; and even the building of garden sheds. Demonstrating with a few stories of his own, and framing the talk with an Ojibwa story about the bringing of light into the world by a spider (which is also the story behind dream-catchers) he spoke to an attentive audience, mostly white, partially students. Wagamese is one who embraces contemporary tools – Facebook, Twitter, blog – unapologetically (“I welcome all those who are friends I don’t know..”). I confess my favourite lessons were those of Lewis (You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.) and Morriseau (who urged Wagamese to tell the story for the story’s sake). Perhaps that only affirms the role of the story teller as sharer of wider wisdoms.

Some clarity about why Canadian writers are concerned about proposed copyright legislation… in under 3 minutes. Join the cause, send a letter to Ottawa, and/or learn more at Copyrightgetitright.