387 replies to this topic

[Coreyburger]

Central Saanich nkw has a moratorium in place on legal grow-ops. They'll review the situation later in the year but council stated in a report that they want to avoid being caught off guard by an application. Hmm.

Right to Farm would trump this bylaw, as the ALC has ruled that grow ops are allowed on ALR land.

[sebberry]

Food security types would be against, and global warming types ought to be for it. Of course theses are the same people though.

 

I'd pay to watch them argue with themselves.

[dasmo]

Let them grow a crop that makes money! The can't build condos and someone has to supply the market.... Why not our economy? Hops and hemp and grapes!

[VicHockeyFan]

Frank says NO!

 

 

 

 

The Agricultural Land Commission won’t consider cash contributions toward farm projects as lubricant for removing land from its reserve.

In a letter dated June 19, chairman Frank Leonard responded to a request from the City of Langford to discuss its vision for a new agricultural strategy.

The strategy could ease the removal of properties deemed unproductive from the Agricultural Land Reserve, by collecting cash contributions toward a new agriculture fund. There would be a net benefit to agriculture, the argument goes, even if it means property intended for agricultural use is developed instead.

“There are concerns that such a narrowly focused discussion may lead to expectations ... that the ALC will be making decisions on ALR exclusion application in Langford on the basis of the strategy,” Leonard wrote.

“While considerations related to amenity contributions may be of interest to the city, such matters would not form part of ALC considerations.”

 

- See more at: http://www.timescolo...h.OgWrF96G.dpuf

[VicHockeyFan]

The ALC has said YES to the Alberg farm leaving ALR.

[todd]

Now that's some urban farming https://www.youtube....bed/TfH37DdJDbo

[Mike K.]

Saanich has voted to fully approve a subdivision on the Alberg lot.

[RFS]

I was always under the impression that removing land from the alr was a lot more difficult and required the federal government

[Mike K.]

Nope, it's a local thing. Lots of land has been removed from the ALR in recent years.

ALR does not always equate to valuable farming land.

[VicHockeyFan]

Nope, it's a local thing. Lots of land has been removed from the ALR in recent years.

ALR does not always equate to valuable farming land.

 

Well, except that this one proved it could be used as farming land, as it did until just a few months ago.

 

But it got removed because it was too close to other residential.

[Mike K.]

For sure, all sorts of farmable land has been removed for a litany of reasons, but some ALR land is simply not suited to farming despite appearing as such.

[VicHockeyFan]

For sure, all sorts of farmable land has been removed for a litany of reasons, but some ALR land is simply not suited to farming despite appearing as such.

 

Well, Mr. Vanderkerkove is creating more farmland one forest at a time, proving even the most deceiving-looking non-farmland can be farmed.

[Mike K.]

One minute he's pitching a sewage treatment plant, the next he's saying the land isn't suited to farming, now he's cutting down trees and believes the land just so happens to be farmable. What's next?

[VicHockeyFan]

Everyone loves Mr. Van.  Whatever it is, people will love it.

[Mike K.]

Yup, I'll have to agree with that.

[Mike K.]

Alberg family farm in Saanich's Blenkinsop Valley sold to developers

http://victoria.citi...-to-developers/

 

The Alberg family farm in Saanich's Blenkinsop Valley has been purchased by Victoria-based real-estate developers Tri-Eagle Development and Jawl Residential for an undisclosed sum.

 

The four acre parcel at 1516 Mount Douglas Cross Road was removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in 2015 following a decade of rejected development plans and political wrangling as the Alberg family tried to adapt their land to the realities of a growing residential district in a former farming community.

 

Last fall council voted to rezone the farm into a housing subdivision on the eve of the Agricultural Land Commission's decision to support its removal from the ALR, a necessary break from municipal protocol to ensure the land could not be caught in a state of limbo having lost its ALR designation without support for an alternate use. [Full article]

[Mike K.]

The trees are mostly all gone from the Vandekerkhove property along Watkiss Way. Photos on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook...153888896394362

[LJ]

^All in preparation to rent the land to the COV for a tent city.

[Bingo]

 I'm all in favour of paying the whole cost. I'm the guy that wants to pay 5-10x what we do for water today. But if you are going to apply the whole cost to lettuce from the interior, you had also better apply it to your bananas from Ecuador. I know it is cheaper to grow many things here, than in the south, but we pay dearly for the extra cost of regulations, labour standards and worker safety, minimum wages etc. that they do not pay in the producing countries.
 

 

Who picks our crops that we consume?

 

The effect of undocumented labour extends all the way to Canada's kitchen tables. Whether or not they're aware of it, Canadians have a distant personal connection to the migrants who've become a major U.S. election issue.

In a literal sense, Canada eats the fruits of their labour. Dennis Nuxoll of the Western Growers farming association said of the 400,000 farm workers in California alone, the majority are believed to have falsified work documents.

They pick delicate crops that can't be harvested by machine — especially grapes, tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce.

"If these workers disappeared tomorrow, we could not harvest many of the crops that Canadians consume," Nuxoll said.

- See more at: http://www.timescolo...h.1NF6pync.dpuf

 

[lanforod]

^ I think they need to create machines that can harvest those crops. I've seen Blueberry harvesters. I don't see why you can't make harvesters for all of those crops. Engineering is amazing these days.