My previous column (Council Report: Experience teaching importance of food security in Salmon Arm), submitted as part of my duties as the current deputy mayor, concluded with the Shuswap Food Action Society’s ceremonial launch of the John McLeod Community Garden on the city's fairgrounds.
During this event, I thought of the garden's smartly built garden boxes and the agricultural impact they share with the larger farm acreages in the Salmon River Valley. Both large and small, each lot size contributes to food security and showcases the positive impacts these agricultural activities have on understanding our agricultural landscapes we gratefully share and use on the unceded lands of the Secwépemc First Nations territory.
Recently, farmers in the region have been gathering under the coordinated leadership of Mike Schroeder, to form a farmer advocacy group that deals with big picture problems, liaises with government bodies, collects and communicates producer information and concerns in an inclusive manner, and supports agricultural producers in the region. The timing of this work aligns well with the city’s current official community plan activities to define the municipality’s near and long-term agricultural goals.
The opening of the John McLeod Community Garden and chairing of the Agricultural Advisory Committee has been educational. The complex balance between land use for food production, housing, recreation and commercial enterprises often moves one to choose one use over another. With the diminishing stock of land for housing and usable agricultural land, the city will motivate development to be building up and not out in order to conserve limited farm land within the municipality.
Where will we find more land? Large farming acreages will be protected. However, with the need to attract younger farmers, we must seriously consider the benefits of homeowners converting lawns into “victory gardens” and supporting the concept of developing large parcels into half-acre farms.
The smaller lot sizes are a logical investment to support young and entry level farmers' access to reasonably-priced lands to grow food and develop farming skills. The costs to buy farmland, the equipment, etc. is simply out of reach for too many of our younger generation to take on the option to be a career farmer. Small scale half-acre farms, with shared equipment and infrastructure, would lessen the cost burden per farmer and be the foundation to establish the Shuswap as a sustainable food leader in Canada.
