In the House
Doug’s response to the Private Member’s Statement on B.C.’s bountiful harvest
I rise to speak to this private member’s statement presented by the member for Abbotsford-Mission on B.C.’s bountiful harvest. It’s something that’s close to my heart. We grow all our own food on our small property in Stikine. I say “we” grow it, and I just want to say to my wife: “I know I’m only there 30 percent of the time, so I use ‘we’ very, very generally.”
The member for Abbotsford-Mission focused on one particular topic in agriculture, and that was blueberries. I welcome that focus. I was just in Pitt Meadows last week and toured a blueberry farm, Twin Berry Farms, where the major focus of the product was export to specialty markets in China and Korea and Japan. It was a truly amazing tour. One of the smaller operations, I’m told by the owner — only 30,000 pounds a day, which is mind-blowing when you look at the scale in other parts of the province of food production.
One aspect that he pointed out to me was the high-tech part of the involvement of his farm. Amazing computer programming goes into the processing, which I believe is quite innovative on Twin Berry Farms, especially on the processing line. One gap that he pointed out to me, which the government hasn’t addressed, is the young people who want to get into technology and high-tech professions and the opportunities that farming presents for that. He felt that there was not very good emphasis on that, despite what the member described as an innovation centre in the Fraser Valley. The owner of this particular farm pointed out that not enough encouragement was being conducted by government for young people who are interested in the high-tech industry to get into farming, because it really is a high-tech sector.
I’d like to broaden it out a bit more though, past blueberries, and recognize the amazing food production in this province, up in my area, whether it’s hay, even for export or domestic use, or in farmers markets. I’ve recently visited farmers markets in Kamloops and Quesnel — and also the strong farmers markets we have in Smithers and Hazelton.
These farmers markets, of course, depend on the quality of clean land, clean air and clean water in order to produce the good, nutritious food products that they produce.
I know that the member for Abbotsford-Mission would agree with me that the foundation of agriculture is clean land, clean air and clean water. That’s why it’s concerning, on the land front, when we see land in the ALR under this government being able to be used for industrial purposes — a two-zone plan, especially in the north — or trees being planted on ALR land, as has been pointed out to this government, who didn’t seem to have a clue about what was going on in that aspect — so good agricultural land with trees being planted on it.
As far as water goes, we know that water is the basis for good agriculture — good clean water. We’ve had incidents of aquifers, in Spallumcheen, with concerns about pollution there. We’ve had lake water concerns in Shawinigan Lake with clean water. And, of course, we’ve had river water concerns with incidents like the Mount Polley disaster.
Clean land, clean air, clean water is the basis of not just the blueberry production but of all food production. I must say that that has to be truly understood by government if we’re to reap B.C.’s bountiful harvest.
One other aspect of local food production is people knowing what’s growing in their neighbourhood. Many of the producers I know are proud to have clean land, air and water to produce very, very nutritious food products. Yet I had a recent incident in my area. I have a letter here to the Minister of Agriculture, dated June 16, that I wrote on behalf of a constituent who was told to go to the freedom-of-information office to determine if the Agriculture Ministry is supporting GMO trials of corn on the property next to hers, a rural property outside of Smithers.
I haven’t had an answer to that letter, but obviously, it’s not a high priority for this government. Yet GMO trials are of major concern to people who want to produce nutritious, good-quality food.
I welcome this private member’s statement by the member, and I hope that we will have more on this, as far as clean land, clean air and clean water. That is at the foundation of agriculture in this province.