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Letter: Small ALR lots can only be a ‘hobby’

Dear Editor, Re: “Don’t act like you can’t farm,” Letters, June 8. My hat is off to you, Miles Smart, for holding down a full-time job and selling veggies from your half-acre lot. The province’s data is similar to your numbers.
garden farm
The province passed regulations in an effort to protect farming.

Dear Editor,

Re: “Don’t act like you can’t farm,” Letters, June 8.

My hat is off to you, Miles Smart, for holding down a full-time job and selling veggies from your half-acre lot.

The province’s data is similar to your numbers. A half acre lot (without a home on it) should yield about $50,000 max. That’s with a lot of work and a lot of good fortune and before any deductions of any kind.

As you point out, this is a very nice little side income on a “hobby farm.” Some enterprising people do this on less than my 1/3 of an acre, and I say good luck to them.

This is not a farm. It is a hobby. With apologies to the Greens and NDP supporters, I am only trying to question whether these small lots are really part of the ALR. 

I think you are an exception, Miles, and you obviously love what you do. How many of the several hundred owners of half acre lots in Richmond are willing to do what you do? I think gardening and farming are two different things. 

The yield you mention will not pay a mortgage and support a family without another full-time income. For me at least, this is not a farm.

Paul Edwards

Richmond