Dear Editor,
In summer and fall, if you want local fruits and vegetables at one of Richmond’s farm stands, you’ll line up. Even to pick your own, you’ll join a crowd.
Small-scale agriculture is thriving and is the backbone of the local food system. The small-scale farms in Richmond are where local restaurants source the finest ingredients and where people from all over Metro Vancouver come to purchase fresh food from the field.
Today, developers, contractors and even a few farmers are making fortunes turning small farms into speculative estates. Seven permits for mega mansions with an average size of 9,623.58 ft² on farmland were issued between April and November — after council adopted new home sizes of 10,780 ft². All seven were for small farms. Many are already for sale as “investments” with permits.
Some landowners and politicians think it would be fine to have a system where the wealthy own the land and farmers lease from them and commute. This prospect is worsened by frequent changing of farm ownership and insecure leases, making it impossible for farmers to plan.
Vegetable farming means working the fields from dawn until dusk and beyond. Farmers living on their farms, where they can also sell their food, is something Richmond should not give up on.
By allowing mansions on farmland, the city is choosing development for the wealthy over farming, farmers and food production.
Council had expert calculations for house size last year, but voted to not follow the recommendations. Speculation has been the result. Now the city has the opportunity to turn this around.
To see what’s possible, we need only look to Delta, which has an ALR farmhouse size limit of 3,550 ft² on farms under 20 acres. It also has a farmland utilization rate of 81per cent, the best in the Lower Mainland.
Laura Gillanders
Richmond
