Dear Editor,
Re: “Richmond farmer opens B&B to subsidize blueberry losses,” Feature, Nov. 3.
Thank you for presenting both sides of the farming debate. As with many contentious issues, there are plenty of activists eager to talk about things of which they have little direct experience.
I wish more small farmers around Richmond would come forward and tell it like it is. You can’t make a living on a couple of acres regardless of how rich the soil is.
Here’s my experience: I invested over $90,000 in my half acre. I built greenhouses and other structures. I grafted, grew and sold Japanese Maples — a special product that is very popular in this part of Canada. We were open seven days a week, 10 hours a day from April to September.
I did this for seven years and worked hard. I enjoyed the whole experience, meeting people helping them with their gardens and working with these wonderful trees, but I never made more than about $12,000/year.
The tax breaks and write-offs were peanuts compared to the physical and mental effort needed to operate my “farm”.
The Agricultural Land Commission acknowledges that less than two acres of land is exempt from the ALR for the same reasons Mr. He, in your story, and my own experience have proven. These little plots are not farms.
Kent Mullinix at KPU is in the paper every week telling us all to grow crops on tiny plots. Does he know lots of millennials eager to work a half acre for about $12,000 per year?
If there is a ban on big houses or foreign buyers etc., it won’t change the fact that these little plots will remain vacant and unfarmable for decades. Land in Richmond has not always been expensive. Farmers showed no interest in these small plots in the 1960’s, long before the present rise in values.
If “activists” can provide real data showing how a small lot can provide a living wage consistently, then let’s see it.
Paul Edwards
Richmond
