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Port’s intentions misrepresented Letters


RE: Port development trumps BC agriculture, November 2016, by Peter Mitham


Your recent article covering federal


agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay’s presentation to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade may have drawn readers to inaccurate conclusions about Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s approach to agricultural land. Rather than contacting the port authority directly as journalists generally do, Mr. Mitham chose to repeat quotes


that were inaccurately reported long ago. While a federal entity may have legal primacy or supremacy over provincial legislation such as the Agricultural Land Commission, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority has stated our intent is to work with all potentially affected stakeholders, including the Agricultural Land Commission, to ensure we appropriately mitigate for any agricultural lands we may seek to convert for transportation and trade use.


A study we commissioned identified a figure of 2,500 acres as the amount of industrial land that needs to be preserved for warehousing and distribution to handle growing trade through Canada’s west coast for the foreseeable future.


However, it has never been the intent


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • DECEMBER 2016 Study recognizes need for 2,500 acres of industrial land but farmland is not on port’s radar


of the port authority to secure that land base through our own purchases, nor have we said it should be sourced through the conversion of agricultural land.


In the same way that agricultural land in BC is protected by the Agricultural Land Commission, we have been advocating for a halt to the rezoning of current industrial land and a more thoughtful, multi-party discussion about management of land planning that will protect the region’s agricultural land and ensure Canada’s trade interests are similarly protected.


Together, working with municipalities and others, we must protect what’s left before it is too late.


Robin Silvester President and CEO


Vancouver Fraser Port Authority


Story lacks context


Re: Urban Farm Seeks Stable Financial Footing, November 2016, by Peter Mitham Sole Food Street Farms is working with the Vancity Community Foundation to establish an endowment fund because, quite simply, we are not a typical farm.


Sole Food was established with the specific purpose of providing training and meaningful employment to individuals from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, most of whom have been characterized as “hard to employ.” Many have addictions, mental health issues, or both.


They come to us with little or no farming skills. We provide in-depth agricultural training and a range of support from financial literacy to breakfast in the morning. For many, working at our farms is the only meaningful engagement in their lives. A 2013 Queen’s University study concluded for every dollar we pay our staff there is a $1.70 savings to the public health care, social assistance and legal systems. ‘Regular’ farm operations don’t do what we do.


Comparing us to other for- profit urban farming operations such as the bankrupt Alterrus Systems and the Vancouver Food Pedalers Co-operative is like comparing apples to oranges.


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HLA Snow products are engineered and field tasted by our dedicated staff. They bear the cold and scrape their knuckles in real world environments to ensure that when you receive your HLA product, it performs as promised.


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When I helped start this project, I believed that we should operate like I operate my own personal farm on Salt Spring Island – generating all of our income “by the pound,” one pound of tomatoes, carrots or salad at a time.


If we wanted to just operate just a farm as the article implies, we would hire skilled farmers and farm workers, not folks who are down and out and dealing with some pretty heavy stuff. As such, we do have to raise the funds to support the social goals that are first and foremost in our mandate.


We appreciate Country Life


in BC’s coverage of our endowment fund and, armed with a few more facts, we sincerely hope your readers will have a clearer


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understanding of our work and the critical value we provide to the Downtown Eastside community we support.


Michael Ableman Co-founder, Director Sole Food Street Farms


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