should be the same rules around the province, since pressure on the ALR varies from the Interior and north, to high-pressure areas like the Okanagan, Fraser Valley and parts of Vancouver Island.
He’d like to see local governments all
over the province taking the designation of farmland more seriously. And, he’d like to see agricultural advisory groups like planning commissions or committees established in each local government area. In some areas, he’d like to see them strengthened. A former chair of Kelowna’s Agricultural Advisory Committee, he says there was a very good relationship between that body and city council. “If we could bottle that and send it around the province it would be a good thing,” he comments with a grin. Ideally, he says the ALC should be working with local government to preserve farmland, and he’d like to see positive relationships between the ALC and councils.
Bullock is optimistic about the increase in appreciation of farmland and farmers in this province, along with an increase in appreciation for the part local food plays in health, economics and the enjoyment of food.
“But, without the land, it’s not possible,” he notes.
He’s happy to see community gardens becoming so popular around the province, and farmers’ markets, and the trend towards restaurants buying closer to home. All indicate an awareness of where our food comes from, and
support for local farming.
“Thankfully, attitudes about food are changing, with more interest in buying local,” he comments. On the other hand, Bullock says farmers are becoming better at identifying and producing for niche markets, just as those markets are becoming better accepted. Innovators have turned the cherry and apple industries on their ears in recent years, with new varieties and higher density planting methods.
He sees that as part of an evolution in farming, and says there’s room for many different types of farming. There have been huge changes in transportation and storage of crops; in genetics and creation of new varieties; and in growing techniques. To those who question preserving farmland on the basis that they can’t make a living farming it, he says the two issues are closely related, but not twins. Sometimes farmers make bad business decisions, just as those in any other industry, and that can’t be blamed on the land’s ability to grow food. However, the ALC may not have a role in both issues, because agricultural policy is outside the purview of the ALC. Nonetheless, it’s an issue that will be considered in the review, he said. Bullock noted that when the legislation creating the land reserve was passed there were programs ensuring the economic viability of farming land in the reserve, but those programs have been eroded during the years since. “We’ll have to look at what’s possible
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and practical and what’s fair.” He has a great admiration for the work done by former commissioner and orchardist Allan Claridge and says he only hopes he can come as close to how fair and ethical he was.
There’s nothing cut and dried about any decisions made by the commission. “Some decisions really pull at your heartstrings,” he commented, adding, “None are taken lightly. They’re tough decisions. Sometimes they’re decisions that local communities don’t want to make.”
Bullock is not involved in the appointment of new commissioners and there were several open slots when he took on his new role in June, including two on the Okanagan panel. Since then, commission vice-chair Roger Mayer, a rancher from Keremeos, has been joined on the Okanagan panel by Jim Johnson from the North Okanagan, who worked for Bell Pole in Lumby, and Bert Miles, former general manager for Burnaby Lake
Greenhouses, who is also an accountant. Bullock was chair of the Farm Industry Review Board prior to his appointment to the ALC. That position has been taken over by Ron Kilmury.
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