A large-scale multinational Delta vegetable producer is swapping out its tomato plants for pot plants in a 1.1-million-square-foot greenhouse because it says it can make more than 10 times the money.
Village Farms International also has plans to expand to five times that scale, resulting in a warning from Delta Mayor Lois Jackson about the future of farms in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).
“If you’re a big corporation, you’re going to do whatever you can to make money,” Jackson said. “But if we lose all our greenhouses to growing pot, what are the incentives for the farmers to be growing tomatoes, turnips and pumpkins?”
The Agricultural Land Reserve was created to protect five per cent of B.C.’s land for growing food and other agricultural practices, said Jackson.
And Delta, with its 22,000 acres of farmland with rich soil, offers the “lowest tax rate” to encourage farmers and local production, she added.
Susan Lazaruk – Vancouver Sun – October 8, 2017.
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