To the Editor,
Re: Healthy farming solution takes times, Saturday Beat, April 2.
Toby Gorman’s column is naive and is based on taking the words of Lantzville mayor and council at face value, despite the fact that Lantzville mayor and (at least) part of council have proven repeatedly to be acting in bad faith.
When Mayor Colin Haime talks about possible fertilizer contamination of water sources or of depleted wells due to over use at Compassion Farm, he is deliberately ignoring information that has been sent to him by many sources, and is also being willfully ignorant of context.
Compassion Farm in Lantzville is an organic operation operating mostly with collected rain water. It is surrounded by a golf course and neighbours with pesticide-laden lawns, which are watered by well-fed sprinkler systems.
Mayor Haime should be aware of this, yet he continues to make statements that allege concerns for water levels and safety. Piles of manures pose a way lower threat to water quality than does Round-up and other chemicals used liberally on lawns and at golf courses.
And the golf course and the lawns of the neighbours all run directly off wells, with close to no rain water collection. Stop obfuscating the issue.
And please don’t tell me you are so naive as to think that bylaws about farming are not related to big agribusiness and the corporate takeover of everything.
To blame neighbours olfactory preferences as the only reason why we can’t farm in urban areas is third-grade naivety at best, or serving the existing corporate structure at worst.
This law needs to change immediately, and until it does Compassion Farm needs to be allowed to operate without adding a huge expensive obstacle of a temporary-use permit to farmers already making less than minimum wage.
Enough is enough.
Ilan Goldenblatt
Nanaimo