Island food self-sufficiency vs. ‘development’
Well here we are only a few short weeks after the council was intimidated by men in big trucks honking their horns outside the meeting and voted against the very intelligent and mindful motion of limiting development.
But now we are finding out that food is precious on our Island and that we need to grow more, but guess what? This wonderful “development” we love has paved over farm lands for malls and subdivisions until an assessment done in 2004 showed that Vanouver Island is able to supply only five to 10 per cent of its food supply whereas in the 1950s it was 85 per cent. So how low must that percentage be in 2020?
As we’ve seen with medical masks the Americans can stop goods flowing into Canada at their will and as the bulk of our food is from California or Mexico another Trump tantrum could stop these shipments too.
We need to put a stop to our mindless rampant development and save the land and water remaining for survival and self sufficiency.
Let’s make council re-vote now in light of the new COVID reality and halt the further destruction of what’s left.
Have the scary men with the big machines turn some district lands into community gardens instead of parking lots and ugly sprawl.
Victoria is changing their city greenhouses to food plants instead of flowers.
Let’s show them the Cowichan Valley can do their part too.
Barry Dixon
Duncan