Need farms, farm land more than ever

I repeat - please stop building subdivisions on farmland.

In 1996, I wrote an article for The Advertiser trying to dissuade our Kings County councillors and planners from allowing housing developments on Valley farm land. I'm sad to say my concerns were overpowered.

As I reflect on the dozen or so farm land subdivisions approved in the past decade, I can understand why councillors may have allowed these projects (higher tax base, growth in the economy, little awareness or resistance from the public).

This week, I had a phone call from a Valley farmer friend concerned about an application to replace 41 acres of prime agricultural land in Weston with 200 houses and 100 additional housing units. As I look at the present proposal in light of recent Valley events, I believe there can be absolutely no justification for this project.

In the past month, we've learned of the loss of an egg grading plant in Port Williams, the closure of Maple Leaf Poultry in Canning, and possibly the loss of Larsen's in Berwick by 2009, if not earlier, depending on if pork farmers can adapt. As Glen Ells put it - it’s like a bomb went off.

The lowest common denominator here, though rarely mentioned, is we are clearly and surely entering the end of the cheap fuel era. Maple Leaf has a certain amount of money to invest and they will invest it where they have 1,000 per cent more chicken eaters within the same trucking distance in Ontario, and where Manitoba grown chicken feed is $100 less per ton. When they move all their red meat processing to Brandon, it'll be because it costs half as much to ship 10 lbs of grain 100 km than to ship one pound of pork 500 km. Who could blame them?

What does this mean for the Valley? Hundreds of people may leave Kings County shortly in search of work. This means hundreds of additional houses on the real estate market. This can only mean one thing to the municipal tax base: it will decrease because house values will go down due to lower demand and higher supply. The last thing we need here are more houses! Every house that enters the market will now work towards decreasing the property values of current taxpayers. This is one of the most direct ways we will be feeling the shock waves of this Valley bomb.

But consider this: as early as next year, half the corn produced in the world will be destined for ethanol fuel. In Iowa alone, ethanol plants (25 operating, four under construction, 26 planned) will consume all that state's corn production. The idea Nova Scotia farmers will be able to afford to import grain for livestock is becoming an unfortunate absurdity.

Our capacity to survive as a region - and as a province - will be in our ability to make our operations self sufficient. To use Advertiser reporter Wendy Elliot's word, we have to “re-localize.” In the recent past, our farmland has been vastly underutilized due to relatively poor profitability and a habit of using mostly imported grains. If we are to produce our own farm products during an era when imported grain will no longer be available, we will have to farm every fertile acre in Kings County.

If Kings County councillors allow the construction of this 300-unit subdivision on fertile soil, they will contribute to a depreciation of home values and, ironically, the municipal tax base. Far worse, councillors would be countering our ability to adapt to the challenge before us - to produce grain and food for a province that is going to depend on us for the first time since the railroad.

Lance Bishop,

Beef farmer,

Baxters Harbour