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Discussions are continuing to flesh out a vision to support and strengthen agriculture in the Pemberton Valley, through the ongoing process to develop a Pemberton Valley Agricultural Area Plan.
About 30 local farmers and residents attended a meeting at the Pemberton Community Centre last Thursday (Dec. 10) to debate some of the pressing issues and hear from the consultants charged by the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) to work with community members and staff to create the plan.
Darrell Zbeetnoff of Zbeetnoff Agro-Environmental Consulting went through an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the Pemberton Valley’s agricultural industry and lands, as articulated through interviews and discussions with experts including local farmers.
The Spud Valley’s natural attributes stand out in the list of strengths, which included the great soils and growing conditions, the pristine water and food-growing environment, commercial possibilities with the proximity of the Whistler and Vancouver markets and growing local economy and opportunities, and knowledgeable farmers with significant assets on the ground.
“Fertile soils comes out as one of the strongest strengths of the Pemberton Valley,” Zbeetnoff told the assembled crowd.
The area’s natural biosecurity, resulting from the valley’s isolation, was hailed as another major strength, and Zbeetnoff said it could also be regarded as an opportunity, a quality that could be protected and marketed.
“It’s a God-given advantage. It should be packaged and sold,” he said.
Naming the area’s other agricultural opportunities, Zbeetnoff also listed the chance to develop local markets, plan agri-tourism to generate broad benefits for the agricultural sector, attract and develop value-added enterprises such as the potato vodka-producing Pemberton Distillery, contributing more to local and regional food security and improving agricultural infrastructure.
Among the weaknesses that were identified for the region, Zbeetnoff listed the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) increasingly being used for non-food purposes, a sense of a “lack of respect for farmers and agriculture,” the absence of local plant and animal processing, limited local agricultural diversity and challenging farm economics.
Noted threats to the industry include encroachment on the land base, pressures on agricultural land from recreational uses, the introduction of invasive species and noxious weeds and an oft-stated issue of high land costs hurting the sustainability and future viability of farming.
“(That) certainly is a threat repeated very many times,” Zbeetnoff said of the land-cost concerns.
In an accompanying summary of the expert interview results circulated at the meeting, a desire to protect the agricultural land base rang out clearly. That was the most common answer to the question of what themes and principles the plan needs to embrace to be successful, and the query about the most important issues for the plan to address.
Some of the other top issues identified for the plan to address were the tension between agriculture and recreation, tourism and equine uses, estate use of good farmland for unproductive purposes, chances to capitalize on agri-tourism opportunities and local governance issues for farmers.
The meeting’s participants talked over a variety of possible guiding principles intended to shape the plan and help it address the issues raised throughout the consultations.
After the meeting’s participants broke into groups to discuss the potential guiding principles, Zbeetnoff said the consultants’ vision would be tailored to reflect the evening’s comments to move forward with the process.
According to a schedule presented to the SLRD board on Monday (Dec. 14), the aim is to complete the first draft of the plan in January 2010 and have it reviewed by an advisory committee, followed by another public meeting in January or February 2010 for further feedback before the plan goes to the SLRD’s board.
For further information, visit the SLRD’s website at slrd.bc.ca and look for the Agricultural Area Plan link under the Planning tab.
