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A Letter to Premier Campbell & Minister Bell
April 29th, 2008. To Gordon Campbell, Premier Province of British Columbia premier@gov.bc.ca and Pat Bell, Minister of Agriculture & Lands pat.bell.mla@leg.bc.ca Sirs: The government of British Columbia has declared that, "A new British Columbia Agriculture Plan will ensure farming continues to have a bright future in B.C." Contradictorily, agriculture funding in BC is ranked "10...tenth...lowest," last in Canada. In a Financial Post article, published Monday, January 07, 2008, BMO Global Portfolio Strategist Donald Coxe, while addressing the Empire Club's 14th Annual Investment Outlook in Toronto, warned of an emerging global food catastrophe. Mr. Coxe declared, "It's not a matter of if, but when," he warned investors. "It's going to hit this year hard." "The greatest challenge to the world is not US$100 oil; it's getting enough food so that the new middle class can eat the way our middle class does, and that means we've got to expand food output dramatically," he said. (1) National Post journalist Terence Corcoran, in a Tuesday, April 08, 2008 article, entitled, "Who Caused the World Food Crisis?" wrote that, "We are now by all accounts in the midst of a global food crisisGovernments and agencies all over the world are gearing up for a global "New Deal" on agriculture policy to solve the food crisis, which means the people who brought us the food crisis are the same people who now want to fix it." (2) WHEREAS The Province of British Columbia has over 200 different and distinct agricultural commodity groups; more than any other Canadian province and, WHEREAS The agricultural land base of our Province has been alienated from uses other than agriculture since the formation of the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve in 1973 and, WHEREAS Agricultural production is recognized as being amongst the most competitive, high risk, labour and capital intensive industries in Canada and, WHEREAS To develop any industry to its fullest potential often takes an additional level of infrastructure, education and expertise facilitated by government investment; as is done successfully in many of our competing jurisdictions, to our detriment, and, WHEREAS British Columbia, while having the most diverse agriculture and restrictive land use legislation of any Canadian province, receives the smallest provincial government contribution toward these efforts at 3.3% of agricultural GDP according to States Can Data Book 2006, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT The Provincial government recognize the importance and potential of this diverse industry and its contribution to our GDP, our environmental and the well being of our population; and so immediately increase funding to the Agriculture Ministry in line with the average of all other provincial governments at 16.4% of agricultural GDP and use these funds to help increase the productivity and efficiency of our diverse agricultural sectors. Why blame government? For the undeniable reason that wrong-headed government policy has made food a trade issue priority rather than simply a matter of food! And now, in the words of Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at the University of Leeds: "We are sleep-walking into a crisis." At the provincial level your government policies have driven the agricultural community to their knees, at a time in our history when the local production of food to offset horrendous transportation costs is not just financially sound and logical but, combined with the consequences of global warming, essential to our well-being and very existence. (3) Citizens Advocating for Public Process & Sustainability (CAPPS) recognizes the need for the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands to financially back agricultural, has unanimously agreed to support the following Resolution and demands that the BC Liberal government immediately and forthwith support agriculture in the province of British Columbia through adequate funding. Yours truly, Citizens Advocating for Public Process & Sustainability (CAPPS) capps07@gmail.com
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