Editor:
If people want to save farmland, then I have a suggestion for them: reach into your office desk, pull out your chequebook and together buy the farmland that is suitable for growing.
Then as co-op you can plough the land and grow what you wish, with the hope locals will buy your products that have taken the time and money to produce.
You realize you have roughly a three-month growing season if you're lucky. Just ask the potato farmers what happens when they had their crops ruined by a very wet summer, which is the only time they could grow their potatoes.
I remember farmers asking for a bailout because of the loss of their crops. I would imagine you would be asking for the same help.
This land in South Delta is very expensive to own and unless you can grow huge crops and make a good return on your investment, it's not an easy life.
As one local farmer said, it is really hard to compete with the United States and Mexico when they grow in volume and get decent weather most of the time.
So unless you people put your money where your mouths are, I would forget about saving this land. We are an exporting nation and that is more important than land that costs an arm and leg to own and a gamble to make a living from.
I do not see too many young farmers wanting to continue in their parents' footsteps.
Robert Slomen
