Don’t blame farmers for wanting to sell
To the editor:
I read with interest the recent letters to the editor concerning agricultural land (being taken out of) the Agricultural Land Reserve, in particular along KLO Road.
For example here in Kelowna, we have agricultural land which is farmed or not. A developer comes to the owner and offers him $3.5 million for his property.
Who would not be tempted? How many years would this owner have to toil in the soil, to amass the $3.5 million?
More than likely he, his children and grandchildren would have to work seven days per week and still could not earn that amount of money in their lifetimes.
Second, who would harvest the crops? For years now I have heard about how hard the orchardists had to be able to hire enough workers to harvest their existing crops.
As a preteen, I worked in the Chinese gardens in and around Vernon in the late 1940s and early ’50s.
Kids were paid 35 cents an hour, 10 hours per day, 5 1/2 days per week. Then the powers to be decided that we had to have a minimum wage. This drove the Chinese into abandonment of the vegetable gardens. The could not pay the minimum wage.
Are you willing to go out and assist in the harvest of crops? No.
So don’t complain if the farmers decide to sell their properties and let the interest accumulate on their sale price. We are all authors of this situation. Walk in the landowners’ shoes.
Orest Kociuba, Kelowna
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