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Editorial: Paying for Port Coquitlam produce

We need to support farmers if we want them to continue to produce our food
Supporting farmers
Buy local if you want to support Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam farmers.

Farming in Port Coquitlam is tough. It’s no 1930s dustbowl but the agricultural area has a high water table, the farms are small and close to residential areas, and a new road for Burke Mountain traffic is being planned.

Can anything be done to save PoCo farming? The city is doing its best to promote local farming with proposed changes to the zoning bylaw to expand how farm properties are used for agriculture and to promote agri-tourism.

But this may not be enough to convince landowners to farm — currently less than 25% of PoCo ALR land is being farmed — when the pressure is on to develop and it’s so expensive to invest in proper drainage and facilities.

Still, there’s a dream that if everyone gets behind local farmers and is willing to buy their crops and support the industry that PoCo could one day be a high-producing agricultural region.