Photo by Flickr user Tech109

While food production has been gaining plenty of attention recently, much of the energy has gone into urban agriculture.  Lest we forget about the importance of larger scale production systems, here is an example of land us policy failing to do its job that hits entirely too close to home:

A Richmond farm owner has been permitted by the Agricultural Land Commission to dump thousands of cubic meters of fill on their prime agricultural soil, since they intend on establishing a tree nursery.  To add to the controversy, neighbours say that materials such as rebar have also been included in the mix.  The full article was published in The Province on Tuesday.

The article skirts the heart of the issue though.  Regardless of the material being dumped, I find it immensely disturbing that there are any circumstances that permit land owners to degrade their soil by burying it under meters of fill.  Soils take thousands of years to form, and good agricultural soil is becoming an increasingly scarce resource as the global population continues to grow.  Removing contaminants from soils is costly and time consuming; it is not likely that a contaminated soil will be returned to its orignal quality.  So the real question is, where are our priorities?  A tree nursery might be more lucrative for the land owners, but is it the best use of the space?  I would argue that we need to prioritize preserving our agricultural production capacity, particularly looking into a future where imported food will be increasingly expensive due to rising fossil fuel costs, a less predictable climate, and water shortages.  Remember folks, it’s soil, not dirt.