YOUR PERSPECTIVE: Farmers deserve our support
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It was great to be back at the PNE this week to do the 4-H auction after a two-year absence. As a 4-H member in my youth, I was there on the fairgrounds showing my steers when my dad was the auctioneer. I followed in my dad’s footsteps and have been doing the auction for approximately 40 years.
This got me thinking about all the young people trying to follow in their parents’ footsteps to become farmers and ranchers. As a third-generation dairy farmer in South Delta, I was one of those young people — and that’s why it’s so important to me that we support farmers so that they can be successful and pass on their operations to their kids and grandkids someday.
To say the last two years have been difficult for farmers and ranchers across British Columbia would be an understatement. Between record-breaking high temperatures last summer, blazing wildfires, an atmospheric river that completely devastated farms and ranches in communities including Sumas Prairie, Merritt, and Princeton, compounded by a wet spring and steady rise in operating costs, this has been one of the most challenging periods for British Columbia’s agriculture industry.
I often refer to the old saying, ‘if you ate today, thank a farmer.’ I think it serves as a good reminder of the hard work they put in 365 days per year to keep ourselves and our families fed. Recently, some farmers have encountered hostility from locals using the Boundary Bay dike. I remind everyone that farm vehicles do have the right of way and I encourage everyone to be respectful of them on their cycling or walking journeys.
