Editorials

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Big city has room for farmers

By: Editorial

Posted: 04/12/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Without agriculture and farming, it's unlikely that cities would have ever developed. Urban dwellers historically bought their food from neighbouring farmers, who in turn purchased goods and services in the city or town. The relationship worked for thousands of years.

Until the 1960s, there was even a sprawling market garden near the junction of the Red and Seine rivers, less than two kilometres from Portage and Main. It is now the Lagimodiere-Gaboury Historic Park, where the remains of the home built by Dutch farmers can still be found.

Today, however, cities get their food from all over the world, and urban sprawl is displacing productive land with buildings, parking lots and schools.

It was only a matter of time, therefore, before farmer Drago Kucas and his messy habits would run afoul of civilization and the law. Mr. Kucas raises pigs, chickens, cows and a donkey on land in St. Vital south of the Perimeter Highway, but within city limits.

Mr. Kucas is being forced by the city to clean up his land, which is littered with old cars and trucks, machinery, scrap metal, building materials and "other miscellaneous garbage." He is in violation of the Livability Bylaw, which was introduced to deal with urban neighbourhood problems.

It's unlikely the authors of the bylaw ever intended that it would be used to regulate farmlands, but it's clear nonetheless that Mr. Kucas has allowed his property to go to seed and he should tidy it up for the sake of his neighbours.

But with so little farmland left in the city, and with agricultural lands disappearing elsewhere, the city should look for ways to help preserve what remains.

The presence of cows, pigs and chickens, or the sight of a crop in bloom, helps to retain a city's link with its agricultural past. It may seem strange for a city that is an oasis in a vast stretch of emptiness, but many Winnipeggers have no sense of the role of agriculture or natural resources in the life of the province and, indeed, its importance to the city.

Most of us can't tell the difference between flax and canola, or between a Jersey or a Hereford cow, or between a cash crop and a board-regulated grain. Farmers could actually use a little help in promoting the importance of what they do, particularly their husbandry of the land.

The preservation of agricultural land in and near the city also means that local food production is still possible. At a time when the world is increasingly looking for green solutions, it just makes sense to hang on to some productive land in cities.

The idea of conserving farmland within civic boundaries shouldn't become an ideology or an obsession, but people like Mr. Kucas should be allowed to continue their lifestyle without being forced to conform unreasonably to the strict laws of life in the big city.

There seems little doubt that urban life will continue to expand around Mr. Kucas's farm, but perhaps the newcomers should understand that they are the intruders and the noisemakers.

Some people travel many miles to witness pastoral scenes and the sight of cows lollygagging around a haystack and block of salt. For now, anyway, it's just a short drive south on St. Mary's Road. But maybe wait until the place is tidied up.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 12, 2010 A10

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