Harold Steves would like to see food grown in Richmond parking lots and industrial areas – and, specifically in City Centre and high-density areas.
And it looks like many other Richmond councillors agree with him that it’s something the city should explore.
The province recently changed its regulations to allow vertical farms – three-storey greenhouses on a concrete base – in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), but Steves said farmland is the wrong place for these types of operations.
Despite being a former NDP MLA, Steves has been critical of the provincial government’s decision to allow vertical farms in the ALR, saying on social media “This #BCNDP Government has destroyed more farmland than all other governments combined since the #ALR saved farmland in 1973.”
This decision could destroy 28,000 acres in the ALR, Steves told council's planning committee on Tuesday.
The city currently doesn’t allow concrete floors in greenhouses, so these vertical farms can’t be built on Richmond farmland.
“You can imagine the outrage people had over the big houses – if you had a half-acre greenhouse up three storeys, I think they’d be just as angry because it destroys that much land and, plus, you have these lights on night and day,” Steves said. “If we showed them the way of getting one vertical farm in the downtown, we might get them away from this idea of putting them on farmland.”
Steves said Moe Sihota, who is a provincial lobbyist – best known for his lobbying for the LNG industry – has been calling around to convince “people” to get on board with vertical farming. Steves said he expects Sihota to call Richmond councillors as well.
Steves brought up the vertical farming issue at Tuesday’s planning meeting, saying he’d like city staff to explore how vertical farming could be done in Richmond’s urban or industrial areas to prove that it can be done. This would allow food to “go out the door to the customers,” he added.
The ministry of agriculture warned in 2016 “when the crunch hits… we’re going to have to find 90,000 hectares – 270,000 acres – of farmland in B.C. to put back into production,” Steves said.
This is the situation the province now finds itself in with rising food prices caused by supply chain problems and higher fuel prices due to the war in Ukraine.
Much of this needed farmland is currently being used for golf courses, nurseries and horse farms, Steves added.
A 30-foot-by-10-foot vertical farm was built beside a parking structure in Jackson, Wyo., and produces 10 times as much food as soil-based farming did, Steves explained, created by a public-private company called Vertical Harvest.
The planning committee voted to ask the city to explore creating a vertical farm in Richmond’s urban or industrial areas.
The News has reached out to Sihota for comment.
