Concerns about a potential loss of representation, and a new implementation plan have caused farmers to make their voices heard at the regional district of Nanaimo so far this year.  

In January, a staff report presented the RDN board with the option of consolidating a number of committees,

One of them was the Agricultural Advisory Committee or AAC, which is made up of members of the farming community and directors on the RDN board. 

That potential loss of the committee caused a number of farmers to reach out and contact the RDN, and local farmer Ben Glassen advocated for the committee and issues affecting his community at a January RDN board meeting.

While a number of other committees were collapsed into the committee of the whole, the AAC was spared.

Part of the AAC’s work is an agricultural area plan, developed in 2012. 

Many items from the plan haven’t been put into practice yet, and this week the RDN adopted a new implementation plan to try and address that.

This week Ben Glassen once again spoke to the RDN board about issues facing local farmers.

Glassen and AAC chair Jessica Stanley spoke with Midcoast Morning about the issues island farmers are facing.

Editor’s note, Glassen is also a volunteer at CHLY, where he hosts a farming themed program called the Tuning Fork.