Andrew Weaver is betting the farm on his party's growth in the West Kootenay.
The B.C. Green Party's leader was in Nelson on Tuesday and Wednesday to promote Nelson-Creston candidate Kim Charlesworth and announce the party's agricultural platform. Weaver wouldn't make any predictions ahead of the May 9 provincial election, but implicit in his visit was a show of support in a riding where the Greens made a significant gain four years ago.
"I would suggest we have a shot in an awful lot of ridings," said Weaver. "I would suggest that people are going to wake up May 10th and realize some big change just happened."
Weaver also announced Charlesworth as the party's spokesperson on agriculture and food systems. Charlesworth, a former Nelson city councillor, joined the Nelson Food Cupboard in 2013 and is part of the Central Kootenay Food Policy Council. Charlesworth helped collaborate on the new agricultural platform, which Weaver said made her appointment common sense.
"Kim has experience that I thought we needed in the area of food security and agricultural systems," he said. "She's also in the Kootenays here where we've heard a lot concern about access to land from farmers. I've had stories come my way from people here who want to make farming a living but can't get land to farm. I consulted with Kim and she had lots of ideas and I said, 'Help me.'"
The platform announced Wednesday includes a $30-million investment over four years meant to enhance the agricultural industry. More specifically, the party wants the money to provide incentives for more food produced in B.C., and for farming to become a viable career option with apprentice programs available at secondary and post-secondary schools.
The average age of farmers in B.C., according to the party, is over 55 years old with just six per cent younger than the age of 35.
Charlesworth said the biggest hurdle for young farmers is the low availability of land in the Agricultural Land Reserve, wherein farming is supposed to be given precedence. The platform includes the promise of legislation that increases those reserves while protecting the land from non-agricultural or residential use.
"The major problem they have is being able to afford farm land because of the speculation and just the [price] increase in farm land," she said. "The ideas that we are going to be exploring as part of the platform and as part of our ongoing agriculture efforts is how do we make land more affordable? What are some of the ways we can do that?"
Also included in the platform is $40 million spent over four years for research, the establishment of regional agricultural bureaus and support for farmers adapting to climate change.
Weaver likened the bureaus to think tanks where agricultural research can develop and find its way into the industry.
"It's very similar to the tech industry, for example," he said. "Part of the problem with getting great ideas to market is getting out of the gate. So in our tech platform we announced more funding for incubators. These are places where ideas blossom and grow.
"Often those with the ideas don't know where to go. They don't know how to market an idea. They don't know how to get funding. They don't know what it means to develop a business plan. So you develop a structure that allows them to take their idea and bring it to market."
The party hopes some of those ideas will address climate change. The platform promises support for farmers struggling with changing weather patterns, which Charlesworth said can be done by getting operators to consider crop selection and different methods of retaining moisture in soil as opposed to irrigation.
"A lot of plants don't germinate in extreme heat, so planting cycles will need to change," said Charlesworth. "Farmers aren't going to know all of that."
The Greens have finished third in the riding in the last five elections going back to 1996. But the party's 2013 result, which saw then-candidate Sjeng Derkx win 3,387 votes or 20.95 per cent of the turnout, was 13 per cent higher than their 2009 result. NDP incumbent Michelle Mungall still won the riding with 50.73 per cent of the vote.