Steele eager for new adventure
Hundreds of Okanagan farmers will gather in Kelowna this weekend for the 129th annual general meeting of the B.C. Fruit Growers Association.
One task facing members of the remarkably long-lived organization is saying farewell to Fred Steele, the association’s president for the past five years. He has sold his Kelowna orchard and is retiring from farming.
As part of our ongoing “In Conversation” series, The Daily Courier’s Ron Seymour asked Steele about the challenges, opportunities, and uncertainties facing Okanagan agriculture.
——— SEYMOUR: Someone once said that, in the dictionary, farming comes between famine and feast. Is this a hard time or a good time to be an Okanagan fruit grower?
STEELE: The industry is in a time of transition. We are growing again, and have for the last three years, after 32 years of decline. Prices are in a tailspin this year, true, but overall it could be a one-year event. I think history will record our time was on the cusp of a very good time for the industry.
SEYMOUR: If you were a young person with $200,000 to invest, would you invest in agriculture in the Okanagan?
STEELE: Only if I first passed a psychiatric exam (laughs). If someone has their heart set on being a farmer, I would suggest leasing land and farming first. Buy only what you need, use extension services, and go to farm meetings to learn. Working hard for your dream is never impossible. It all comes down to what you are made of.
SEYMOUR: What three measures could the NDP-Green government take right away to improve the fortunes of farmers?
STEELE: Short-term, we have two issues — aging infrastructure at packinghouses and a sudden downtown in the price of apples. The government is coming forward with a program to provide compensation for loss, but it does not replace income to the max. We are glad to have the BuyBC program back, and to be getting our products into institutions such as hospitals.
SEYMOUR: The government says it will review the Agricultural Land Reserve. What would be your top two recommendations for improving or changing the ALR?
STEELE: It is important to insist land in the ALR be farmed. If landowners build huge estate homes and leave the land fallow, tax measures should be taken to encourage farm use.
And all ALR decisions should be made at the provincial level, rather than the municipal level. All business on agricultural land in B.C. should be have the same access to activity.
SEYMOUR: Total farmland in the Central Okanagan fell 25 per cent from 2011 to 2016, to 23,461 hectares from 31,368 hectares. However, gross farm receipts increased 24 per cent, from $96 million to $120 million. Why the opposing trends?
STEELE: The land base decreased because of replant operations, where more fruit can be grown on less land. Farm receipts are expanding because the big operators are buying up medium-sized farms when older farmers retire.
SEYMOUR: Landowners have to show a very small amount of agricultural output, $2,500, to be able to claim lucrative tax breaks on both their property and residence. These people are sometimes called “tax farmers,” suggesting they’re more interested in using the system to dodge taxes than genuinely working the land. Should that threshold be increased? STEELE: We are pressing the government to increase the threshold to $10,000. We want farming to take place in fact, not through the trading of a horse or cow on paper. To be a full member of the BCFGA, you now must produce at least $15,000 worth of agricultural products.
SEYMOUR: How badly did the City of Kelowna botch a plan to allow owners of agricultural land to set up RV parks to earn extra income?
STEELE: Not enough thought went into this. Some people with land they did not intend to farm presented their RV plans as a revenue-generator. For some, it became their only revenue generator. But pointing fingers with the benefit of hindsight is a mistake. Some lessons were learned from the RV caper.
SEYMOUR: You’re selling up and getting out of farming. What are you going to do with yourself?
STEELE: It’s time for the next generation to take control of the rudder and lead the industry to new achievements. My father said, ‘You can rest when you're dead,’ so I hope to be part of a new adventure. I just don’t know what that is yet.