Re: “Municipalities Talk Time Limits For Land Conservation Deals” (Brandon Sun, Dec. 17).
Most people who put their land in a protective state do so because they cannot trust government or corporations to protect the land and the nature on it that they have spent their lives nurturing and protecting. They have seen far too many shyster, unscrupulous things taking place in the network of government(s).
Corporations and developments do not value nature, wildlife and the caring for and stewardship of land. Industrial Agriculture is another example that sees land as something only to buy and sell and profit from. Natural places on this land are seen as an economic liability and if society wants this preserved they suggest society has to pay for its preservation.
According to the article, Mayor Yanick of Shoal Lake is concerned about food production to feed the world masses.
Personally, that is a whole lot of malarkey. Does he expect the western grain producers to feed nine billion people by 2050? The people who need the food don’t have the money to pay for it, so are the farmers going to give it away? Think about that.
It would be better if international corporations and markets got out of their way and let them feed themselves rather than grow cash crops for export to countries where we have more than enough food produced and available to those who can afford to buy it.
A consideration of a certain time limit on conservation deals expresses an obituary to the donations of endowment, and what caring landowners would want to happen in their grateful efforts to preserve the natural habitant and nature.
Hopefully such a resolution will never succeed and influence the Manitoba government to change the law.
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition December 28, 2012