From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Wed Nov 20 2002 - 14:34:41 EST
November 20, 2002 == MEDIA ADVISORY
On Tuesday, November 26, just in time for Thanksgiving, the Kent County Board
of Commissioners will discuss and vote on recommendations brought to it by its
Urban Sprawl Subcommittee. One of the recommendations, the Purchase of
Development Rights Program or PDR, has been controversial.
Its intent is to lock up almost 100,000 acres of Kent county agricultural land,
doing so via installment purchase agreements. It would preserve sections of the
county's best farms and avoid areas of the county designated for development.
The plan has garnered opposition and indeed recently was rejected by a 5-4 vote
by the Finance and Human Resources Committee of the Commissioners. Despite that
Kent County Commission Chairman Steven Heacock plans to bring it to the full
board next week, saying years of work deserve a full board hearing.
Calvin College biology professors Uko Zylstra and Dave Warners agree with
Heacock and support the PDR. In fact Zylstra plans to attend the meeting next
week.
"Agriculture is a fundamental basis for any civilization," says Zylstra.
"Unfortunately, we tend to lose sight of this fundamental basis for our society.
Most people get their food from the grocery store rather than directly from the
farm. So we fail to appreciate the importance of good farmland and a strong
agricultural community for the well being of a community."
Warners says the PDR will be good for Kent County.
"The health of any human community depends on the health of its natural
environment," he says. "A landscape that is balanced with urban, rural and
natural areas is a much healthier landscape than one that has been consumed by
urban sprawl. Furthermore, consumption of food that is locally grown is sound
economics for everyone."
Zylstra and Warners also say Kent County needs to think beyond its borders and
look not only nationally but internationally.
"This," says Zylstyra, "is a global issue as well as a local issue. Future
global food needs are dependent on the availability of good farmland. But prime
farmland continues to rapidly disappear. In Kent County alone the loss of
farmland during the past two decades averages out to a loss of about 40 acres a
week. If this rate of loss continues, Michigan will soon join several other
states in becoming a net importer of foods."
Contact Uko (YOU KO) Zylstra at 957-6499
Contact Dave Warners at 957-6820
-end-
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