It is infuriating to constantly read of the ALC (Agricultural Land Commision), rubber-stamping applications from municipalities to allow ALR lands to be removed, and then immediately to be rezoned, and approval given for various developments by local councils.
This negates the purpose of the ALR. It’s very simple, the letters stand for Agricultural Land Reserve, and those lands should be held for future populations, not to just be held until a developer’s deal comes along.
It is possible to conceive that if this continues, very soon all our plant foods will be grown in hydroponic greenhouses (as many already are), and not in rich, healthy soil.
Apart from being less nutritious, all our food will then contain many more chemicals and other additives.
Not only is valuable agricultural land being built on and covered with houses and asphalt, but many other wild areas are being logged of all trees, and if any areas are replanted, it is often with a single, fast-growing tree variety (remember the pine tree beetle?)
This is not what countless wild animals and birds require who, like humans, need food from a diversity of natural open spaces.
With no undeveloped, natural wild areas close-by – where will even bees be able to exist, which do such an important job of pollinizing our food plants?
A further important fact is that other countries are also developing and less able to provide our foods, so we must protect our own sustainability or perish.
Lila Rauh
