The National Farmers Union is requesting a third party review of the County of Lambton's draft official plan.
The document outlines county policy for land use as well as environmental, social and economic matters.
President Emery Huszka was one of six people to raise concerns during a special meeting of Lambton County Council in Wyoming Wednesday morning.
"For the average person to come in and evaluate a document of this size and this importance it's virtually impossible to have the time and the resources and knowledge to critique it," says Huszka. "We are suggesting that they consider in their budget deliberations, identifying someone that could come in and provide a third set of eyes with resources so that they could evaluate from an independent perspective, from the perspective of the very rate payers that are going to be affected by this."
Huszka takes issue with a suggestion that small farms under 50 acres aren't viable.
"Small farmers have the right to exist just as well as larger farmers do and a large portion of what we were addressing in this official plan was the idea of what constitutes a farm," says Huszka. "Presently we have a 100 acre size requirement and we're suggesting that given today's land prices, given today's realities of market access, new market access for specialty products, specialty crops and new crops, all of a sudden smaller farm parcels are actually very viable."
Huszka says its simple, a farmer is a farmer if engaged in farm activity and people with a home and small acreage still have a vested interest.
"For example, the hops industry has really seen an increase, only because microbreweries have seen an increase," says Huszka. So each one of those microbreweries represent a market that did not exist 15-20 years ago.``
Feedback provided Wednesday will be compiled by staff and reviewed. County council will have the opportunity at a future meeting to either approve the document or send it back for further revisions.
