Upper Yarra
10 Tuesday, 6 October, 2015
CFA recruit call
14
Mail Covering the Upper Yarra Region of the Yarra Ranges Shire
Council review continues
A Mail News Group publication
30-31
Sports of all sorts
Phone: 5957 3700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808
Pigger y’s red tape By VICTORIA STONE-MEADOWS THE future of the Happy Valley free range pig farm in Wandin North has again been cast in doubt after council rejected the permit to change their feeding processes. The farm submitted a request to council that would bring them into line with the planning scheme that currently classifies the piggery as an intensive farm. “We are looking to grow foraging crops to bring the nutritional levels of the property up,” farm owner Jo Stritch said. “That way we wouldn’t need to bring as much feed in from outside and we could then be considered an extensive farm.” Yarra Ranges council has rejected their request for a permit based on the advice of a farm nutrition expert that did not believe the Stritches could grow the appropriate level of nutritional food on the farm. “Council has rejected it on the hearsay of the expert, but this person has never seen the property and never seen the pigs, which is disappointing,” Mrs Stritch said. Mrs Stritch and her husband Andrew feel the council has not considered their proposal thoroughly enough. In a letter sent to the pig farm, Yarra Ranges Council stated it was not satisfied the submission would make land use lawful under the scheme as the pigs
could not survive on foraging crops alone. Mrs Stritch pointed out that the crops would provide a majority of the pig’s nutrition and not the entire diet. “I believe the pigs can get more nutrition from the property if we grew more crops,” Mrs Strich said. “We grow Italian rye grass already, and if we introduced other mixes we could produce 55 per cent of the pig’s diet from the property.” Mr Stritch said the couple felt they had been knocked back at every turn despite doing everything they could to comply with the planning scheme. “The food we are bringing in is grown, not manufactured,” he said. “But now we are told we can’t grow it ourselves, it’s has to been grown somewhere, so why can’t we do it?” The couple say they have had enough of trying to fight the regulations and are considering their options for the future. “Our only options are to continue to pursue council for foraging crops or to relocate.” Mr Stritch said. Clive Larkman, Chairman of Agribusiness Yarra Valley said the pig farm had been unfairly targeted in this matter. “This decision has come from people who are not qualified to make that decision,” he said. “I feel they are being unfairly targeted and it’s wrong.”
Melissa Ho, left, and Suyin Chan in the food garden. 144757
Green grows the garden of hope Warburton’s Melissa Ho and Suyin Chan are two happy planters, after their project for a Yarra Valley Food Network website received a community grant from the Yarra Ranges Council last month. The YVFN website received a $3000 grant from the council through its community development grants as part of its 2016 Grants for Community Program, sharing in a total of $322,232 with 56 other projects. The website, which will be auspiced by the Koha Community Cafe, will allow users to share information about food and produce they have available and will allow for a buy, swap or sell for that food. For the full story, turn to page 5.
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