It's pretty hard to make a meal out of galvanized steel. Then again, farming would likely be difficult without using tools made out of the stuff.
Long-time South Surrey farmer Carl Thielemann is worried his 42-acre farm has come under siege by city politicians and developers who want to build a 62,000-square foot hot dip galvanizing factory in Campbell Heights.
Thielemann's dilemma, indeed shared by all of us, once again raises the old "development-versusfarmland" debate.
And so, the battle between the old and the new, development versus agriculture and the environment, is once again met, this time near 24th Avenue and 184th Street.
It's tragic that a 100-year-old forest containing more than 400 trees came under the blade to make way for this project.
Who would argue Surrey has not lost too many trees in recent years?
Among his other environmental concerns about the galvanizing plant, Thielemann tells reporter Adrian MacNair, farmland cannot be reclaimed once it's paved over (see story on page 13).
Fortunately Surrey still has plenty of farmland and beautiful parks. Easter Island it is not. We are not quite the Rapa Nui People, who deforested their island and over-exploited its environment to the point that this nearly brought on their own extinction.
That said, not too long ago there used to be places in Surrey where the stars shone brightly on a clear night.
But not any more. And gazing today across the Serpentine Valley east toward Clayton Hill, and its rows upon rows of townhouses, who doesn't pine for a more pastoral sight?
Most would agree that modern cities bereft of trees and farmland or parks are generally miserable places to visit, let alone live.
Surrey must take care not to cross that line.