100 Mile Diet No Reason to Oppose Site C Dam

There's been the typical hue and cry from environmentalists and the constant complainers in this province about the news that the Site C dam is going to be built on the Peace River. What of the migratory birds? What about the poor ungulates--whatever the hell those are. (Apparently, ungulates are moose and deer and the like. In that case, absolutely stop a multi-billion dollar capital program to preserve the creature comforts of deer! Yikes!) The richest reason yet for opposing the dam is that it will flood hectares and hectares if land that could be farmed. That's true. 5400 hundred hectares of land will be flooded, but only a small fraction of that is arable land. But, as we all know (because its crammed down our throats at every opportunity) we should all be eating local and following the 100 mile diet. Forget for a second that the 100 mile folks wrote what is the most smug, self-congratulating piece of literature I've ever read and take a look at a map. The Site C dam would be built in the northeast reaches of the province. Even if all 5400 hectares of land could grow delicious grapes, crunchy almonds, ripe avocados, juicy apples, and plump strawberries, they would still have to be trucked hundreds of miles to get to the bulk of the population in the lower mainland. In fact, to get to where I'm typing now, it would have to travel over 745 miles! For that mileage, I could get produce from Washington, Oregon, and even half of California with a smaller "carbon footprint" than this so-called 'local' produce! There are plenty of concerns to take into account when building a large project like a hydroelectric dam but certainly the opinions of birds and the carbon footprint of leeks cannot be among them. BC needs power, BC has rivers, BC should build Site C.