Written for Daily Hive Urbanized by Danielle Synotte, who is the Executive Director of the BC Agriculture Council.
British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) was created in 1973. It represents about 4.9% of the province’s land base and has often been regarded as one of the most early and progressive environmental policies in the world.
The intent was quite simple: to reserve prime agricultural land for farming and ranching purposes so as to ensure adequate space and capacity for these activities in perpetuity as the urbanized environment expands.
Skip ahead 51 years, and urbanization has most definitely built out across the province.
Today, there are many examples of agricultural and urban environments existing in incredibly close proximity. In Abbotsford, for example, multiple areas have condominiums lining the edges of farmers’ fields.
The modern urban landscape across BC creates a lot of new pressure on the ALR.
Municipalities are increasingly being built out, and developers are ever-expanding their footprint. Port and warehousing space is in high demand, and the population continues to boom. However, housing affordability is at an all-time low.
As a result, like wolves at the door, many hungry eyes are looking toward the ALR, desperately trying to figure out how to get land reclassified for their purposes.
Areas highlighted in green are protected farmland areas under the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) where urban development cannot occur. (Provincial Agricultural Land Commission)
Why should you care about the ALR?
We take a lot for granted as Canadians. We’re a country of plenty. Issues such as regional food production, food security, and the basic environmental principles of local food supply are not first and foremost on many people’s minds, as food is always just “there” on grocery shelves.
But these are critically important issues that deserve a great deal more focus.
As our province’s population increases, so does demand upon the food supply. We are heavily dependent on food imports to service these needs. Yet, these food source locales are experiencing their own climate-related impacts, amongst other issues.
What if there were shortages of supply of these imports, supply-chain disruptions (such as we witnessed during the pandemic), or changes in geopolitical politics? Having secure access to regional food is vitally important.
Furthermore, farming and ranching are major industries in BC, with high employment figures, significant support spending on regional supplies and equipment, and billions of dollars of farm-gate receipts annually.
In short, the creation of local food is a vital aspect of the provincial economy.
ALR into the future
As Executive Director of the BC Agriculture Council, it’s my job to worry about the sustainability and future of agriculture in BC, and worry I do.
There are many high-powered corporate and political interests angling for excuses to reclassify, repurpose, and re-tool ALR land.
But any reclassified piece of ALR is just chipping away at the functionality of the reserve and available land for agricultural use.
A sustainable BC means keeping these interests at bay while ensuring that the original intent behind the creation of the ALR remains just as important today as it was 50 years ago. In fact, this forward-thinking policy of 50 years ago was created to protect regional agricultural land from the very interests after it today.
We have a provincial election in coming months.
When choosing where to place your vote, I urge you to ask your candidates and party leaders to clearly state their position on ALR land and agricultural production.
We’ve been asking the provincial government to partner with the agriculture sector to develop a comprehensive new Agri-Food Competitiveness and Growth Strategy. Query your candidates on their thoughts around agriculture and assess whether your chosen party has your food security and regional food production as enough of a priority.
In the end, a strong and sustainable future for BC requires a strong regional agricultural sector. This isn’t a want but a need. We all need to eat. Our families need to have access to healthy, affordable food, and local food production is the first step in assuring those needs are met.
As individual citizens, we all have the power to speak with our votes. I urge you to consider these important issues and factor them in when determining where to cast your vote this October.