Farmland without farmers


So the Agricultural Land Commission has finally been given some bite to its bark. Just two weeks after releasing a long-overdue review of the authority charged with protecting B.C.’s farmland, the province – with rare expediency – legislated recommendations into law that will permit increased enforcement, heftier application fees and a moratorium on repeat applications to exclude land for development.
It also came with a much needed (albeit sorely overdue) injection of cash (boosting ALC’s 2012/13 budget to $2.9 million).
While no one would disagree that the ALC has been sorely underfunded (for years), let’s not lose sight of the fact this funding increase is not in perpetuity. The government is also telling the ALC it needs to develop a fee structure that will make it more self-sufficient.
That in itself could present an interesting challenge. If, on one hand, the new legislation prevents landowners and speculators from filing repeat applications and, on the other hand, the government is telling the ALC to augment provincial funding by charging fees, isn’t that kind of like biting the hand that feeds you?
These changes may be little more than closing the barn door after the cows have left the building.
Let’s face it. The ALC can continue to save all the farmland it wants, but unless they or government can stem the tide of urban and industrial speculation, or start propping up commodity prices (a free trade no-no thanks to another level of government), who are we saving it for?
With increasing land values fueled by urban and industrial development, there’s barely a hope for any legitimate farmer (young or old) to buy good productive farmland in this province – unless they can also afford quota. The provincial government can save all the land it wants for farming, but who can afford to farm it?
Yes, it’s one thing to save the farmland but what about the farmer? This government remains the least supportive of its agricultural sector than any other province. There is little support – financial or otherwise – that goes directly to B.C. farmers when they need it most – even when crushed by low commodity prices (apple growers and beef producers) or weather disasters (2010’s spud flood).
Here, you have a province that celebrates its efforts to close the door to development of farmland (except, perhaps, when it is politically convenient – like the super highway paving its way through 200-plus acres in Delta). But when it comes to supporting the very people who farm it, they come up woefully short.
Isn’t it ironic that – supply marketing aside – the farmers who grow the food are among those struggling to put groceries on their own table?

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