The B.C. government’s sudden interest in food is welcome, as long as it is not just the flavour of the month. In the throne speech on Tuesday, the B.C. Liberal government promised it would increase support for local agriculture, as a way to help families who have to dig deep to cover rising food costs.
The promises included more money for the Agricultural Land Commission and a 25 per cent tax credit for farmers who donate some of their produce to food banks and other non-profits.
The goal is to get us to “buy local, grow local.”
“This work will get more British Columbians engaged in growing food at home and in their communities,” the speech said.
When former B.C. Liberal premier Gordon Campbell spelled out his five goals for a “golden decade” more than 10 years ago, food and agriculture didn’t even rate a mention. But that was before the days of $8 cauliflower.
Today, when the price of food jumped 4.5 per cent in December alone, people are worried about the cost of food and the cost of houses — another issue the throne speech promised to address.
While governments should be responsive to the concerns of citizens, the unexpected emphasis on food seems odd after years of hearing the premier say that economic growth — mainly through liquefied natural gas — is the government’s focus. Is food really a priority of the government or a promise that might curry favour with voters who care more about today’s supper than tomorrow’s LNG?
If the B.C. Liberals have had an epiphany, food is a worthwhile topic for their attention. Fifty years ago, Vancouver Island produced 85 per cent of the food its residents needed. Today, that figure is 10 per cent. If the Island were ever cut off from the mainland, there would be enough food to last 72 hours.
So far, the Clark government’s only major move on food and agriculture has been to divide the Agricultural Land Reserve into two categories, reducing protection for farmland outside the Lower Mainland, the Okanagan and the Island. That doesn’t suggest a commitment to preserving farms.
The promise of more money for the land commission could be a sign that they have changed their minds. Real progress, however, will take more than that. B.C. agriculture meets 50 per cent of the province’s food requirements, but pressures on farms, most of which are family operations, are significant.
Just five per cent of the land in B.C. is suitable for agriculture, of which 1.1 per cent is class 1 or 2, the best soil. Almost all of that top-grade soil is in the Fraser Delta, where demand for land for development is high.
That is one reason the land reserve is contentious, with many saying that land frozen in the reserve is driving up the cost of housing in an overheated market.
Only about half of the ALR land in the Lower Mainland is farmed. The laws around the ALR protect farmland from non-farm uses, but don’t require it be farmed. Golf courses are considered agricultural use. And some land in the reserve can’t be farmed, critics argue.
Still, the Agricultural Land Reserve has an effect in making agriculture financially viable. The cost of farmland in B.C. has risen five per cent in the past five years, compared to 80 per cent in Saskatchewan and 71 per cent in Ontario.
Keeping B.C. farms alive and helping them to supply more of the province’s food requirements will take more than a tax credit for food donations, but the government seems to be paying attention to a problem that is becoming increasingly important.
