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Proposed changes to Agricultural Land Commission alarm local pols, who promise to fight any giveaways

November 8th, 2013 · 110 Comments

Lots of shock yesterday re Mark Hume’s story in the Globe with a leaked copy of proposed changes to the ALC, which would see it moved inside a provincial ministry and have its mandate altered to take into account economic factors.

Metro Vancouver’s planning committee was already planning to vote on a motion today asking to ensure the ALC is not weakened in any way. The news about the legislation ought to add considerable fuel to that debate.

Richmond Councillor Harold Steves, in the follow-up story Mark and I did for today, also warned that Metro would make sure no agricultural land is let go in the Lower Mainland, using the new, strengthened provisions of the Regional Growth Strategy.

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  • brilliant

    @rph 97-the point I’m trying to make is people squawk about the ALR and how essential it is to grow local food but as you point out those cranberris aren’t going locally.

  • Threadkiller

    @”brilliant”(??):
    Do you actually think that cranberries are the only crop that’s grown locally? You really ought to get out of the city–even just once– and take a tour of local farms. I’m no locavore, but locally-grown produce is cheaper, fresher and better-tasting. Do you look forward to the day when we’re completely dependent on outside sources for our produce? Ever compared a Fraser Valley strawberry with a California strawberry? I rest my case. And what’s with your bizarre objection to local growers selling their product outside of BC, like any other manufacturer? I thought you were some kind of fervent free-marketeer. Isn’t that how capitalism’s supposed to work??

  • rph

    Some interesting stats carried in the Vancouver Sun a few days ago:

    The ALR in Metro Vancouver produces 789 million dollars of various crops. Production in the Fraser Valley adds another 1.1 billion dollars.

    The Okanagan Valley 355 million, add another 140 million for wine tourism.

    Vancouver Island 48 million, 144 million in the North, 66 million in the Interior, and 16 million in the Kootenays.

    So the largest regional contributor to the agricultural econ0my, with it’s fertile soil, is Metro Vancouver/Fraser Valley, at almost 2 billion dollars.

  • brilliant

    @Threadkiller 102-I’m well.aware if wh, that’s debateat’s grown locally, even in this years when farmers complain there crop.was ruined by the rain. As to taste that’s debatable. How much is grown in environmentally unfriendly greenhouse?

    As to cranberris, if its all about our food security why are we devoting so much to an export crop?

  • Threadkiller

    @brilliant #104:
    “As to cranberris, if its all about our food security why are we devoting so much to an export crop?”

    Because it makes money. At least make a tiny effort to try to live up to your name once in a great while, willya?

  • brilliant

    @Threadkiller 105 – you’re trying to have it with ways. Either you need the land for food security or you don’t.

  • boohoo

    @106

    It’s food security and opportunity to make some money now, it’s food security into the future if/when required.

    You can have it both ways.

  • rph

    And there there is economies of scale. Generally unit costs decrease as production increases. Better profitability can be passed along to the consumer in terms of lower pricing. Lower or competitive pricing can also translate into increased market share. And of course this all helps keep the farm fiscally viable.

  • MB

    gman 99 ( …. um, I don’t think the “g” stands for Gretzky.)

    Funny that some of the most productive land in the lower mainland used to be the backyards of east Van.But we lost that to put up lane-way housing.

    That’s actually quite astute. However, probably half of the laneway housing displaced garages, arguably making the structures much more efficient from a land use and economic perspective.

    Historically, entire neighbourhoods displaced farmland in East Van. But the farmland in turn was quite shortlived considering it was carved from an ancient old growth forest just a couple of decades before.

    And thanks for touching on the topic of urban agriculture. There is a tremendous amount of land locked up in backyards (not to mention excessive front and side yard setbacks). There is now a movement to use a portion of it for small plot intensive (SPIN) gardening where an urban farmer cultivates private backyards with certain techniques that makes it very productive.

    I once read where one SPIN gardener had already sold three specialty lettuce and herb crops at a farmer’s market weeks before the May 24th weekend …. in Saskatoon. A little poly goes a long ways to protecting organically-enriched soil.

    http://www.spingardening.com/whatsSpin/

  • MB

    @ rph 102 + 108

    That was indeed a very informative piece on the ALR. What I found most intriguing was the order-of-magitude better agricultural productivity from the Fraser Valley (kg or $ of crops per hectare) as compared to anywhere else in Canada.

    It is surely better than most locations in North America as well when you calculate the artificial inputs (imported water, fertilizer, energy, subsidies …) and deduct them from the output.

    For example, the deep, nutrient-rich alluvial soils of the Fraser Valley require fewer amendments and irrigation than California’s Great Central Valley which, in places, has been overcultivated and has lost all its organic matter down to its mineral base (i.e. down to sand and gravel), and where aquifers are depleted and water is transported via thousands of km of canals and pipes from out of state, and where the vital snowpack on the Sierra Nevada mountains is diminishing due to drought as time progresses.

    These are some of the array of reasons why the ALR is very important to our food security.

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