By Taylor Breckles (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 19, 2014 (Online only)
The Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) was developed to protect farmable land in B.C., but according to Dr. Lenore Newman, we aren’t exactly doing a great job.
Newman, who holds a Canada research chair in food security and the environment and is an associate professor in the UFV’s geography department, discussed the state of the ALR at UFV as part of her current research project: “Life in Agriburbia: 40 Years of the Agricultural Land Reserve.”
Newman began the discussion with a few points she wanted the audience to remember.
The most important point, according to Newman, is that “the Agricultural Land Reserve works. Number two: what municipalities actually do actually matters.”
The third point appealed to the audience.
“We have to decide what we want to do with the ALR and what we will decide totally defines the region,” she said.
Newman started in on the grit of the conversation, explaining the factors of the ALR.
“What’s interesting, to me,” she began, “is yes, the ALR is about farmland, but what’s weird is it [is] probably the strongest urban growth boundary ever devised on this planet.”
Newman went on to say what we, as a collective, decide to do with our farmland will shape the nature of both the valley and the region. She assured that even though all of us individually may not own the farms, we have to power to do something with them. We live in a democratic society, and have the opportunity to work with our land as we see fit.
Newman reminded the audience that prior to 1972, there was no ALR and therefore no consensus on what should be done with the farmland in order to protect it.
“If the land reserve hadn’t been put in,” she said, “80 per cent of the valley would be urbanized by now.”
But why did we choose to protect the land?
“Well, this is really good farmland,” Newman said. “The only farmland on earth that’s better than this is the Nile.
“We have some of the greatest high-tech farms around,” she continued, “[and have] high-value agriculture and agri-tourism.”
Agri-tourism (encompassing our small corn crops as well as high quality peppers, berries, salad greens, and wine) is an integral part of supporting our local food economy.
“Chefs in Vancouver are really upset at the thought that the ALR could be eroded or go away entirely, because they would have nothing to cook and push forward this incredible cuisine that, I might add, brings in a ton of money to the city in terms of tourism,” Newman said.
She suggested freezing exclusions so young farmers can afford to buy land instead of it being bought and used for housing purposes. Another suggestion was to begin building up.
“The city has to do its part,” she said, “It has to push density. We have to build on hillsides, like we were originally supposed to in the plan, rather than on the flat land.”
Newman also mentioned laws in France that state a person must either be a farmer or have an agriculture degree in order to purchase farmland. This tactic would prevent people from buying the land in order to create miniature estates instead of farming.
According to Newman, promoting the purchase of farmland for farming, making it easier for young farmers to buy land in the ALR, and building malls and condos on hillsides instead of flatlands, would ensure our farmlands be both better used and saved.
