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As we draw near to the 50th anniversary of the creation of BC’s Agricultural Land Reserve in 1973, the arguments around this cutting-edge land use tool don’t become less passionate. From the get-go, there has been controversy, but the validity of the original intent of this reserve, to preserve food growing lands for future generations and to encourage farming, has been proven repeatedly, but never more definitively then over the past 2 years.
Our province has faced grave challenges recently. A variety of supply chain issues that have been pandemic related, along with climate change weather event disruptions and disasters that have proven deadly to our food supply. The words “food security”, “food resiliency”, and “self-sufficiency” have never been used more often in regular day to day conversations, and certainly have not had this type of attention politically, at all levels.
We have been frightened by what we have gone through because we have seen weaknesses and fragility in a food system that we have grown to depend on more and more over the years. We import more food that we produce, and for decades there has been a focus on providing food for trade and less on providing food for ourselves. This kind of focus can be managed when everything is working smoothly - When export markets don’t see shutdowns, when transportation routes are working seamlessly, and when we have people filling jobs that support this type of system.
But that has not been the case lately. We have seen unprecedented difficulties on all fronts.
Since 2017, there has been a shift in focus of the BC agriculture ministry. There has been a new focus on expanding and supporting our domestic market. A conscious effort to build our domestic foundation as it pertains to food production, making sure our house is in order so that we can feed ourselves.
This is not to say that we are turning away from our international opportunities, but work is being done to solidify our own provincial food resilience so that we remain stable in times of crisis.
Our BC Agricultural Land Reserve gives us a distinct advantage as we forge ahead to create a more a robust and durable way of feeding ourselves, while at the same time creating opportunities to feed other jurisdictions.
Our province is unique in its landscape which allows for different growing regions that can produce different primary goods. This is one of our strengths. We produce over 200 land-based products grown on these lands we have put aside for food production. This is on top of traditional foods, like wild mushrooms and salmon berries, that have been harvested for millennia by First Nations whose territories span the entire Province.
This separation of production areas, or bioregions, in the Agricultural Land Reserve is another great strength that can be developed, but this separation proved to be alarming over the past two years as we saw them getting cut off from each other, resulting in food not being able to move freely throughout our province.
These pinch points in our current system helped to demonstrate the need to develop resiliency more fully within each distinct growing area. More primary production, more farming, more regenerative production, more value-added processing, more regional purchasing, more regional procurement. Establishing more vigorous, sustainable, local food systems within our enormous province allows us to withstand times of disruption but also allows for more regional economic development.
Because of what we have gone through these past couple years, more British Columbians have been awakened to the importance of BC food. They understand more clearly the value of our provincial food producers.
We are the envy of many other jurisdictions who failed to protect their food growing lands years ago. As we embrace the idea of resiliency and food supply security, we can be thankful that we have food producing lands to fall back on. The ways in which we produce food have been evolving and adapting, and that is being reflected in the ways that the Agricultural Land Commission balances its responsibilities to manage these lands.
Fifty years ago, leaders had the foresight to make a pledge to the future of food security by establishing an Agricultural Land Reserve. Much has changed over 50 years, but I think this is the moment they had in mind.
Sincerely,