4 Fresh start


The past month saw the province elect a new set of legislators and Statistics Canada release a fresh crop of data related to farming in BC. Together, the two events set up how agriculture will be discussed in the coming months and years. Statistics, like campaign promises, can be cut many ways. With


apologies to Mark Twain, politicians spend a lot of time dealing in promises, campaign promises and statistics. We prefer a more sincere approach, however, and while it’s tough to take either at face value, we accept them as conversation starters. And, in many cases, the conversation is good news. The numbers from the latest census of agriculture point to rising revenues for the sector, higher average revenues per farm and – despite a slight drop in farm employment – greater revenues per employee. It’s a picture of growth, productivity and success, something farmers and politicians can own with pride. But the numbers also show that the gains are partly the result of consolidation, the big getting bigger while the middle disappears. A weaker loonie has also helped some producers who export, boosting incoming revenues paid in US dollars. Boosting exports has been a centrepiece of the province’s ambitious plan to lift agri- food revenues to $15 billion by 2020. But against this outward focus, the census also highlights domestic change. Small farms in cities and countryside increasing in number, organic production is expanding, and many more farms are selling direct to consumers. This forces politicians, for all their focus on export markets, to consider the


resurgence of small-scale agriculture and what domestic markets want. It’s an issue that’s likely to come to the fore in the coming session of the


legislature, with the BC Liberals facing a strengthened opposition voted in largely by an idealistic urban populace. Shopping at farmers markets, anxious about the impact fossil fuel emissions and farting cattle have on the environment, and unhappy with the BC Liberals plans’ to flood thousands of acres of farmland in the Peace region for the Site C dam, voters gave


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JUNE 2017


opposition parties a mandate to protect their interests. It’s not that plenty wasn’t accomplished in the last four years. Countless announcements for millions of dollars supporting the province’s Buy Local, farmer’s market and community garden initiatives bear witness to what’s been done on the home front.


But the BC Liberals failed to build trust with the public, which want more done to keep farmland affordable, out of the hands of speculators, and preserved for future generations. Voters like what they see at farmers’ markets, farm stands and wineries. They want to believe the rest of the industry is just as nice and want government to make sure it stays that way.


Census offers reality check on BC farm size


What is a small farm? It depends on how you look at it. The determination is usually made in either


dollars or acres.


The Back Forty BOB COLLINS


Statistics Canada identifies small


farms as


those falling below the $10,000 gross receipts threshold. The Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) doesn’t


make a size designation but the long-standing policy regarding subdivision suggests that two hectares (five acres) is seen to be the minimum size capable of supporting viable agriculture. This view is widely embraced in regional district zoning bylaws throughout the province. Most in the farm and ranch community will realize it isn’t as simple as that out on the land. Fifty acres of blueberries in Surrey is a different


kettle of fish than 50 acres of canola in Dawson Creek. Ten acres might be plenty of room for a couple of broiler barns in Matsqui but it wouldn’t be much of a cow-calf spread in the Chilcotin. Our 70 acres seems tiny to grain-growing friends in the Peace and immense to urbanites who see it. My standard answer when anyone asks its size is: too big to be a small farm and too small to be a big farm. That description probably isn’t far off the mark. Given the scope and diversity of agriculture in BC,


where you are and what you can grow is probably a better indication of big or small than size or dollars. The practical reality is, with occasional


exceptions, the smaller the land area, the more restricted the possibilities and the more complicated the challenges. Price is the big hurdle for anyone buying land. The smaller the parcel, the greater the desirability to the residential and lifestyle market which can drive the cost into the stratosphere and effectively immunize it from any possibility of viable agriculture.


Crunching the numbers Despite their many challenges, small farms are


BC’s agricultural reality. According to the ALC, there are (approximately) 195,600 land parcels in the Agricultural Land Reserve. Of those, 110,000 are smaller than 4 ha. (10 acres) in size. Stats Can’s recently released 2016 census results report that 40% of BC’s farms generate less than $10,000 in annual receipts. That 40% will be sharing 2% of the total gross farm income. To be sure, there will be some larger farms that are not reaching the $10,000 threshold and some smaller ones that have vaulted over it, but the average small farm in BC is less than 10 acres in size and generates less than $10,000 a year.


Economically, small farms don’t wield much clout but in other ways, they cast a large shadow. BC has 17,528 farms in total; 7,000 of them are small farms. As the total number of farms continues


Publisher Cathy Glover


604-328-3814 . publisher@countrylifeinbc.com Editor Emeritus David Schmidt 604-793-9193 . davidschmidt@shaw.ca


The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 Vol. 103 No 6 . JUNE 2017


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to fall (down nearly 12% from 2011), small farms will account for an increasing share of the total. 56% of the land parcels in the ALR are under four hectares. Many of them are the front line of the urban-rural interface. Without some economic imperative that will


shore up their agricultural value, they could cease to be farms at all. They might well become country estates or potential subdivisions – too wet, too dry, too close to someone or too far from something else, without a whit of farm potential. Once they have been turned to other purposes, they will become the endlessly dissatisfied and constantly bickering wards of the ALR. Without a vested interest in agriculture, those properties may legally remain in the ALR but they are intellectually and effectively lost and on a long and slippery slope. A third of all BC census farms reported direct sales to consumers. Direct sales are a business reality for most small farms. Those small farmers are increasingly the public face that consumers know and draw their perceptions from. They are in a position to powerfully influence public opinion about agriculture. Somewhat ironically, it is often small farmers who are the real life embodiment of the perception the industry in general tries to foster: little red barn, over-alls, straw hat and garden hoe, petting a hen as the sun rises. There are no easy answers and many challenges facing small farms searching for success. But they are here in numbers and there are many paths that could take them where they need to be.


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