4 Confined spaces


Most of us in agriculture know confined spaces are dangerous. Toxic gases can build up, displacing oxygen and killing us. Silos, composting facilities, wine vats and even feedlots are real threats. The insidious thing about feedlots are that they can look wide open, but methane can accumulate in high enough densities and knock us out. Many farmers will be well aware of the risks but the same dangers are often


ignored when it comes to our farm organizations. In fact, we pride ourselves on creating confined spaces driven by an exclusive focus on the needs or priorities of our own group. This can be restrictive, stifling, or – as one popular expression puts it – suck the air out of a room. And we know where that leads. But as UBC professor Dan Weary notes, working collaboratively is something


Canadians do really well. “We have a diversity in opinions, but an ability to get together in collegial discussions is a strength,” he says. It’s a strength many farm organizations are trying to tap into, both to


connect with the public and to make sure they’re doing their job. With a range of competitive pressures and emerging issues confronting them, building relationships across groups is more important than ever for BC’s famously independent farm organizations. While an independent approach may have allowed sectors like organics and winemaking to grow, greater collaboration is key to harnessing momentum for both groups. A long-term strategic plan the province’s four major wine industry groups unveiled last month emphasized the importance of collaboration to build unity as the industry moves forward. Similarly, as sustainable production practices become the norm, the Certified Organic Associations of BC is recognizing that it often has a lot more in common with other groups than it used to. As one participant in discussions at this year’s COABC conference remarked, “The more people we can get growing regeneratively, regardless of whether or not they’re certified organic, is a good thing.” Creating space for fresh perspectives was a key factor Bill Zylmans cited in announcing his decision to step down as chair of the BC Potato and Vegetable Commission at the end of February. “Start dispersing the responsibilities around the table and bring some young people in. You won’t do that if you don’t move aside,” he said afterwards


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • APRIL 2019


in explaining his decision. “I’ve seen way too many times someone just stays and stays and stays, and all of a sudden it’s too late.” Succession planning is a perennial conference topic, but planning for transition is equally important for farm organizations that want to stay relevant. Young growers are the future of our industry groups, not just farms. Finding a place for them will help agriculture find a place at the table in the future.


BC farmers need more than a land bank A conversation I overheard recently in a schoolyard while waiting to pick up


my granddaughter seems to sum up a big part of the dilemma facing the Agricultural Land Commission and the production it is expected to foster within the Agricultural Land Reserve. One 30-something parent was excitedly telling another about a rural property they had just purchased. The gist of the conversation concerned a plan to subdivide into one or two-acre lots. The


The Back Forty BOB COLLINS


property owner lamented that the small lots might be derailed by the land’s ALR status and in a worst-case scenario they might have to settle for five-acre lots. The ALR was the only reference to agriculture and though extensive farming plans may have gone unmentioned, I couldn’t help but feel there is a generous measure of disappointment looming on this particular rural horizon. This is by no means an isolated circumstance. It was once very forcefully


proposed to me: a lot line adjustment was the equivalent of a Get Out of Jail card in Monopoly that could be invoked to force the ALC to allow a subdivision of farmland. How to circumvent ALR regulations always seems to be a hot topic of


conversation with people thinking of moving to the country. Conversely, trying to craft an agricultural business model that will function within ALR regulations is an ever-present consideration for many who are already there. Particularly smalllot landowners. Provincial legislation tightened the regulation of activities in the ALR last fall with an eye to embracing the “agriculture first” criterion proposed by the ALR advisory committee. This is all fine and good from a policy perspective but what does it offer the 110,000 parcels of ALR land that are under 4 ha. (10 acres) in size? According to Statistics Canada figures from 2016, BC had 17,528 farms. More


than 40% of them generated less than $10,000 in annual gross income. There are many small-parcel success stories but their number will pale in comparison to their overall number. What business model does the government see that will allow small-lot producers escape what has been termed the “$10,000 ghetto?” The current small farm orthodoxy embraces unpaid labour, often in the guise of an apprenticeship. Presumably, the apprentices learn they, too, will have to find apprentices when they strike out on their own, and those apprentices will learn the same, and on it goes like some sort of agricultural Ponzi scheme. Eventually, no one signs on to work for free and the jig is up. Putting agriculture first on most small farms means investing enormous amounts of time and money, fiscal stress, often family and relationship stress, and convincing yourself that the outcome of the endeavour has so little value that the work involved must be done for free. Top it off with another job (or two) to subsidize the whole enterprise. The issue is fraught with problems for all concerned. The ALR has been in


place for more than 45 years. The broad social objective of saving arable land for food production is hard to argue with and putting agriculture first seems like a natural fit, but how does that work without someone to do the farming? When it was enacted, the ALR legislation included income insurance and


cost-of-production schemes. Those initiatives fell by the wayside long ago and while we have legislation placing land in what amounts to a public trust for agricultural purposes, there is no countervailing legislation requiring the public to purchase any of the resulting production. If the goal is to save the 110,000 small parcels in the ALR and have someone put them to agricultural use, a more enlightened food policy is necessary. Simply handcuffing producers with tighter regulations and expecting them finance the ALR’s objective with off-farm income and free labour isn’t fair or reasonable.


Such a situation simply guarantees another seismic shift for the ALR when the inevitable change of government comes.


Publisher Cathy Glover


The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 Vol.105 No.4 . APRIL 2019


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