Valuing our Arable Land

We are admittedly late to arrive to this conversation... On June 9 the CBC covered a story about the imminent demise of the Campbell Heights farm in Surrey. Why is this a big deal? It comes down to acknowledging that the decisions our municipalities (and in this case the feds) make around land use and development, and the sacrifices that we collectively make for monetary gain might ultimately bankrupt us.

Direct from the CBC article by @anitabathe:

"The Campbell Heights property, which sits at 192nd Street near 36th Avenue, is owned by the federal government and leased to farmers.  It's not part of B.C.'s Agricultural Land Reserve, though many say that's a historical oversight.

Wes Heppell and his family, spanning three generations, have grown crops on this particular farm since the 1970s. They hope the 220-acre parcel can be moved into the ALR or swapped with other, less fertile pieces."

So why is this piece of land so special?

"For the months of May, June and July, at least 25 per cent of B.C.'s potatoes, carrots, cabbage and squash come from this one parcel alone. The land is exceptionally sandy and sits on a hill which means it's more resilient to flooding. It's planted and harvested when other fields across the province are too wet. It also has a warm microclimate which is responsible for the production of some of the earliest crops in Western Canada."

This raises so many questions, but what sticks out in our mind is the valuation of productive farm land. Not just monetary valuation, but moral valuation.

Only 5% of BC's land mass is deemed suitable for agriculture. Of that, much of the best farmland is located in the urbanized Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island. The singular most significant threat to the productive use of this land for agriculture is urban expansion and land speculation. If that land is lost to urban sprawl, British Columbia would become almost entirely dependent on imported food.

But wait, didn't the provincial government establish the Agricultural Land Reserve to set aside the province’s small farmland resource for agriculture in 1973? Yes indeed they did. The ALR protects approximately 4.6 million hectares of agriculturally suitable land across British Columbia. Over the last 50 years land has been taken out, put back in - swapped for other land - a constant negotiation for highest and best "value". Sometimes this results in poorer quality land being preserved while fertile land succumbs to development pressure- and this is where we need to sharpen our awareness and advocate for our existing productive farmland - whether it is in the ALR or not.

If we are going to champion food security through a more robust regional production and distribution system, agriculture must take priority and become a major source of local economic development. The transition of the Campbell Heights farm to industrial uses isn't just a monetary transaction or a divestiture of surplus property. It is a threat to an existing, established significant food source for our region.

If we start including the cost of health and food autonomy into the equation of success, it seems fertile soil should one day soon be coveted as an investment in our collective future.

Wondering what you can do? Start a conversation with others. Raise awareness. And if it feels appropriate find the change.org petition to stop industrial development of the Campbell Heights farm here.

February 2023 update: Surrey City Council voted unanimously to support the addition of this farmland into the ALR. We await more information on the Katzie, Kwantlen, and Semiahmoo First Nations land claim filed in January.