27. National Farmers Union & Sierra Club

Project Description

Note: This project will take place online

Context/Background

Land is fundamental to agriculture. Who owns it, controls it, and how is it used and cared for are critical matters for the NFU. We believe that those who work the land should have control over the management of their food production unit. We view with alarm the encroachment of industrial corporations into the business of primary food production through direct ownership, vertical integration and contract farming. When investment of capital, whether foreign or Canadian, excludes local farmers from the land, rural disintegration occurs and food sovereignty is impossible.

Our farmland is a precious resource. It makes up less than 10 percent of Canada’s land mass. Since 1976, over 10 million acres of farmland has been lost. More than half of Canada’s prime farmland (Class 1, 2 and 3) lies within commuting distance to major population centres, making it a target for suburban, peri-urban and industrial development as well as real estate speculation.

Farmland is not only lost due to sprawl, but also by farming methods that weaken the productive capacity of soils. It has become necessary for the farmer to increase yields in the short-term in order to cover increasing production costs and to minimize the effects of the cost-price squeeze on the operation. Excess financial pressure due to debt or excessive rents forces the land to provide an income stream beyond the soil’s sustainable capacity. The NFU is in favour of incentives to help farmers rebuild soil health.

Food Systems Issue(s) Addressed in this Project

Sierra Club BC and the National Farmers Union are joining forces to collaborate on policies to protect BC’s farmland from development, concentration and investor speculation, thus ensuring the next generation of farmers is able to farm.

Access to land is a critical question for the young and new farmer. Ownership is often out of reach due to the high cost and debt required to purchase. The NFU supports a lively discussion of alternative forms of land tenure that provide long-term access and which support environmental stewardship and community-building.

Larger land holdings and the increasing size of farm implements create a vicious circle of concentration of farmland ownership and deterioration of rural communities and erosion of rural quality of life. As land prices increase, the higher value allows farmers to borrow more to buy bigger equipment – displacing more neighbours and putting greater pressure on the soil. As the cost of staring to farm keeps going up, farming is less and less possible for the younger generation.

Protecting farmland means a lot of things, including:

• improving access to land for young farmers
• encouraging sustainable farming practices
• ending the financialization of farmland and corporate landgrabs, and more.

Main Project Activities

As our collaboration is just getting established, there are many potential areas where the LFS 350 students can support our work. In discussion with the community partner, the student group will choose a topic to focus on.

Suggested topics:

• Indigenous food sovereignty in relation to land protection
• Challenges facing British Columbia farmers, especially related to land access
• Financialization of farmland (valuing land as a financial asset vs. valuing land by its productivity)

Students will:

• Create an annotated bibliography of academic articles and grey literature relevant to the chosen topic. The coalition will be able to reference these resources in future policy briefs, advocacy materials, public presentations, etc.
• Synthesize key themes and insights into the relevance of the findings to the BC political landscape. The format could be an infographic or 2-3 page document (discuss with community partner)

• Present findings to the BC Farmland Committee

If time permits

• The community partner may facilitate introductions to stakeholders who wish to be interviewed
• Students will develop a list of interview questions (interviews ideally will take less than 60 minutes of the interviewee's time)
• Students will conduct interviews, with target number to be determined in conversation with the community partner

Main Project Deliverable(s)

• Annotated bibliography (target number of entries to be determined with the community partner)
• Synthesis of findings (infographic or 2-3 page summary)
• Presentation to the BC Farmland Committee sharing your findings as relevant to the BC political landscape

Student Assets and Skills (preferred or required)

• Organized
• Self directed
• Research skills
• Critical thinking
• Writing
• Graphic design

Are there any mandatory attendance dates (e.g. special event)?

• No (but there are options, if you want to!)

Is a criminal record search (CRS) required?

• No

How much self-direction is expected from the students?

• Deciding on the project deliverable(s): Equal leadership between students and community partner
• Developing the activity plan and timeline: Equal leadership between students and community partner
• Scheduling and initiating the communication plan (e.g. weekly Zoom check-in, biweekly email update, etc.): Mostly led by students, with some community partner input
• Implementing the activity plan (e.g. surveying stakeholder groups): Led by students
• Finalizing the deliverable(s): Led by students

Related Volunteering/Community Service Opportunities for Students

• So-called “BC” Food Gateway Community of Practice (virtual meetings once a month to discuss food justice topics relevant to participants across the province). Email Zsuzsi Fodor at bcfoodgateway@gmail.com to register

Required Reading

Project/Partner Orientation Materials

Students should review the following materials prior to the first partner meeting. Additional orientation materials may be provided at the first partner meeting.

• This provides a good introduction! https://www.nfu.ca/campaigns/farmland-ownership/
• This podcast also provides a great introduction to financialization: https://sowandgrow.ca/episodes/episode-3-land-access-part-one/
• Background on BC's Agricultural Land Reserve
• Garrish, C. (2003). "Unscrambling the omelette: Understanding British Columbia's Agricultural Land Reserve." In BC Studies no.136

Additional Materials

Agricultural Land Access

• Program helps new farmers find their land match (BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food)
• Agricultural Land Reserve website
• Public input sought on revitalization of Agricultural Land Reserve and Agriculture Land Commission (2018). CBC article
• Dring, C.C. (2023). " Planning for social justice in agricultural landscapes: Exceptionalism, misrecognition, and exclusion in Southwestern British Columbia." In Agricultural planning, justice, and municipal governance : an examination of planning conflicts, pluralism, and complexity in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. University of British Columbia. Retrieved from https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0431364

Indigenous Land and Food Sovereignty

• Davies, N. (2021). Indigenous agriculture is a Land Back issue
• Desmarais, A.A. & Wittman, H. (2014) Farmers, foodies and First Nations: getting to food sovereignty in Canada. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 41(6), 1153-1173 DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2013.876623
• Wittman, H. & James, D. (2022). Land governance for agroecology. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene (10)1. https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2021.00100
• Tuck, E., McKenzie, M., & McCoy, K. (2014). Land education: Indigenous, post-colonial, and decolonizing perspectives on place and environmental education research. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.877708
• Criminalization of Wet’suwet’en land defenders - background (2023). Amnesty International