Cannabis or carrots? Debate sprouts over grow ops on B.C.’s prime farmland
Upcoming recreational legalization set to amplify competition for space
With the legalization of recreational marijuana expected to tighten the vise on Vancouver’s already strained property supply, the question of whether to open protected farmland to grow operations is stirring fierce debate in British Columbia.
The property firm Colliers International argued in a white paper this week that locating marijuana greenhouses on the least arable portions of B.C.’s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) would be “a viable alternative” to the province’s dwindling supply of industrial land — particularly in the 148,000 acre South Coast Panel Region that includes Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
“Recreational cannabis will create additional competition in an already highly competitive market,” said Andrew Rojek, Colliers’ manager of market intelligence for Western Canada. “So should the ALR change its uses, we see it as an opportunity and an alternative to traditional industrial facilities, which are really important to Vancouver at the moment, given that availability is so very tight.”
A broad shift to online shopping has squeezed Vancouver’s supply of industrial space, which includes the warehouses and other facilities most likely to attract players from the nascent pot industry. Available industrial space in the city sat at 2.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year, the second lowest level in North America after Toronto at 2.1 per cent, according to the property firm CBRE.
Medical marijuana growers are already allowed on the ALR, a 4.6 million hectare swath of protected farmland designated for agricultural purposes, including food production. Opening up the space further to allow recreational marijuana operations would allow them to grow without infringing on industrial space — the only option for some businesses, said Rojek.
For the marijuana firms, it would also be considerably cheaper. Sales of five- to 10-acre parcels over the last year averaged $279,022 per acre compared to more than one million per acre for industrial land, according to the white paper.
But opponents say allowing recreational pot onto prime farmland runs the risk of displacing traditional food production — even if it is somehow limited to the least arable land. In March, the Citizens Protecting Agricultural Land delivered a petition with more than 1,400 signatures to the B.C. Legislature, urging lawmakers to prohibit marijuana production on the ALR, said the group’s spokesperson, Ken Mariette.
“I think it’s a slippery slope where you start in the least productive area and the next thing you know you’re in another area and where does it stop?” said Mariette, noting proposals have already been made for vast medical marijuana operations involving more than 20 greenhouses on a single parcel of land. “You can’t blame the poor farmer when a developer comes along and offers them a very attractive price for their farm. But that wasn’t the purpose of the Agricultural Land Reserve.”
Restricting marijuana operations to certain areas of the ALR would also face legislative hurdles. Land in the ALR falls into one of seven soil classes, ranging from class 1, in which a wide range of crops can be grown, to class 7, in which the land is unsuitable for soil-based agriculture or sustained grazing, but suitable for barns, greenhouses and processing facilities, according to B.C.’s Ministry of Agriculture.
However, as it stands no law is in place to control what type of farming takes place in which zone, said Kim Grout, chief executive of the Agricultural Land Commission, which administers the ALR. Nor would the ALC have the power to prevent a large proportion of farmers from choosing to grow marijuana instead of another sort of crop, she added.
“I tell people ‘cannabis or carrots, unless our legislation is changed, we don’t tell you how or where to grow things,’ ” Grout said.
This week, B.C.’s Ministry of Agriculture completed a public consultation process on how to revitalize the ALR, during which land use was among the issues considered. The committee leading the process will make a series of recommendations to B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham, a spokesperson said.
In the meantime, a “significant number” of cannabis firms are purchasing ALR land with a view to the law potentially shifting, said Rojek.
“There are certainly people watching this issue very, very carefully,” he said. “People realize the ALR is a much cheaper alternative than trying to compete in the industrial space."