Farms withering in Lower Mainland
Less land devoted to agriculture than at any point in last 20 years
Langley farmer Stafford Richter is not surprised by a report going to a Metro Vancouver committee Friday that shows a drop in the amount of farmland and the number of farms in the region over the past five years.
“I’ve talked to farmers in the Lower Mainland and I worked with some of them here in Langley and they said, ‘are you sure you’re gonna go into this, because you’re not gonna be rich?’ ” said Richter, 32, co-owner of The Veggie Patch in Langley.
Richter was responding to a report to be presented Friday to the regional planning committee based on 2016 census data on agriculture. The report shows that total farm area in Metro Vancouver in 2016 was 38,380 hectares, the lowest in 20 years. Farmland in Langley, Pitt Meadows and Burnaby fell between 2011 and 2016, while Maple Ridge, Surrey and Delta went up. Richmond stayed the same.
The report also showed a steady decline in the number of farms in the region. Within Metro Vancouver there were 2,412 farms, a 14 per cent drop from five years ago. Langley had the greatest decrease in farmland at 19 per cent.
Richter said the No. 1 deterrent to farming in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley is the cost of land, followed by operating costs, a lack of farming knowledge being passed on and a reluctance by consumers to buy local.
The property behind his parents’ Langley home was once a farm and recently sold for $2 million.
“Two million — that’s a huge barrier for somebody my age and other farmers who are younger. The cost of land is a barrier,” Richter said. Then there’s operating costs. “I practise small farming — that’s $5,000 to $6,000, then you need a facility where you can keep your produce,” he said.
“You need a cold room,” Richter added. “That’s a couple thousand dollars to keep your produce cold, then your other equipment, your fertilizers, your seed implements.
“It’s just really, really hard. I feel everybody loves the idea of farming, it’s just making it practical and making it doable and that’s different.”
The report showed the number of farmers aged 55 and over has increased and the number of farmers in the 34-to-55 age group has decreased.
The report suggested that a low percentage of succession plans may also be a reason why the average age is increasing.
“There has to be that willingness for the existing farm base to be there, for that transference of knowledge for the next generation,” Richter said. “That knowledge base is shrinking.”
What the agriculture industry tends to attract, then, is young idealists.
“People go into this profession not because they’re gonna be rich, they go into this profession because they believe it’s important for our province,” he said.
The report shows the number of farms producing vegetables, fruit and nut crops continues to increase, while farms producing greenhouse products, nursery plants, sod and mushrooms has steadily decreased. Hay and field crops increased substantially between 2006 and 2011, but declined slightly over the past five years.
Blueberries are still the most widely planted crop in Metro Vancouver — the amount of farmland producing blueberries increased by 246 hectares since the 2011 census, a slower growth rate than in the past.
Livestock farms have declined overall in the past five years, with the exception of bee colonies, which have increased by 60.
The number of farms selling organic products, which represent four per cent of the total farms in the region, has remained constant over the past five years. In 2016, 32 per cent of the farms in Metro Vancouver conducted some type of direct marketing, which includes farm gate sales, stands, kiosks, U-pick and farmers markets.
Despite this, Richter said local farmers often struggle to find local support.
“People say they want local, but there’s a discrepancy between saying you want local and buying local,” Richter said. “People really want convenience.”
Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, whose municipality bucked the trend by increasing the amount of farmland it has over the past five years, said the cost of land and the huge amount of work required to keep a farm viable may be discouraging people from getting into farming.
“We are very fortunate (in Delta). We hang on to every square inch of agricultural land we have,” she said. “It’s vitally important in Canada and B.C. that we are able to feed our people.”
Despite the obvious struggles, Richter believes the agriculture industry holds a lot of promise in Metro Vancouver.
“If anything, our climate’s changing to be more robust for agriculture. In the short term, I think you’ll see our climate become what California was about 10 to 15 years ago,” he said.
“It’s a good time to go into agriculture, but there isn’t enough foundational support for young people to go into agriculture and make a viable go of it.”