Province to relax rules for farm-based breweries
The provincial government will draft new rules for the Agricultural Land reserve that should allow breweries and distilleries to open and operate legally, according to Agriculture Minister Lana Popham.
“We have been seriously looking at that legislation and considering levelling that playing field with wineries,” she said. “I’m a big supporter of agritourism, agri has to come first. Anything that increases production to me is exciting.”
The rules as written allow wineries to operate on ALR land as long as the farm or vineyard is more than two hectares (five acres) and at least 50 per cent of the farm product used to make wine comes from the farm or another farm in B.C. under a minimum three-year contract.
In practice, that means nearly all of the grapes needed for wine production can come from other farms and vineyards.
Changes to the Agricultural Land Commission Act introduced by the previous Liberal government largely failed to attract brewers by requiring at least 50 per cent of the raw material used for brewing to be grown on the farm where the brewery is located.
In practice, that meant only large farms growing barley — by far the biggest ingredient in beer — could qualify. Add to that, most barley is grown in the northern Interior and Peace Country, far from Metro Vancouver’s craft beer enthusiasts.
Relaxed rules would be a boon to barley growers in B.C., said Popham, whose main goal is to increase rather than erode the area on ALR land under production.
“After talking to quite a few people and the newly established barley association and hearing some of the excitement on the ground about breweries being able to contract with farmers, I thought that the opportunities for partnerships were very good,” she said. “It could open up land that wouldn’t have been used for anything else.”
The Liberals’ rules left Persephone Brewing near Gibsons in limbo because their on-farm crop is bittering hops, which are used in beer, but in quantities dwarfed by the volume of barley required.
CEO Brian Smith and his partner Mark Brand built the brewery on a four-and-a-half-hectare former flower farm, cleared additional land and started an intensive operation growing two hectares of hops for brewing, and a social enterprise farm producing vegetables and eggs.
But the volume and weight requirement in the Agricultural Land Commission Act left them in legal limbo, unable to meet the letter of the Act. Attempts to gain an exemption were unsuccessful and in January they were ordered to move within two years.
“Persephone is a really fine example of using farmland to the best of its ability and it seems fair to open up that opportunity in a case like that,” said Popham.
New rules would be a lifeline for the award-winning brewery, said Smith.
“I have a hard time getting any new financing until this ALR problem is solved,” he said. “I’m quite literally handcuffed financially to meet the demand of a market that is asking us for our beer.”
The good news is that Persephone already meets the requirements of the Act as it is written for wineries, should the province adopt that language in the new regulation.
“We have well over five acres (two hectares) of hops and we buy 60 per cent of our grain from B.C. farms and have done since day one,” he said.
Removing language about the weight or volume of raw materials is essential to saving Persephone, he said.
“They should be governing land use, not crop choice,” he said.