“The current regulation makes it economically unviable and illogical for a farmer to invest in a facility.”
—Murray Driediger
One of B.C.’s most influential farming organizations is calling on the government to overhaul, and potentially scrap, a controversial law that restricts food production on agricultural land.
BC Fresh, a farmer-owned company based in Delta that supplies B.C. produce across the Pacific Northwest, said the province’s “50-50 rule” that limits food production on farm land has become “a core policy roadblock” to agricultural success.
“The current regulation, which requires at least 50 per cent of the inputs for on-farm processing or packing to be grown on that specific farm, is an outdated barrier that is an impediment to the necessary restructuring and modernization of our local food supply chain,” BC Fresh chair Murray Driediger wrote in an Oct. 1 letter to B.C.’s agriculture, jobs and finance ministers, obtained by Northern Beat.
“It forces a grower to be a processor only of their own goods, crippling the ability to form the grower partnerships that create the necessary economy of scale required to be economically viable when investing in multi million-dollar facilities.”
“It forces a grower to be a processor only of their own goods, crippling the ability to… create the necessary economy of scale.”
Murray Driediger
The 50-50 rule has become a flash-point for agricultural modernization and domestic food security in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs against Canada this year.
Prominent business organizations, such as the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, have called for an overhaul to unlock investment in provincial food facilities, rather than ship raw products outside the province to be packaged and sold back at markup.
Raw BC product processed in US sold in BC grocery stores
Removing the 50 per cent rule would allow for multi-farm processing facilities on under-utilized Agricultural Land Reserve property, opening up new markets for growers, allowing them to use their full harvest and protecting them from significant losses if they suffer partial crop loss, Driediger wrote.
It would also lower transportation costs for farmers who have to ship their products to distant industrial sites, create new jobs, and grow a stable, year-round processing sector, he wrote.
“The current regulation makes it economically unviable and illogical for a farmer to invest in a facility, resulting in surplus raw products being shipped out of the province — often to the U.S. for processing — only to have the finished products shipped back to B.C. grocery shelves,” Driediger wrote.
Driediger was travelling and unavailable for additional comment.
After BC Fresh sent its letter Oct. 1, it faced criticism from inside the B.C. NDP government. The organization then sent a “revised” version Oct. 15 that changed the phrase “removing” the 50-50 rule to “reviewing” and in some cases “modernizing.”
It also added this paragraph: “It is not the intent of BC Fresh to support changes to the ALR that create further speculation and increased farm land prices. The government must make these changes in consultation with industry so that broad support is established. Unintended consequences of regulatory change can often create damage. The establishment of ‘event buildings’ on ALR land in Delta is a perfect example of the abuse of farmland when there is lack of regulatory clarity or intent.”
Minister searching for ‘middle ground’
Premier David Eby expressed interest earlier in the year in removing the 50-50 rule and unlocking more provincial farm processing.
The premier’s “Look West” jobs plan released this week set a target to grow agriculture and food exports by 25 per cent over 10 years, as well as “create new opportunities for agriculture, agri-tech and the food-processing sector.” But no specifics were provided.
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said her ministry has tried to explain to the agriculture sector that it can apply for exemptions to the 50-50 rule for processing, and has shared legal letters to companies like vertical lettuce farmers that make salad mixes with produce from other farms.
“People want to develop on the ALR, I feel like that is the underlying situation,” she said.
Still, Popham said groups like BC Fresh have good faith arguments for more flexibility for farmers. She’s begun talks with the Union of BC Municipalities and others to try and identify ALR land with poor soil quality that is locally owned, near available transit, with access to power and water, that could be designated a “food processing park.”
“We need more food processing. We don’t want to destroy the ALR in the meantime.”
Lana Popham
“I’m trying to find, like, what’s the middle ground?” Popham said in an interview. “How can we get more flexibility? We need more food processing. We don’t want to destroy the ALR in the meantime.”
“Most of the land in the ALR is owned by developers, not farmers,” she added. So people have held land for decades, and there’s always this major pressure to develop. They are waiting for the moment Currently, farmers could build processing plants on industrial land.
BC Fresh: Farming becoming ‘increasingly untenable’
But BC Fresh, and others, have pointed out that industrial land in Metro Vancouver is scarce and expensive, and they are unable to compete with major foreign companies for the space.
“The economic environment for BC farmers is becoming increasingly untenable,” wrote Driediger.
“We have the highest cost of production in Canada and we need the provincial government to remove some investment barriers that stifle legitimate investment decisions and reduce competitiveness.”
Popham said she intends to bring forward some options publicly “in the next couple of months,” perhaps in the form of a discussion paper for public feedback.
The government is also reviewing whether to continue exemptions on the 50-50 rule for tree fruit farmers and private packing and processing facilities, which were put in place after the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative abruptly closed last year.
“I would never promote a big concrete building on good quality ALR land, but there’s lot of mediocre ALR land.”
Ian Paton
Opposition agriculture critic Ian Paton said BC Fresh, and Driediger, are widely-respected and should be taken seriously by the NDP government.
“He’s very knowledgeable,” said Paton. “His thing is that this 50-50 rule that got put in many years ago is impeding companies from wanting to set up processing facilities in B.C. on ALR land. I would never promote a big concrete building on good quality ALR land, but there’s lot of mediocre ALR land that may not be used, and why not put processing facilities in the ALR where it’s close to the product.”
Paton said concerns about losing ALR land to development are overblown, and that a targeted change, strictly affecting B.C. farmers, would be welcome.