Dropping 50/50 produce rule would help agriculture sector, say stakeholders
Premier David Eby says he’s keenly interested in allowing more food manufacturing on agricultural land, a move that could end a longstanding political log-jam over farmers needing to source more than 50 per cent of any product they create from items on their own farm.
“It’s something I’m very passionately interested in,” Eby said in an interview, citing food production and food security on the Agricultural Land Reserve in the the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
“There are so many food processors operating some distance away from their farm partners, so they have additional shipping costs and so on… the natural suggestion is why don’t we find more ways to allow food processing to take place on ALR land.”
Debate over the 50 per cent rule has raged for years in and around B.C.’s farming community.
Some see it as a way to protect limited farmland from becoming overtaken by paved industrial buildings.
Others say it’s a ridiculous limiter to innovation, and hamstrings farmers from producing more made-in-B.C. products by requiring them to ship their raw goods elsewhere, at increased cost. Common examples are a farm that wants to produce packaged salad, but only grows some of the greens on site and fails to meet the 50-per-cent threshold once they buy different types of greens from other nearby farmers.
Or, a farmer who grows strawberries and wants to make mixed jam but is disallowed because the other berries from other farms bring them below the 50/50 rule. Or, an apple orchard that wants to make variations of apple juice and non-alcoholic cider but is limited just to the one type of apple it grows on that land.
Government under pressure to allow other options
The B.C. government has long resisted any change, saying it’s protecting farmland from development and speculation. The Agricultural Land Commission also offers farmers the chance to apply for exemptions.
But the Trump tariff threat appears to have changed the political calculus.
Provincial food security has become a hot topic on tariff task forces, both provincially and federally. And pressure is mounting on the government to provide other options to farmers than simply shipping their product across the American border.
“We are simply not going to be able to process more food locally unless we get rid of this rule.”
Bridgitte Anderson
In addition, the new federal Liberal Mark Carney government has a new $200 million Domestic Food Processing Fund on the table to help grow the sector.
“If we got rid of the 50/50 rule, it’s more likely that we’d be able to tap into the campaign promise made by the federal Liberals and this $200 million fund for food processing,” said Bridgitte Anderson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, and co-chair of the premier’s joint business, labour and First Nations task force on tariffs.
“We are one of many voices encouraging the BC government to remove this 50/50 rule because we are simply not going to be able to process more food locally unless we get rid of this rule.
“It aligns perfectly with the agenda for economic growth, because it unlocks investment, it creates jobs, it strengthens the regional supply chain and the economy.”
Large processors are challenge and opportunity, says Premier
Movement from the premier on the issue seems to dovetail with his previous promise to explore “agri-industrial zones” where large-scale processing could be built on agricultural land near the farms that are growing the products.
He said the goal is to make it easier for both small farmers to open restaurants and do small-scale production in their farm land, as well as large-scale food processing on bigger farms.
“These kinds of larger industrial scale ones are where the real challenge is, and opportunity is,” said Eby.
“We’re working on a number of different challenges internally on how we can support that food processing we want, while protecting ALR land from speculation.
“We will have a couple of options we’re bringing forward we think will be successful in supporting food security.”
‘Let’s get on with it’
British Columbia agriculture is much smaller than other provinces, and needs to catch up, said Opposition BC Conservative agriculture critic, Ian Paton.
“So why would we try to hold back processing? If it’s good for agriculture, let’s get on with it,” he said.
“If a processing plant comes in and says we’re more than willing to help out the local farmer with berries, grapes or cherries or whatever it happens to be, but in order to keep us going 356 days of the year we have to bring in 60 per cent of our product from Washington State or Alberta, then big bloody deal, that’s the way I see it.”
“Why would we try to hold back processing? If it’s good for agriculture, let’s get on with it.”
Ian Paton
Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said any move needs to be careful to balance impact on protected and scarce agricultural land.
“Everything is on the table right now, but we have to approach it in a very careful way, because if we start to take away opportunities for primary producers, that’s the ingredients,” she said. “Then you start to see that the equation doesn’t make sense. So we want to support primary, we want to support, secondary production. It’s complicated.”
“Everything is on the table right now, but we have to approach it in a very careful way.”
Lana Popham
Still, for the premier, the overriding goal is to help boost food processing in B.C. that can then be sold for export, versus just the raw materials.
He said an upcoming trade mission to Asia next month will showcase yet again the markets available to B.C.’s agriculture and food processing sectors.