Making Sense of the Drift

Feeding a Population with Farmland Protection Legislation in British Columbia

Authors

  • Meagan Joan Marie Curtis None
  • Janette Bulkan University of British Columbia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/bcs.no218.198408

Keywords:

food security, agriculture, farmland protection, food sufficiency, food ethics, agricultural land commission, agricultural land reserve, farmland legislation, values

Abstract

In 1973, the BC government passed the Land Commission Act, a unique piece of farmland protection legislation created during a world food crisis among long-standing provincial food sufficiency concerns. Created through the legislation were the Agricultural Land Reserve and the Agricultural Land Commission, which were both intended to encourage farming and food production in the province. Despite these aspirations, both policy instruments have long struggled to achieve these basic goals. This article argues that a key part of the solution to addressing this failure may be found by looking back at the first five formative years of the Agricultural Land Commission¢s work. During this time, they held a unique land ethic, acted in collaboration with the farming community, and worked with humility.[1] These formative ethics may be key to upholding the original and current intentions of the Land Commission Act, helpful in dealing with current farmland and food security crises, and ultimately core to stabilizing a secure food supply in British Columbia for future generations.

 

[1] In this article, we maintain the use of “their” in instances when referring to the original staff of the ALC (as a group of people) during the early 1970s. When referring to the ALC as an administrative body in general (and not specifically during the 1970s), or when referencing BC or Canada, the pronoun “it’s” is used.

Author Biographies

Meagan Joan Marie Curtis, None

Meagan Curtis completed her PhD on agricultural food sufficiency in 2023 and continues to work on sustainability issues when not doing pottery (contact via Instagram @dovesprigstudio).

Janette Bulkan, University of British Columbia

Janette Bulkan (janette.bulkan@ubc.ca) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Forest Resources Management in the Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Canada. She works collaboratively with Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and civic groups on issues of rights and territorial management.  She is interested in old and new forms of enclosures which are not only about territory but also proprietary access to resources that are then incorporated into complex anastomosing supply chains.

Downloads

Published

2023-11-16

Issue

Section

Articles