Housing market affecting food prices, local farmers struggling: Report
Posted April 7, 2016 8:53 am.
Last Updated April 7, 2016 8:56 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Maybe getting more than you’re asking for when you sell your property in the local red-hot real estate market isn’t such a good idea right now.
The director of the BC Food Systems Network is worried the market is actually putting our local farms at risk. And, specifically, that means crops, including all those luscious berries that could be on the way out.
Brent Mansfield says the price of the land is so expensive it makes farming unfeasible. “Even if you could access the capital to be able to purchase the land, what are you going to be able to get by farming? Those things are not always that compatible.”
Mansfield adds the other issue is a good chunk of all land designated agricultural isn’t owned by farmers. He’s worried about speculators waiting for an opportunity to try to pull the land out and turn it in condos.
“This is land in the agricultural land reserve that has been zoned for farming, then why isn’t it being farmed? Why is it being owned by non-farmers and really what can we do about it?”
Considering the way the price of food has been increasing in the past few months thanks to things like the low Canadian dollar, Mansfield adds it’s worth it for you as a consumer to consider putting pressure on those who can help protect local farmers.
