Agricultural Land Reserve

“B.C.’s farmland is facing death by a thousand cuts,” says Ann Rowan, director of the sustainability program at the David Suzuki Foundation. “We need decisive leadership from the province to ensure our best farmland doesn’t get paved over.”

Dave Barrett's NDP Government established the Agricultural Land Reserve more than 30 years ago to protect diminishing farmland and encourage farming. The report Forever Farmland published in April 2006 shows that in recent years farmland that is nestled along the edge of towns and cities has fallen prey to development. Between 2001 and 2006, thousands of hectares have been eliminated from the ALR and converted into subdivisions.

Download this report at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/SWAG/DSF-ALR-final3.pdf

Read Pender Island's Derek Masselink's review of Forever Farmland at http://masselink.wordpress.com/2006/05/04/farmland-forever/

Download Smart Growth BC's latest toolkit for citizens concerned with protecting the ALR:

http://www.smartgrowth.bc.ca/downloads/Citizens_Guide_2005.pdf