How do you think B.C. should protect its farmland?

Sep 20, 2019

The province kicked off more than a month of public meetings on Thursday to hear how people want to encourage farming and protect farmland.

Ronna-Rae Leonard, the MLA for Courtenay-Comox who chairs the select standing committee on agriculture, fish and food, will host the first meeting with the Agricultural Land Commission on Sept. 19, in Merville on Vancouver Island.

The Ministry of Agriculture will also host five other sessions, with the commission, in Delta (Oct. 1), Dawson Creek (Oct. 2), Prince George (Oct. 3), Kelowna (Oct. 10) and Castlegar (Oct. 30).

According to a news release, the meetings will discuss recent government changes meant to strengthen the commission and the Agricultural Land Reserve.

Attendees are also encouraged to talk about how to support farmers and ranchers to expand and diversify their business, to help new or young farmers become established, and to ensure flexibility for residential options.

Regulations came into force on Feb. 22 to address mega-mansions and property speculation by limiting primary residence size on ALR lands, and allowing the commission to approve additional residences if they are for farm use.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.