AF.Minister@gov.bc.ca<\/a> until Sept. 3.<\/p>\nAgriculture and Food Minister Lana Popham said in an emailed statement to Black Press Media that the proposed changes are meant to \u201ccreate jobs, attract investment, and encourage a provincial food supply that is secure, diversified, and resilient.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMore food processing capacity of the right kind, rooted in B.C. agriculture, means more of that value stays here creating jobs, attracting investment, and supporting a food supply that is more secure, diversified, and resilient,\u201d Popham said.<\/p>\n
The province says that at a time of \u201csignificant trade uncertainty with Canada\u2019s neighbours to the south,\u201d and with global conflicts that are disrupting supply chains, \u201cit is more important than ever to strengthen food security in B.C.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government is proposing more food processing in the Agricultural Land Reserve on land that is \u201cnot well-suited for primary production.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would allow food processors to build food-processing plants on Class 5-7 soil in the Agricultural Land Reserve as long as five per cent of the primary product used in the processing is grown or raised in the province. Class 4 soil could be used if the parcel is serviced by the date the rule is implemented, the government added.<\/p>\n
The province says the soil classification in the proposed changes would exclude about 90 per cent of Agricultural Land Reserve farmland in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, with 500 to 1,000 hectares expected to be potentially available for food-processing development.<\/p>\n
Delta South MLA Ian Paton told Black Press Media that in his nine years as agriculture critic he\u2019s been \u201cbeefing off about processing for years that we need more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a farmer or a rancher in B.C., you can plant all the crops you want or raise all the livestock you want. But if you don\u2019t have a place to take that product to get it processed, what\u2019s the point of farming?\u201d<\/p>\n
He said B.C. \u201cabsolutely\u201d needs more processing for farmers, but he finds it odd that the province is saying farmers \u201conly need to produce five per cent of the product on your own farm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes that tell me that suddenly, rather than growing food in our own province, that the processing company could suddenly go get 95 per cent of their product from Mexico or China or from the United States? Like how does that help us to grow our own food?\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the proposed five per cent is \u201ca long ways away\u201d from the previous rule that says 50 per cent has to come from your farm.<\/p>\n
Current regulations allow processing in the Agricultural Land Reserve \u2013 without Agricultural Land Commission approval \u2013 if 50 per cent of the ingredients are from the farm in question or from fellow member farms of an industry association and does not consider soil quality as a factor.<\/p>\n
The province says the 50-per-cent rule would remain in place on all other land in the Agricultural Land Reserve.<\/p>\n
While Paton said he\u2019s never liked the 50-per-cent rule, he wondered if the proposed changes go too far in one direction, but are also too restrictive in another.<\/p>\n
Soil in B.C. is classified for farming quality on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being the highest.<\/p>\n
The government says that those looking to build new food-processing facilities would require an assessment from a registered professional agrologist to ensure the soil classification meets the criteria and need to meet building and any other permits from local governments and the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship and the Ministry of Environment and Parks.<\/p>\n
The province says that food processing is the second-largest manufacturing sector in B.C. with an estimated $14.3 billion generated in 2024. The news release added that B.C. farms generate about $5 billion in revenue per year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"B.C. begins 6-week engagement on ALR changes for food processing Published 11:53 am Monday, July 27, 2026 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[903,49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-829965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}