The Legal Literacy Guide

In the summer of 2021 the Foodlands Cooperative of BC published Your Land, Your Legacy: A Farm and Foodlands Owner’s Guide. The Guide is expressly designed for owners of farm and food-provisioning lands who wish to create a legacy by preserving their land for generations to come. The Legal implications of agricultural land transfer are currently not widely understood by many landowners, community organizations working on land access and food security, and the general public in British Columbia. The Guide is expressly designed for owners of farm and food-provisioning lands who wish to create a legacy by preserving their land for generations to come.

The guide is a culmination of a two-year research project made possible by funding from the Law Foundation of BC and the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. It focuses on two particular processes to secure land for agriculture. One is to donate land to a community organization. Another approach is to register a covenant on a property. The guide covers both of these processes in detail.

In a recent article in the BC Organic Grower, author Michael Marrapese explores the legal issues and mechanisms of land transfer in the many sections of the guide.