Between 2006-2012, The Land Conservancy of BC (TLC) played an important role in farmland acquisition in BC, partnering with FarmFolk CityFolk (FFCF) in the creation of a Community Farms Program to manage land. In 2013, TLC, suffering significant financial difficulties, ceased acquiring land, resulting in a clear and pressing need to create a new land trust. FarmFolk CityFolk partnered with the Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiative Roundtable (CRFAIR) and UBC’s Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, funded by the Real Estate Foundation, to identify feasible models for a provincial body to hold farm and foodlands. The Farmland Access Research Project found that most existing trusts in BC hold land for conservation purposes and those that hold active farmland are geographically limited in scope and resources. The project concluded that a provincial trust would have greater reach, capacity and impact.
Based on the research, each organization decided to focus on distinct but complementary strategies for holding farm and foodlands. CRFAIR is collaborating to create a local government trust for land located in the Capital Regional District. FarmFolk CityFolk incubated and stewarded the formalization of the Foodlands Cooperative of BC as a provincial, non-governmental, community-based land trust.
