Leader of the BC Greens and candidate for Saanich North and the Islands, Emily Lowan announced the BC Green party’s plan to reform British Columbia’s agricultural system. 

“As we face a trade war from the South, and more frequent climate disasters, our food security is becoming increasingly vulnerable. That's why localized production, control and consumption is so important—but B.C.’s farmland has been put up for sale,” said Lowan. “Under the current Agricultural Land Reserve system, there is no restriction of foreign or corporate ownership, and no requirement to farm productive land—leading to the rapid accumulation of B.C.’s farmland by American billionaires.”

The BC NDP have failed to act on this issue for years, with the BC Greens introducing legislation to ban foreign ownership of farmland in 2017; something that the NDP have consistently ignored.  

“Selling off our farmland to foreign interests and megacorporations not only drives out British Columbian farmers,” said Lowan, “but turns our food supply into a tax scheme for the ultra-wealthy. That’s why the BC Greens will restrict foreign and corporate farmland ownership, fund an Agricultural Public Land Bank to connect farmers with affordable farmland, and give local governments the power to tax unused farmland.”