Analysis discovered that investor possession of farmland in Saskatchewan was negligible in 2002, however by 2018 had climbed to just about a million acres — nearly 18 instances the scale of Saskatoon. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Actual property is a scorching matter in Canada. Most Canadians are aware of how residence costs and rents have skyrocketed within the final 15 years or so. In giant cities, investor possession of condos and homes has attracted the eye of policymakers and the general public at giant, prompting the federal authorities to crack down on international consumers.
Whereas many are acquainted with these city actual property developments, few are conscious of the restructuring of farmland possession occurring in rural areas. Since 2014, we’ve been finding out altering land tenure patterns within the Prairies, the place 70 per cent of Canada’s agricultural land is located.
Our analysis reveals three main developments — ongoing farm consolidation, rising land focus and increasing investor possession of farmland — resulting in rising land inequality. Just like the transformation of city actual property, who advantages from these modifications is extremely contested.
Investor curiosity in farmland
Investor purchases of farmland worldwide elevated considerably as a part of the worldwide landgrab spurred by the meals worth spikes of 2007 and 2008. Excessive meals costs, a rising international demand for meals and environmental pressures satisfied many international traders that farmland was a secure guess in an more and more risky world.
As hedge funds, pension funds and rich people poured billions of {dollars} into farmland, researchers like us started to put in writing concerning the financialization of agriculture — that’s, the rising affect of economic gamers and monetary motives over farming and meals manufacturing.
Our analysis discovered that investor possession of farmland in Saskatchewan was negligible in 2002, however had climbed to just about a million acres by 2018 — nearly 18 instances the scale of Saskatoon. (One million acres is about 4,050 sq. kilometres). Whereas Saskatchewan sought to tighten guidelines on farmland possession in 2016, this appears to have performed little to decelerate the tempo of investor acquisitions.
Robert Andjelic, an investor from Alberta, is now Canada’s largest landowner with 225,435 acres in 92 Saskatchewan rural municipalities. His firm leases farmland to dozens of farmers and undertakes land enhancements, resembling clearing timber, brush and different pure habitat, in addition to filling in wetlands with the intention to farm from nook to nook of each parcel.
One other main investor is Avenue Dwelling, which has a foot in each city actual property (because the proprietor of multi-family housing models throughout North America) and farmland, with a portfolio of some 83,000 acres.
Land holdings of traders and farmer-investor hybrids in Saskatchewan in 2018. Collectively, these entities owned 969,769 acres throughout the province.
(GeoSask), Creator offered
As traders gobble up extra land, there may be rising unease amongst farmers. Buyers argue they’re serving to farmers by relieving them of their belongings and offering younger farmers with
entry to land by means of rental agreements. Provided that, on common, traders pay extra for land in comparison with different consumers, these deep-pocketed consumers have undoubtedly contributed to the fast enhance of farmland costs.
In our survey of 400 prairie farmers, 76 per cent of farmers underneath 35 indicated that non-farmer investor exercise has had a damaging or very damaging impact on the native farmland market. 83.2 per cent of older farmers indicated that investor exercise has had damaging or very damaging impression on the local people.
Farmers additionally expressed unease concerning the rising financial clout of enormous farmers (over 10,000 acres) and mega-farms (over 30,000 acres) within the area.
Mega-farms preserve accumulating land
Buyers should not the one entities with huge landholdings. A few of Saskatchewan’s largest grain farms now personal and management tens of 1000’s of acres. In response to our analysis, Monette Farms owned some 63,000 acres of land in 2018, and farms way more than that with manufacturing websites in Montana, Arizona and Saskatchewan.
One Natural Farms reportedly operates on a land base of 40,000 acres, with the massive majority of the land rented from Andjelic Land Inc., Saskatchewan’s largest investor-owner.
In-depth interviews with over 100 farmers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba revealed many are deeply involved concerning the environmental degradation wrought by massive agriculture. Others argued these gamers out-compete locals for farmland and contribute little to native communities.
Why ought to metropolis dwellers care?
Land inequality has important implications for the vibrancy of democracy, the viability of rural communities and the sustainability of agriculture.
Accessing land is presently the largest barrier for younger and new farmers who wish to get into farming and land costs proceed to soar above what’s justified by its productive worth. On the identical time, farm debt is the very best it’s ever been and the prairies are experiencing an emptying out of the countryside.
We must also be involved concerning the financialized logic promoted by traders and mega-farmers, which seeks to extract financial worth from each sq. inch of farmland.
Agriculture is a major contributor to Canada’s greenhouse fuel emissions.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Provided that agriculture is a major contributor to Canada’s greenhouse fuel emissions, doubling-down on this hyper-productive, fossil-fuel dependent mannequin will solely make it tougher for Canada to fulfill its local weather change dedication.
The query is: what sort of agriculture do Canadians need? Rising land inequality undermines the social, financial and environmental sustainability of agriculture.
Progressive agrarian and meals actions suggest a distinct future — one based mostly on meals sovereignty. This is able to entail equitable entry to land for farmers, sustainable livelihoods and valuing farmland for its social and ecological price, in addition to its productive worth.
Because the local weather disaster intensifies, there has by no means been a greater time for city and rural Canadians to work collectively to remodel meals techniques.
Annette Desmarais receives funding from the Canada Analysis Chair Program and the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada.
André Magnan receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Analysis Council of Canada.
