The largest farmland owner in Canada is not a farmer
I’ve been reading about farmland lately because in my area, I’ve noticed more and more real estate listings for farm properties that are getting split up and subdivided. I’m not talking about the 1,000-acre tracts that are getting graded, compacted, and turned to housing—that’s happening here, too. I see small farm properties under 50 acres that are getting parcelled up into small acreages. Arable fields gradually get eaten away as houses pop up on the road frontage, or farmhouses are severed from the land and sold separately.
I believe some of this has to do with the economics of farming. The land that gets severed is often zoned Rural, which means it hasn’t been designated as protected agricultural land, making it easier to sever and sell for housing. It’s also not desirable land for large agricultural operations because the fields are small or awkwardly shaped and often rocky.
Losing farmland like this can gradually erode local and national food security. The people who build houses on this land need to eat, after all.
The Narwhal reports that, nationally, there is a different trend. Farmland has had a huge increase in value, which is making it difficult for the people who work on the land to also own the land.
Decision-making about who gets to farm and how they get to do it is being consolidated into a few investment companies.
In Canada, Robert Andjelic is an investor who owns 250,000 acres of farm land, which he leases out to farmers.
Andjelic is one of the many investors who started buying up farm land in the 21st century. The Narwhal explains:
Between 2001 and 2021, the number of farms declined from about 250,000 to 190,000, with the average farm size increasing from 676 acres to 809 acres.
Fewer active operations are farming more land. In this kind of industrial farming, land is managed on a larger scale, which means fewer people are contributing to and caring for the quality of the soil.
Each year, ~an estimated 22 billion tonnes of fertile soil is lost to erosion~, while millions more acres are degraded or converted to urban and industrial uses.
That’s a lot of tonnes! I’d like to know the related stats: the estimated tonnes of available fertile soil, and the estimated tonnes of fertile soil created each year. With our heavy reliance on fertilizer, I can only assume “fertile” here means arable soils with modern farming practices. The Narwhal continues:
“Soil is both of our bread and butter,” [Andjelic] says. “We’re only as good as the soil and the way we treat that soil. If somebody is mining the land, I don’t care if he pays me two times more than what the market is, he’s not going to get it.”
Andjelic is right about soil. But I am skeptical of his approach. Is consolidating ownership into a few hands who then decide what “good farming” is the right approach?
When I look back at local real estate, I know that many of these small properties that are getting severed into one-acre lots could produce a huge amount of food when farmed carefully.
It seems to me that while the national food system is becoming monopolized, local food systems could thrive if they are cared for by small landowners. This is my hope, at least.
I am lucky to live in an area where I know most of the people who grow the food I eat (in the summer, at least), and can see the difference between local commercial farms and those run by people who know their soil and produce well.