BCBusiness

May 2021 - Women of the Year

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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ON THE RADAR ( the informer ) ALI RODDAM W hen Sarah Wilson was a kid in Rivers Inlet, the only thing her mom could grow was moss. Mountains and ocean squeeze the remote Central Coast community, where rain falls by the foot, the sun rarely appears, the soil is malnour- ished, and fruits and veg- etables arrive every few weeks by barge. Yet for Wilson, something about scarcity nurtured a desire to grow. After high school she moved to Victoria, took a horticulture certificate at Camosun College, learned to farm and worked growing vegetables for seven years, first in Metchosin and then the Comox Valley. "I love everything about farming," Wilson says. "The fresh vegetables, each step of the growing, the physical side of it, how there is always some- thing to learn, the ability to see the results of your time and la- bour. Everything short of some of the smells." In 2019, Wilson decided to overlook the chicken manure and start her own farm. With no family history in agricul- ture, she's the face of the next generation of B.C. farmers. Farm succession used to be as predictable as the seasons. Kids would grow up in the fam- ily business, always knowing one day they'd take it over, in- cluding the land. Over the past century, that model has with- ered. Urban migration, falling farm incomes, industrialization of operations and other factors have reduced the stock of farm kids interested in agriculture. Farm employment fell from a third of Canadian jobs in 1921 to less than 2 percent in 2018. B.C. lost 2,000 farms from 2011 to 2016, Statistics Canada re- ports. With fewer children tak- ing over for their parents, the remaining farmers are getting older, too. The average age of a B.C . farmer is nearly 56. That's a problem. "It's about survival," says Heather O'Hara, executive director of the BC As- sociation of Farmers' Markets, which represents 145 markets across the province. "If we lose our ability to grow food locally New to the Field In a bid to keep a vital B.C. industry growing, Young Agrarians matches would-be farmers with vacant land by Ryan Stuart A G R IC U LT U R E MAY 2021 BCBUSINESS 9 PUTTING DOWN ROOTS Sarah Wilson and her dog, Karma, at Pendleton Farm near Courtenay, which she started leasing in 2019 PLOT OF GOLD 8% Average increase in B.C. farmland values in 2020, outpacing all other provinces and well ahead of the 5.4% national average $100,800/$1,800 2020 value of an acre of farmland in the South Coast and Peace-Northern, the most and least expensive regions $3.7 billion Gross receipts from B.C. farms in 2016 17,528 Farms throughout the province in that year, j 11.3% from 2011 40%+ Share of those farms that were small (<$10,000 in receipts) ACTIVELY FARMED METRO VANCOUVER LAND OWNED BY NON-FARMERS, 2015 SOURCES: FARM CREDIT CANADA, B.C. MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, STATISTICS CANADA, VANCITY, METRO VANCOUVER 50% 35% 5% INDIVIDUAL NON-FARMERS BUSINESSES HOLDING COMPANIES OTHER BUSINESSES NONPROFITS AND GOVERNMENT

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