1. Sustainable Food Policy and Legal Reform
Growing Green
Sustainable Food Policy and Legal Reform
Project Partners:
FarmFolk/CityFolk
West Coast Environmental Law
Liu Institute for Global Issues (UBC)

2. What is Growing Green?
Two-year law and policy reform project on food and sustainability funded by Canada’s Voluntary Sector Initiative and Tides Canada
Growing Green

3. Project Objectives
Develop, in strategic areas, practical law and policy models and reform proposals
Growing Green

4. Project Objectives
Develop in strategic areas, practical law and policy models and reform proposals
Strengthen capacity of voluntary organizations to contribute to law and policy
Growing Green

5. Project Team West Coast Environmental Law FarmFolk/CityFolk
Liu Institute for Global Issues
Growing Green

6. Project Focus
Federal, provincial and local law/policy as it applies to growing food in and around BC’s urban areas
Innovative ideas generated across Canada and around the world
Community groups and Reference Group asked to identify priorities
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7. Case for Growing Green Food system produces environmental services
Food system needs to produce more environmental services to be sustainable
Wide spectrum of solutions proposed, including:
Help sustainable farmers by removing regulatory barriers
Prepare ‘Plan B’ to current reliance on cheap fuel
Overhaul system; build a local food economy
Growing Green: reforms that offer meaningful progress towards all three
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8. Project Approach: community collaboration
Work with farm, food and voluntary organizations to:
Solicit and review policy suggestions
Develop policy recommendations
Solicit comments on recommendations
Refine policy recommendations
Report results/further developments
Growing Green

9. Strengthening Capacity: network building
Work with other NGOs, academics, farmers, gov’t
Encourage policy dialogues
Use creative problem solving techniques
Use most effective ways to share information
Provide tools, resources to assist voluntary sector policy input
Growing Green

10. Strengthening Capacity: policy dialogue-’sharing the benefits’
Year 1 financial contributions to:
Certified Organic Associations of BC
Lower Mainland Food Council
POLIS Project on Ecological Governance
Small Scale Food Processor Association
BC Food Systems Network
Growing Green

11. Strategic Law Reform: determining project priorities
Over 50 potential projects identified in collaboration with farm, food, and voluntary organizations
Priorities shaped and determined with advice from Reference Group, based on:
Requested by farm, food, or voluntary group?
Can Growing Green can add value?
Practical, useful, and doable?
Names of RG?
Growing Green

12. Strategic Law Reform: priorities
Making sustainable food systems work
Making sustainable food systems pay
Growing Green

13. Strategic Law Reform making sustainable food systems work
Making the case for community based food councils
Showcasing model Official Community Plans and Bylaws
Contributing to provincial public health legislation
Attracting small scale food processors
Growing Green

14. Strategic Law Reform making sustainable food systems work
Making the case for community food councils
Importance of community-based food systems
Need for inter-sectoral food forums
Need for food policy and planning
Food councils help deliver economic, environmental, social benefits in communities
Growing Green

15. Strategic Law Reform making sustainable food systems work
Showcasing model OCPs and bylaws
Work with Smart Growth, other partners
Inform and educate regional/municipal partners
Link food councils to Agricultural Advisory Committees
Draft or amend bylaws, sections of OCPs
Growing Green

16. Strategic Law Reform making sustainable food systems work
Contributing to BC public health legislation
Negotiate for new Public Health Act that:
includes healthy eating as a core service
includes food security as basis for healthy eating and chronic disease prevention
includes key duties and obligations
Explore development of a BC Food Council
Growing Green

17. Strategic Law Reform making sustainable food systems work
Attracting small-scale food processors
Help develop BC Food and Beverage Processor Association with input from small-scale operators
Help develop a pilot regional manufacturing/distribution network
Explore regional brands (e.g. Fresh from the Islands)
Growing Green

18. Strategic Law Reform making sustainable food systems pay
Making long-term land management pay
Making ecological practices pay
Growing Green

19. Strategic Law Reform making sustainable food systems pay
Making long-term land management pay
Investigating co-farming/multi-family housing
Bringing UK National Trust and other ‘working farm’ trust models to BC
Restoring right to conservation covenants
Obtaining quota to use collectively
Registering short-term leases against title
Growing Green

20. Strategic Law Reform making sustainable food systems pay
Making ecological practices pay
Accounting mechanisms
Reward mechanisms
Just north of Victoria…
Growing Green

21. Strategic Law Reform making ecological practices pay
Rationale: Carefully managed, farmland protects the soil, provides a buffer against droughts and floods, and can provide habitat for a range of species.
Problem: In many situations, farmers are penalized for protecting the environment, since “sustainable practices” increase costs and make farms uncompetitive.
Goal: Investigate methods that will reward farmers who use “sustainable practices.”
Growing Green

22. Strategic Law Reform making ecological practices pay
Accounting Mechanisms
The USDA’s Proper Ecosystem Functioning Condition has been successfully applied in a number of cases on Vancouver Island.
The LEED programme of certifying green buildings in the US could be applied to farms in British Columbia.
Organic standards could also be extended to encompass farms that promote ecological functions like wildlife habitat.
Growing Green

23. Strategic Law Reform making ecological practices pay
Mechanisms to reward:
Tax Shifting: using municipal property tax to provide breaks for farmers who promote habitat on their farms;
Marketing: government sponsored marketing for farmers who promote habitat and are certified through a mechanism identified in proposal #1,
Compensation: compensation for wildlife damage.
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24. Ancillary Projects Case studies
Noble Food and Education Centre
Engeler Farm
Local sourcing for school food
Host information from related food initiatives on Growing Green website
Further ‘think pieces’
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25. Growing Green Website: www.ffcf.bc.ca/GrowingGreen.html
Project description
‘Making the Case for Growing Green’
Project priorities
Biographies
Links
Growing Green