Entries tagged with
Alberta farms
A new research report published by the Parkland Institute argues that a crisis is brewing in rural Alberta. An influx of investors buying farmland is making land more expensive as farmers struggle, tenant farming becomes prevalent, and very few can afford to get started as new farmers.
Finance in the Fields
Investors, Lenders, Farmers, and the Future of Farmland in Alberta
Alberta has over 50 million acres of farmland. What happens on this land? Who owns it? Who can access it? Most of all, why are land relations structured the way they are? And what are the current impacts of these land tenure dynamics and their implications for our future?
The answers to these questions are political, and we urgently need to face them together. This report draws on publicly-funded qualitative research conducted from 2019 to 2020. It seeks to contribute to a vibrant path forward for rural Alberta.
Private management of public data
Benefits and risks
From 1976-2016, Alberta lost 34 per cent of its farms, and fewer and fewer people now control more and more of the land base. In 2016, 40 per cent of farmland in Alberta was controlled by just six per cent of farms. This kind of information is vital as researchers keep track of the changing patterns of tenure across the province. Alberta government's privatization of land titles means higher service fees are likely and less accessibility for researchers to study Alberta's 50 million acres of farmland.