Protecting land for agricultural production is essential for the viability of the agricultural industry and a resilient regional food system. Collaboration with the Agricultural Land Commission and member jurisdictions is needed to address the ongoing challenges from competing residential, industrial, and commercial land use demands. Improved multi-jurisdictional collaboration is required to better protect farmland for food production, climate change adaptation, and restricting other land uses in agricultural lands. Equally important is the need to strengthen the economic viability of agricultural operations by encouraging new markets and expanding the distribution and processing of local foods.
Contextual performance measure
Metro 2050 establishes the performance measure as the percent of land in the Agricultural Land Reserve that is actively farmed.
Progress
This contextual measure monitors the status of agricultural land, including the amount of actively farmed land, with the objective of promoting agricultural viability and food production. This is done in collaboration with the Province and the Agricultural Land Commission. Data for this performance measure will be available in early 2025. The 2021 Agricultural Land Use Inventory data is currently under review and is expected to be publicly available in 2026.