Farmland values in Canada rose by 10.1 per cent in 2015, following increases of 14.3 per cent in 2015 and 22.1 per cent in 2013, according to Farm Credit Canada. The biggest increases were in Manitoba, Alberta and Quebec in 2015.

Farmland values increased by 6.6 per cent in Ontario and by 6.5 per cent in British Columbia. In the agricultural areas closest the country's hottest residential markets -- Toronto and Vancouver -- there's concern that some of the country's most important farmland is in danger of being overwhelmed by real estate investment.

"Farmland prices in Metro Vancouver range from $150,000 to $350,000 per acre for parcels less than five acres, and from $50,000 to $80,000 per acre for parcels more than 40 acres," says a report prepared for the Vancity credit union. "Farm Credit Canada recognizes that the financial viability of many farm businesses becomes questionable when land prices reach $80,000 per acre. Without addressing the high price of farmland in Metro Vancouver, the ability to grow a resilient, more self-reliant food system in this region is severely challenged."

In Ontario, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture has teamed with Environmental Defence to produce a report called Farmland at Risk: Why Land-Use Planning Needs Improvements for a Healthy Agricultural Future in the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

"Ontario's land-use planning system is geared towards the accommodation of urban (residential) development and other urban-related land uses within the framework of ‘good planning principles,'" says the report. "Within this framework, farmland is typically viewed as a background landscape upon which development is to be painted, or in other words, as tarmac-in-waiting."

The Vancity report, written by members of the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and the B.C. Food Systems Network, says that the province has strong legislation that created the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), a zone where agriculture is recognized as the priority use and non-agricultural uses are controlled. Although most applications to have farmland removed from the zone are unsuccessful, "the hope of success may still encourage speculation and be a factor affecting the price of larger parcels of farmland," says the report. Almost one-third of the actively farmed land in ALR is being leased from non-farmer landowners, and 35 per cent is owned by businesses that the report says are "holding companies".

It says another factor that is putting pressure on small parcels of farmland is that people are building estate homes on land where agriculture is permitted to gain a property tax advantage.

"To qualify for reduced property tax, an owner must report a minimum annual farm income (earnings derived from the production and sale of qualifying agricultural products). For properties smaller than 1.98 acres, the minimum required farm income is $10,000, and for parcels between 1.98 acres and 10 acres, the minimum is $2,500," says the report.

"Anecdotal reports suggest that most estate home owners are achieving these minimums from non-food agricultural products such as hay, pasture and trees, rather than from food produced for local consumption. Non-food products play a part in farm viability, but a balance should be encouraged to support local food production."

The Vancity report says, "To develop a robust local food system, we need strong policy solutions to address the high price of farmland, to increase the amount of actively farmed land and to discourage the non-farm use of ALR land."

In Ontario, the Farmland at Risk report says farmland makes up about half the land area of the Greater Golden Horseshoe and "represents one of the most important economic sectors of the region, contributing $11 billion and 38,000 jobs" to the economy.

It says farmland also "provides a number of other precious ecosystem services that benefit all GHH residents, including storm-water storage and runoff control, protection against erosion on waterways, water filtration, carbon sequestration in soils in plants, pollination and habitat for many animal and plant species."

Ontario's Greenbelt Plan, enacted in 2005, protects a band of land surrounding the Greater Toronto Area but the report says outside the Greenbelt, protection of farmland is "much less certain."

It says, "These less protected lands are the ones at risk of being paved over to accommodate an additional 2.5 million people by 2013."

The report blames the provincial government for allowing urban sprawl to continue "in response to the demands of municipalities hungry for tax assessment and development charge revenues, even though these revenues are not adequate to cover more expensive servicing costs associated with greenfield or low density development."

It says speculators and developers lobby to expand settlement boundaries, "creating an unhealthy cycle of municipalities requiring new sprawl developments to pay for the debts of existing ones."

The sprawl inevitably leads to conflicts between the farm operations and residents of the new developments.

The report urges the province to adopt a "positive planning" approach that would better integrate farmland into land-use decision making and make agriculture a priority. The province should also develop new separation distance guidelines for "non-livestock agricultural uses that also need to be protected from neighboring uses," says the report.

"A fresh perspective is needed on farmland in the GGT, one that sees agriculture as a permanent feature of the regional landscape and farming as an essential component of our economy and cultural heritage."