b'FINDING LANDCreativity Key for Those Seeking New Acres to Farm There are options available for those looking to get into farming or expand their acres.ALBERTAS 50 MILLION acres of farmland are productive,This past June, the University of Albertas Parkland Institute beautifuland increasingly pricey. For those who own theirreleased a new report detailing how investors interest in farmland, acres, land appreciation now often contributes more to the farmwhich has increased dramatically since the 2008 financial crisis, is businesses overall value than any commodity those farms canimpacting rural Alberta and fundamentally changing how farmers produce. For farmers who would like to enter agriculture orfarm. As the reports author Katherine Aske explains, The new expand farm businesses, however, the often out-of-reach pricereality is that many farmers purchasing land in Alberta cannot pay of land has become a major stumbling block. it off in their lifetimes just by farming it." Between 2010 and 2021, the cost of agricultural land inIn the report, Aske argues the high cost of land gives rise Alberta more than doubled, rising from an average of just overto tenant farming and, consequently, shorter-term thinking: $1,500 per acre to nearly $3,200 per acre across the province,Tenant farming leaves farmers in precarious economic according to Statistics Canada. The increase is particularlypositions, disconnects them from the long-term health of the impressive when framed on a provincial scale: across theland, limits their autonomy, and inhibits them from transitioning entire province, farmland and buildings increased from a totalto regenerative practice.value of $38.9 billion in 2001, to $118.3 billion in 2016, to aOthers, however, see opportunity despite the high prices, so whopping $160.9 billion in 2021a quadrupling of value inlong as the agriculture industry is open to thinking outside the two decades. traditional real estate box.42seed.ab.ca'