Food sovereignty and farmland protection in the Municipal County of Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Abstract

This case study of the Municipal County of Antigon­ish (MCA) in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia assessed the extent to which agricultural land use planning accommodates those societal interests seeking to embed food sovereignty at the municipal level. Data were collected through content analysis of legislative documents, key informant interviews, and a review of the grey literature. Results suggest that the relatively weak municipal planning system in place prioritizes private interests over the public interest in farmland protection. The resultant gaps in the legislative setup in the MCA further reveal that food sovereignty actors and/or ideas have little influence over municipal governance of farmland protection. Broader historical and contemporary trends in Nova Scotia and Canada at large suggest that farmland will continue to lose ground to forces intrinsic to the dominant policy paradigm of market liberalism. Concluding thoughts call for “bringing back the (Canadian) state” itself as central to constituting a new agricultural policy paradigm.