The allocation of agricultural land in peri-urban areas in Canada occurs within the overlapping domains of planning and market systems. The main concern of this paper is a critical analysis and evaluation of the relative merits of market versus non-market allocations of agricultural land within the context of equity and efficiency considerations. After reviewing briefly the nature of the agricultural land resource base in Canada and the growth of land-use planning in peri-urban areas, the paper provides a range of definitions for efficiency and equity. Within the context of these definitions, both market and planning approaches to the allocation of agricultural land are critically analysed and evaluated. Market failure is addressed according to the problems of collective goods and externalities. It is argued that these factors, in addition to concerns over the distributional impact of the free play of the market, justify various forms of planning or extra-market means. However, planning itself is not without its weaknesses. All too often little or no concern is given to the opportunity cost of intervention, distributional impacts are ignored, and frequently information available to planners is no better than that available to others. These and other concerns provide the basis for an analysis of the efficiency and equity of British Columbia's attempt to preserve agricultural land. Finally, the paper concludes with some suggestions for the improvement in the allocation of land in peri-urban areas. Uppermost in this discussion is the necessity to improve our information base regarding society's future land-use needs and the economic consequences of various policy actions.