Ontario losing farmland at a rapid rate amid urban sprawl, provincial agriculture group says

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) says the province is going through a rise within the rate of farmland loss as urban sprawl swallows up land beforehand used for rising.

The farmer-led group known as on municipal governments and the province Saturday to raised shield farmland and meals manufacturing when planning new developments to ease the housing disaster.

Data from the 2021 Census of Agriculture reveals Ontario is losing 319 acres of farmland every day, equal to the lack of one common household farm per day.

That’s a sharp improve from the final census in 2016, when the rate of farmland loss within the province was 175 acres per day. In Ontario alone, solely 5 per cent of land mass includes usable farmland.

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“Most farmers would agree that’s quite simply not sustainable,” stated Mark Reusser, vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

If the province retains losing farmable land to urban sprawl and new housing developments, he worries Ontario must depend on different nations for some meals, making it extra more likely to be hit by international provide chain challenges.

Reusser, who raises turkeys on a farm close to Kitchener, Ont., added that COVID-19 and the conflict in Ukraine have proven how simply provide chains will be disrupted and harassed the significance of impartial Canadian meals manufacturing.

“If we don’t grow [food] here, we have to import it from somewhere else. Do we as a society want to be dependent on someone else for our food?”

Greg Fentie, who runs a dairy farm north of Springfield, Ont., stated there’s a direct correlation between every acre of farmland within the province and the quantity of meals equipped to Ontarians.

Less farmland may imply considerably fewer loaves of bread or baggage of Doritos on retailer cabinets.

“I’m a farmer, I’m not an urban planner … but I’ve got to think there’s room in the cities to infill and to grow vertically,” stated Fentie.

“Not everybody needs to have a subdivision house.”

OFA president Peggy Brekveld stated the group understands the province must accommodate progress and isn’t asking for growth to cease.

“What we are saying is to build in the right places through long-term strategic land-use planning,” Brekveld stated in a launch.

Ontario has a “pretty good” planning historical past and course of, stated Reusser, however Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs), which permit the federal government to expedite growth and use land wherever within the province, can be utilized to bypass processes meant to guard farmland.

The OFA wish to see authorities use of MZOs occur “very sparingly, only when absolutely necessary and, most of the time, within the urban envelope instead of in the countryside,” Reusser stated.

Farmland itself is finite, however will be a perpetual useful resource for meals, when handled effectively, he added.

“Corn, beans and squash have been produced here on Ontario soils for more than 1,000 years by Indigenous peoples.”