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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] A Protected Countryside but No Net Protection for Farmland
  • Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 11:23:45 -0700


Corner Post #370
Farm & Countryside Commentary by Elbert van Donkersgoed


A new study by Statistics Canada, published in the Rural and Small Town
Analysis Bulletin, has documented just how much dependable agricultural
land
Ontario has lost to urban encroachment. Eleven percent of our Class I
agricultural land has been turned into urban land. That is 11% of our most
dependable farmland - no constraints for crop production -- and the pattern
continues. Combined, Ontario's sprawling cities bury two percent of our
very
best farmland each decade.


Our provincial government claims that this will change as a result of Bill
135. The Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt Act has objectives that speak about
agriculture:

. "Preserving agricultural land as a continuing commercial
source
of food and employment; and

. Recognizing the critical importance of the agriculture sector
to
the regional economy."

It is a dramatic piece of legislation that redefines a million acres as the
"Protected Countryside." But there is nothing that will keep our sprawling
cities from burying another two percent of our most dependable farmland,
Class I agricultural land, in this decade - and the next and the ones after
that.



1. The farmland designated protected countryside is not Class I
farmland. Much of this land is Class IV or worse. This is land with poor
soil texture, inadequate drainage, problematical slopes, susceptibility to
erosion and high dependency on off-farm inputs, such as fertilizer,
pesticides and water to produce food commercially.

2. Our cities that fringe the western edge of Lake Ontario have
growth plans for the next decade or two. Depending on whom you talk to,
their Official Plans already designate 100,000 to 200,000 acres for future
development. On what kind of land? Mostly agricultural land. Much of it far
more dependable farmland than the proposed protected countryside.

3. The greenbelt proposal leaves out 175,000 acres between existing
urban borders and the proposed protected countryside. What kind of land is
this? Mostly agricultural land. Much of it far more dependable farmland
than
the proposed protected countryside. Enough good farmland to sprawl onto for
another generation.

4. Robert Keffer, a dairy farmer on 325 acres, three miles north of
the northern boundary of the proposed greenbelt, reported at last week's
AgKnowledge Forum at Canadian Forces Base Borden, that speculators are
inundating his family -- five since the middle of January. Urban developers
are offering options to purchase to tie up land for future development.
What
kind of land? Mostly agricultural land. Much of it far more dependable
farmland than the proposed protected countryside. Development is preparing
to leapfrog the protected poorer quality farmland onto some of our most
dependable agricultural land.



The proposed Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt will establish a protected
countryside but no net protection for farmland.

__________

The Loss of Dependable Agricultural Land: Rural and Small Town Canada
Analysis Bulletin Vol. 6 No. 1 (January 2005):
www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/21-006-XIE/21-006-XIE2005001.pdf



Elbert van Donkersgoed P. Ag. (Hon.) is the Strategic Policy Advisor of the
Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, Canada. Corner Post is heard
weekly
on CFCO Radio, Chatham and CKNX Radio, Wingham, Ontario. Corner Post has an
email subscriber list of more than 3,500 and appears regularly on
Agriculture Online/Views at www.agriculture.com/ag/views/ and as "Letter
from Ontario" on The New Farm website at www.newfarm.org. CFFO is supported
by 4,300 family farmers across Ontario. Corner Post is archived on the CFFO
website:
www.christianfarmers.org/sub_news_commentaries/sub2_news_com_corner_post/new

s_com_corner_post.htm.



To be added to the electronic distribution list of Corner Post send email
to
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  • [Livingontheland] A Protected Countryside but No Net Protection for Farmland, Tradingpost, 02/18/2005

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