If you want cheaper produce, stop the grab for farmland

The Doug Ford government, and all the rest of us, should remember that once farmland is lost, it’s gone forever

Canadians are taking “eat your fruits and veggies” to heart. This is good for our health and good for the planet. Unfortunately, prices for these smart food choices are climbing fast. Vegetable costs are set to rise 6 per cent in 2019, and fruits by 3 per cent. Together with other items, these will add about $400 more to our total yearly food bill.

A lot of this food is grown in southern Ontario and research shows that even more could be, which would create healthier local supply and more jobs. So why is the Ontario government considering allowing developers to pave over the prime agricultural land that supplies exactly the kind of food we want?

It is not like we don’t know why this is a bad idea.

Almost 20 years ago, Premier Mike Harris and his PC government noticed that uncontrolled urban sprawl and megahighways were eating up valuable farmland.

They knew this was a problem because while Ontario is a big place, only 5 per cent of it can grow food and most of this fertile land is located in a narrow band south of a line drawn from Peterborough to Ottawa. This area is also home to about 12 million people, meaning agricultural southern Ontario looks a lot more like densely settled Europe than it does like the rest of Canada.

The government responded to the threat of urban sprawl by launching their Smart Growth Program which was intended to protect farmland, and concentrate development within cities.

Smart Growth then became the basis for the Growth Plan when the Liberals took over. Since that time, large areas of farmland and natural areas have been put off limits to development in the protected Greenbelt and in the areas outside of city boundaries.

But the developers of sprawling subdivisions have never been happy with these rules, and now are pitching hard at Queen’s Park to be allowed to gobble up farmland again.

Proof of their growing success can be found in the current proposed Ontario “open-for-business” law that would open up the Greenbelt to development, and also in ongoing consultations on allowing city boundaries to expand without proving need, reducing the requirement to build more homes inside towns and cities, and starting up the building of new mega highways.

If they succeed, a number of things will happen to farms and farm communities. First, farm land prices will shoot through the roof as developers start to compete with people who want to farm. This will kill the recent trend of younger people taking up farming and will undermine farm communities.

Then, subdivisions will start to sprout up further from cities again. These subdivisions will need expensive sewers, roads and water supplies which taxpayers will have to pay for. The new residents of

We’ve seen it before. This return to urban sprawl means an accelerated loss of irreplaceable local farm land putting us at a greater food security risk

these subdivisions also won’t want to smell manure or share the roads with farm machinery, which will further disrupt farm communities.

And, we know how this will end up. We’ve seen it before. This return to urban sprawl means an accelerated loss of irreplaceable local farm land, putting us at a greater food security risk, especially as the ability of other parts of the world to produce it declines (California droughts sound familiar?), and ever rising prices for the food we need.

Let’s hope Ontario’s government knows that once farmland is lost, it’s gone forever and that they make protecting our local food supplies a priority, not lining the deep pockets of developers.

Tim Gray is the Executive Director of Environmental Defence.