ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
Local farmers buck Ontario trend
Farmer Larry Verbeke and three generations of his family have lived off of 50 acres of Leamington farmland since 1912.
The family sold the land recently but Verbeke, who also serves as a town councillor, has a contract to farm there for the next two years.
Verbeke is among the local municipal leaders bucking provincial policy and standing up for the smaller family farms.
He said the county’s decision to send a controversial report calling for a minimum size for new agricultural lots of 100 acres back to a steering committee for review, was a good one.
“Every municipality should have their jurisdiction,” Verbeke said. “If they want to keep (the minimum) at 25, keep it at 25. If you want to keep it at a hundred, keep it at a hundred.”
Each municipality sets its own minimum farm sizes in its Official Plan.
The report, prepared by Bill King, manager of planning services, recommended county council allow administration to prepare an Official Plan amendment to change the minimum agricultural lot size for new farms in Essex County to a standardized 100-acre size, in line with Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs guidelines.
The recommendation agreed with the conclusions from a study prepared by consultants The Jones Consulting Group and AgPlan Ltd., who were hired by the county to do the study.
“I think it’s time that we stand up and go against even the county and the provincial policy because (like Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos said at Wednesday’s meeting) one size does not fit for everybody,” Verbeke said.
Leamington Mayor John Paterson agrees.
Paterson said the municipality started looking at the 100-acre OMAFRA recommendation in 2006 and at that time they invited farmers from the Leamington area to comment.
He said the majority objected to switching from a minimum of 25 acres, which is built into Leamington’s Official Plan.
“OMAFRA, I think when they are coming up with the 100-acre idea, they’re considering more the London area and north for Ontario because they don’t grow the specialty crops Essex County (grows),” Paterson said. “We are not the same. You can’t use a cookie-cutter approach.”
Paterson said in “remote southern Ontario” it’s necessary to maintain smaller farm lot sizes in order to encourage small family farms to continue and to encourage investors and entrepreneurs to start up new businesses.
He also asked how a greenhouse farm, paying upwards of $30,000 an acre right now for land to build greenhouses on, would justify spending $3 million before even beginning to build?
At 25 acres, “that business case becomes a little bit more reasonable.”
Verbeke said it’s the same situation for orchards or vineyards.
“You’re not going to put more than 10, 15 acres into an orchard,” he said.
“Even a vineyard, 25 acres for a vineyard is lots until you get established. And you don’t want to put all that money out to have to wait … for production.”
Every municipality should have their jurisdiction. If they want to keep (the minimum) at 25, keep it at 25.