TORONTO – The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) says the province is experiencing an increase in agricultural land loss as urban sprawl engulfs land previously used for farming.
The farmers’ organization called on municipal governments and the province on Saturday to better protect agricultural land and food production as they plan new developments to alleviate the housing crisis.
Data from the 2021 Georgia Census show that Ontario loses 319 acres of farmland daily, equal to the loss of an average family farm per day.
This is a sharp increase from the last census of 2016, when the rate of loss of agricultural land in the province was 175 acres per day.  In Ontario alone, only five percent of the land is made up of usable farmland.
“Most farmers would agree that this is not just sustainable,” said Mark Reusser, vice president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
If the province continues to lose arable land from urban sprawl and new housing development, it worries that Ontario will have to rely on other countries for some food, making it more likely to be hit by global supply chain challenges.
Reusser, who raises turkeys on a farm near Kitchener in Ontario, added that COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine have shown how easily supply chains can be disrupted, and stressed the importance of independent Canadian food production.
“If we do not grow 1/8 food 3/8 here, we have to import it from somewhere else.  Do we as a society want to depend on someone else for our food?
Greg Feddy, who runs a dairy farm north of Springfield, OD, said there was a direct link between every acre of farmland in the county and the amount of food provided to Ontarians.
Less farmland could mean significantly fewer loaves of bread or Doritos bags on store shelves.
“I’m a farmer, not an urban planner … but I have to think that there is room in cities to fill and grow vertically,” Fentie said.
“Not everyone needs to have a subdivision house.”
OFA President Peggy Breckweld said the organization understands that the province needs to adapt to growth and does not ask for growth to stop.
“What we are saying is to build in the right places through long-term strategic land use planning,” Brekveld said in a statement.
Ontario has a “pretty good” history and planning process, Reusser said, but the Ministerial Zones (MZOs), which allow the government to accelerate development and use land anywhere in the province, can be used to bypass procedures intended for the protection of agricultural land.
OFA would like to see the use of MZOs by the government “very sparingly, only when absolutely necessary and, most of the time, in the urban file instead of in the countryside,” Reusser said.
The farmland itself is finite, but can be a lasting resource for food when handled properly, he added.
“Corn, beans and squash have been grown here in Ontario for more than 1,000 years by indigenous peoples.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 18, 2022.