Canada's farmland loss

The issue with Urban sprawl paving over farmland

Chelsey Eaton-Turner

January 23, 2020

Introduction

South of the Canadian shield is Canada’s prime farmland, a very limited resource, and only 5% of Canada’s land mass is made up of prime land. Unfortunately, this farmland is in one of the fastest growing-regions in Canada, so with cities continuing to grow, prime farmland is quickly being paved over for shopping malls and suburbs. And since the prime land is very limited, farmers will have a hard time feeding cities, when Canadian cities are eating the farmland.

"We can and must do better -- for the health of our economy, environment and communities." (Huffington post)

Whats where?

Canada’s prime farmland of class 1, 2 and 3 occur in one of Canada’s most populated regions, Ontario, and with every 1,000 people we add to Canada’s population, we lose 53 hectares of Canada’s prime farmland near the large urban areas. Immigration is a big addition to Canada’s population, with the Liberal government establishing 300,000 immigrants per year. One in Three of these immigrants move to the golden horseshoe, the golden horseshoe makes up 21% of Canada’s population with 9,245,438 people. By 2031, experts predict that the population will grow to 11.5 million people. And Ontario gets almost 40% of all immigrants who move to Canada.

Canada's prime farmland area

Why there?

The golden horseshoe attracts many immigrants and civilians to move there because of it’s good highway and transportation services, it’s good jobs and income and it’s nice communities. The golden horseshoe is said to, by 2041, be a great place to live, “Its communities will be supported by the pillars of a strong economy, a clean and healthy environment and social equity”. Obviously when somewhere has good reasons to live there it will attract people to move to that area, but for the golden horseshoe this poses a problem. The Golden horseshoe is surrounded by Lake Ontario on one side, and the greenbelt on the other. And since the golden horseshoe's population keeps growing it needs to sprawl it’s cities outwards into Canada’s farmland.

Why care?

Farmlands provide food and habitat for wildlife, help control flooding, protect wetlands and watersheds and maintain air quality. They can absorb and filter wastewater and provide groundwater recharge. Desertification, on the other hand, speeds up climate change which makes a strong case for farmland conservation. As Canada paves its way north, it will eventually meet the northern limits of its prime farmland and that will be the end of our ability to both feed ourselves and feed people in other countries. Each year Canada loses 20,000 to 25,000 hectares of prime farmland to urban expansion (Urbanization ---- converting farmland into urban spaces --- is the ultimate form of desertification). By 1996 over 18% of Canada’s class 1 farmland was being used for urban purposes. Preserving farmland also helps ensure continued to buy locally grown produce, people choose local in order to obtain fresher products and support the local agriculture economy.

Whats next?

( I found a website that had some fabulous ideas on helping the farmland! https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-editorial-protecting-canadas-farmland-the-right-way/ )

To date, most efforts at protecting Canada’s farmland have come in the form of greenbelts and agricultural land reserves that restrict development on agricultural land near cities. But there is a problem that comes along, Limiting new land available for housing in areas of high growth pushes prices for housing higher. Now instead of making permanent reserves, it may make more sense to create rolling greenbelts that slowly shift outward as cities’ needs change. “ cities themselves might consider what they can do to protect Canada’s farming legacy by loosening rules on chicken coops and other urban farming practices. If we’re losing farmland on the outskirts of town, perhaps it makes sense to shift more of it downtown”. ( ^^^I personally think these were some pretty cool ideas :D..)

Aerial view of farmlands in the Fraser Valley near Vancouver, BC. (Marlene Ford/Getty Images)

Conclusion

We need to save our farmland. It’s an important resource for Canada, if we lose our prime farmland how will we have the ability to food ourselves? Farmland also helps provide food and habitat for wildlife, while also improving air quality slowing down climate change. We need to find solutions that not only will help our farmland but wont make living harder for communities and growing cities, having a livable country without raised house prices would be fabulous (Especially since house pricing is already a problem for medium-low paid citizens in some areas). We need to act fast to save our farmland from urban sprawl, so that framers can once again feed cities.

:3 Thank you for your time~