Protecting Farmland: Team Effort

 

“Now is the time to protect at-risk farmland in Ontario for good.”

That’s the opening line of a Hamilton Spectator column written by Matt Setzkorn of Ontario Farmland Trust. In it, he calls on the Ontario government to halt all urban expansion and implement municipal growth boundaries in the Greater Golden Horseshoe region to preserve the area’s remaining farmland.

“The proposed changes to the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and Greenbelt Plan fail to protect the majority of our farmers and farmlands from ongoing and poorly-planned urban sprawl.

 Maintaining policy that enables status quo sprawl makes it difficult to see a future for local food and farming in the region, despite the great economic contributions of the the Greater Golden Horseshoe’s food and farming sector.”

Matt Setzkorn wrote the column on behalf of 15 agricultural and food security organizations, including Food & Water First! We are honoured to be part of this team effort.

We await the province’s response.