Food and farming in the Greater Golden Horseshoe
Posted: February 6, 2010
Categories: News from Sustain Ontario
Are you looking for ways to add value to your farm?
Are you trying something new on your farm?
Have you tried to do something innovative on your farm? If so, have you been helped or hindered by your local planning authority?
Have you presented plans for an innovative use of your farm to local Council or to the Ontario Municipal Board?
If your answer to any of the above questions is “yes,†Sustain Ontario would like to hear from you.
Students from Ryerson University’s Master of Planning program are currently working with Sustain Ontario on a project regarding farm innovation in Ontario. In an effort to understand the land use planning issues related to creating a local, sustainable food network in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the students are looking to identify barriers to and opportunities for on-farm innovation in southern Ontario.
Currently, they are in the process of compiling land use planning-related examples of challenges faced by farmers that want to incorporate innovative agricultural practices into their farm operations. So far, land use issues such as minimum distance separation, secondary uses, and market stands have been identified as concerns that may affect farmers that want to be innovative. To further illustrate these issues, the students would benefit from real-life examples of the challenges that farmers run into when dealing with land-use planning issues. Specifically, the students are looking for local municipal council decisions and Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) decisions related to innovative agricultural practices in the region.
In an effort to assist the students in their research, Sustain Ontario is asking you to identify specific land use cases with which you are familiar. With Sustain Ontario’s help, the students will be directed to appropriate public decisions-of-record for this stage of research. Sustain Ontario members who wish to tell their stories in more detail can write info@sustainontario.com and we will contact you about this project.
If you have a land use planning issue that you think might be useful to the students’ research, or if you have examples of farm innovation that you would like to share, please share with Sustain Ontario:
• the date of the land use planning application (if applicable)
• the local and/or regional municipal Council that heard and ruled on the application
• the general nature of the application / incident / inquiry
• whether or not a public record of decision was reached and if it can be accessed
By sharing your story, you will contribute to our growing database of local narratives. Please help local farmers innovate and cultivate a local agricultural economy.
5 responses to “Food and farming in the Greater Golden Horseshoe”
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I gave a workshop last year to a group of NFU farmers on Wolfe Island, Ont and they were seeking advice on what farm products had the greatest PROFIT POTENTIAL…. some farmers view their farms as a business and not a local hobby/entertainment show and want to make a decent living from their hard work. I thus agreed to present at ECO Farm Day(Feb 27,2010)in Cornwall with the objective of helping eastern Ont. farmers to decide on what product to farm..the theme of “MONEY GROWS on TREES” has been mostly ignored by all facets of the Ag system. We have set up many Ontario farms the last couple of years without wasting Sustain Ontario monies. Perhaps those in charge of the budget for Sustain Ontario could be spending it a lot more effectively on farmers instead of:
“civil society groups”($7 Million),
“infrastructure”( $7 Million),
“institutions to build supply chains”( $7 Million)
” developing food strategies” ($3 Million)
Sounds like a lot of “pigs in the money trough” when the $24 MILLION would be much better spent on farmers putting the right crops in the ground!
Hi Ken,
I am well aware that farmers view their work as business people. The global restructuring of food supply chains has made it very difficult for farmers to make money in recent years. I deeply care about having farmers and farms in Ontario’s future, which is why I think that a local procurement policy would be a good thing for the agricultural economy.
Sustain Ontario’s budget is NOT $24 million! You reference a letter we wrote in response to the government pledging $24 million to develop a local food procurement policy and support a transition proces for institution required to purchase a portion of the foods they sell from Ontario farmers. In the grand scheme of things I feel this is a small investment to help get local products on to local plates.
It would be fantastic to have farms like your’s supplying local institutions like hospitals and schools. Think of how much money would be saved in health care expenses!
Lauren
Because municipal by-laws prohibit 2 residences on one property, it is very difficult to house anyone looking to intern, to learn farming or to take over a farm from an older farmer who is willing to mentor through a non-family succession plan. This needs to be addressed. For example, I have a beautiful little 450 sq.ft. home but I am not allowed to put it on a farm property that already has a home.
Its not only the local municipal authority, in the Niagara region its, the Conservation Authority that has lost direction from floodplain management into planting lawns and calling them conservation areas and charging for them.
In the present times where there is a dire need of community supported agriculture practices guiding farming there is a mad rush to plant trees everywhere except areas where they might help in place of snow fences
Procurement issues are a bigger concern as the greenbelt growers complain about not being able to meet support prices of local imported vintners
As for the land use planning issue, our case might be of interest. A group of like minded people who wanted to reduce their ecological footprint, keep farmland in production, and live more sustainably formed an intentional community and bought a 191 acre farm in Caledon in 2002. As co-owners who wanted to live on the farm we had to request a building permit for a house on one of the two lots the farm still was divided into. With Caledon’s agricultural policy, separate homes would not be allowed on the farm but rather only one “single family home.” The challenge for us to be able to live here and contribute to growing food and support young farmers who wanted to get started was to be able to design and build a large enough house for all of us to have some privacy and some common space as well. Caledon helped for a while, then we had to hire a lawyer and go to provincial court to get a ruling on our design. We won the case and, as far as we know, our 15000 sq. ft. home which provides space for 11 households is a precedent in Ontario. For others who cannot afford to buy their own farm, this would be a way for a group to build and live co-operatively while they farm together or in separate sections of the farm. This may not be what the students are looking for but we would be willing to cooperate if they were interested in our case.