Farmland protection efforts require a holistic approach, report argues

A new report published by the Greenbelt Foundation with the help of the Canadian Agri-food Policy Institute offers a reminder of the value of protecting farmland in Ontario, especially some of the specialty crop areas like Niagara’s fruit growing region. ~ Greenbelt photo

By Luke Edwards

It takes a village to grow a fruit.

When Margaret Zafiriou thinks about protecting valuable farmland, she’s not just thinking about the orchard where the peach is picked or the field where the soybeans are harvested. Those may be the most visible aspects, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

“It’s really important to look at it as a system,” said the senior research fellow at the Canadian Agri-food Policy Institute.

Last year the Greenbelt Foundation sought Zafiriou’s help to produce a report looking at the important land use planning document that protects about 2 million acres of land in Ontario, including some of the best remaining farmland the province has to offer. Her report is part of a Visioning the Future of the Greenbelt Series that considers how the Greenbelt should evolve in a changing world.

Protecting farmland is a key part of that, though Zafiriou suggests it’s not as easy as simply restricting development on existing fields and orchards. Not only is there a never-ending balancing act being played between the need to grow and develop and the priority to protect agricultural land. There’s also everything else that goes into making a field, and its harvest productive.

That means equipment, maintenance, inputs, harvesting, and post-harvest processing or value-added propositions. Then there’s the agronomists, researchers and product developers ensuring Ontario’s farmers have the best technology and advancements.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship, they need each other,” she said.

The importance of thinking of it as an entire system has taken on a new focus in the past year as the United States injected uncertainty into the global economy through tariffs to longtime partners like Canada and a general chaos with shifting priorities and partners.

“We keep hearing about a wakeup call,” she said. “That was a wakeup call.”

The report, released this spring, offers several recommendations, with many revolving around Zafiriou’s idea of agriculture as a system. These include a recommendation to “incentivize connectivity and a critical mass of prime farmland, safe from fragmentation, to provide long-term business certainty and maintain economic viability of farms and support farm succession.”

Other recommendations talk about infrastructure, innovation, raising awareness about issues revolving around food sovereignty, and helping promote value-added exports and a more diverse export market.

Zafiriou and her report also point out some aspects particular to Niagara, like the specialty crop designation.

“Almost 9 per cent of Ontario farms are in the Greenbelt. More specifically, it accounts for more than 52 per cent of Ontario’s fruit acreage, and over 10 per cent of field vegetable acreage,” the report said. “Also 80 per cent of acreage in grapes, peaches, plums, prunes and apricots, are found here, especially in the Niagara region with its locational (i.e., close to cities) and natural advantages and potential for future growth.”

The report also highlights Niagara during its discussion over succession planning.

“In fruit and vegetable growing regions of the Greenbelt, like Niagara, the share of farms with written succession plans, at 12.9 per cent, is only slightly higher than the Ontario average (12.4 per cent), implying more efforts are needed. Fortunately, grower associations in the region are proposing young grower programs and other initiatives to ensure future fruit and vegetable production (JRG Consulting, 2020),” the report said.