Once farmland is paved, it can never come back.
In the past 35 years, Ontario has lost 2.8 million acres (18 per cent) of its farmland to non-agricultural land uses such as urbanization and aggregate mining.
As the province continues to lose 319 acres of farmland every day, Ontario Farmland Trust (OFT) says Ontario’s farmland is a finite and non-renewable resource that must be protected in order for future generations of Ontarians to have access to fresh, local food.
"It's important to recognize that this is quite substantial. We have 11.766 million acres of farmland. If you take away 319 acres everyday, and continue at that pace, we will be out of that farmland in 100 years," said Ontario Farmland Trust executive director Martin Straathof.
"That's scary. We need to sound the alarms as this rate of farmland loss is unsustainable and significant interventions are needed."
Bringing together farmers, government and conservation partners, OFT establishes farmland easement agreements that permanently protect the agricultural, natural, and cultural features of farm properties to support a strong and sustainable food production system.
An easement is a voluntary agreement that the landowner and OFT enter together, that ensures the farmland remains farmland, forever.
Since 2004, the charitable non-profit organization has protected over 2,700 acres of farmland on 26 properties, including three in Wellington county.
"Since then, we've gone from doing a couple protected properties every few years, to a couple every year. Just this year, we've had eight active projects. We are almost at 30 per cent of what we have protected in the last 20 years, and we are doing it in one to two years alone," Straathof said.
There are two ways ways Ontario Farmland Trust can protect a property.
"One way is by acquiring property and owning it. We can also receive donations of farmland. People can donate their properties to us. That way, they know that their property is protected for future generations and it remains in food production," Straathof said.
"When we look at some of the challenges with farmland loss, of course there's urban sprawl and aggregate extraction and things of that nature, but we also have a serious issue with the generational transfer of farms right now."
Straathof said 40 per cent of farmers are set to retire within the next 10 years and two-thirds don't have a succession plan.
"We are losing farmers, and those under the age of 35 can't afford farmland. They can't compete with investors and land speculators who are able to outbid. And they can't compete with larger farms looking to expand and that have equity already built up," he said.
"It's really difficult for new and young farmers to find not only affordable land, but also alternative pathways into agriculture. If you are not going to inherit farm or if you don't come from a farming family, it can be a challenge. And that's a serious issue if we are not going to have a next generation of farmers."
Straathof joined OFT in 2022. Growing up on a dairy farm in eastern Ontario, just outside of Arnprior, he saw firsthand, the impact that urban sprawl and expanding highways have on an agricultural communities, individual farming operations, and on the the broader agri-food system.
"And so I was really interested in learning about agriculture community development. The closest I could get to studying was taking the international development program with an area of emphasis on rural agriculture at the University of Guelph," Straathof said.
"Then I worked for the Ontario Agricultural College. I really wanted to get back into boots-on-the-ground kind of work and I became very fascinated by land-use planning and how that impacts the way our communities are designed. I got my masters in rural planning and I've been working at the farmland trust ever since."
In Canada, six per cent of land is arable for food production.
"It is critical for the long-term viability and resiliency of our communities to be able to have a source of healthy and nutritious food. That is such a basic necessity for society. We see not only farmland loss happen at substantial rates here in Ontario, but the U.S. is also losing farmland at a rate of 2,000 acres per day," Straathof said.
"So, other places that we rely on to get our food are also having significant losses of landscape. If we are not protecting our land that is capable of feeding us, first and foremost, we shouldn't be relying on other countries," Straathof said.
And with the loss of productive farmland, comes the loss of productive ecosystems.
"The potential to sequester carbon in our farmlands is huge, and could make a big difference for the future. The more farmland that is permanently protected, the more farmland we can put to work for the environment," he said.
Farming has a critical role to play in biodiversity conservation, habitat protection for species at risk, as well as other climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.
"Once we pave over farmland, this creates an impermeable surface, and now we have not only lost the ability to produce food on that land, but we've also cut off all other ecosystems that we rely on," Straathof said.
Ecologically, OFT have a conservation easement agreement on the the old growth forest owned by the Ignatius Jesuit Centre.
"It was inspiring to see Ignatius see the value in protecting the old growth forest and working with the farmland trust to provide that. Easements in and around city centres will be assets for future generations," Straathof said.
