The Rural Voice, 1991-04, Page 6"Our software is FORMER FRIENDLY"
��11 rri
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SAVING FARMLAND
1 am enclosing herewith a copy of
my response to the recent question in
the OFA Member's Digest which
asked: "Assuming that the new
Ontario government moves to formu-
late a provincial land use policy, how
should agricultural land be treated?"
1t may be of interest to your readers.
Farmers' land should never have
been zoned into agriculture, because
property that is locked into an unprof-
itable business becomes worthless.
Forcing farmers to be custodians of
the land at their expense, only to be
held for someone else at some future
time, is unrealistic and downright im-
moral. If society requires that land be
preserved for the purpose of ensuring
adequate future food supplies, then
society should be required to bear the
cost. If the OFA truly represents to-
day's members, and the concept of
maintaining family farms in Ontario,
the present policy should be scrapped,
and farmers' property ownership
rights be given back to them. Today's
policy only creates monopolies and
special privileges for developers and
speculators.
It would make a lot more sense to
me if it were illegal to cover up topsoil
with buildings, pavement, gravel, or
any other substance. The topsoil
should be removed and stored in piles,
or spread over other topsoil, to be
available in the future, if and when it
is needed. It is only the topsoil that
produces food, not the given area that
happens to be designated agriculture.
Under our present system, farmers are
as guilty as anyone of the destruction
of the soil. When building laneways,
feedlots, buildings, etc., rarely is any
thought given to saving the topsoil.
If small acreages could be sold for
others to build homes on, they would
probably be more likely to maintain