Well, it used to be a small country town, but as Bob Dylan notes, "the times, they are a'changin'".
Look carefully at the horizon. So many houses that they are impossible to count. And all built in the previous four or five years. All built on prime Ontario farmland that up until very recently was producing food for people and animals. Now covered in unforgiving concrete.
This area's most productive farmland is under threat of being swallowed up by unsustainable growth. And I wonder how long it will be before this active farm will be a target of increasing pressure from developers. Perhaps it already is. More and more people are moving into the region each year, and they all have to live somewhere. What's the answer?
The only answer is iron clad and strictly enforced zoning. Ontario and teh Lower Mainland have the best soil and it is a shame to see it paved over
ReplyDeleteSetiing aside farmland for posterity is the popular move today but I don't know how farming families feel about that one. It takes away their rights to do as they wish with their land. With over seven billion on the planet, food production is an issue, especially in the face of climate change. There is no easy answer.
ReplyDeleteGood grief; that sounds like Florida. Our population in Ocala is increasing by leaps and bounds. I don't know where it's going to end but I don't like it! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteNo easy answers from here either.
ReplyDeleteHigh rise living to preserve the farming land? I would hate to live in a high rise though. And don't think that people do well 'crammed together'.
Limiting our population growth? Learning to do better with what we have, rather than needing more (of everything)?
A hard question, with some hard answers.
It's always been the same story: the best farmland is the best land for settlement.
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ReplyDeleteHere in the UK much of the farmland and open countryside is protected by Green Belt legislation which prevents the building of virtually anything on that land. Maybe Canada needs something similar.