Monday, July 6, 2009

Losing Farmland in Ontario

Critiques say it is due to high immigration levels

[Click on image to see larger version]

Here are some quick shots of farmland on the road from Toronto to Ottawa. Rural Ontario is still quite expansive. But, here is an article from Immigration Watch Canada, about what is negatively affecting Ontario's farmland:
According to the Ontario Farmland Trust, 600,000 acres of Ontario farmland were lost to non-farm uses between 1996 and 2006...

Ontario has been losing farmland to short-sighted development for many years, but the process accelerated in 1991 when uninterrupted high immigration levels were introduced...

Loss of farmland endangers future food security. High quality farmland that is near population centres will probably become crucial...[A]re these great immigration "humanitarians", who see nothing wrong with surrendering food security to the "unselfish" creation of multiculturalism and diversity...prepared to [say]: "Let them eat diversity!!" if their food supply is curtailed?

Many Canadians … place pro-immigration ideology high above basics such as preserving good farmland. They ignore the fact that 40% of Canada is north of 60 degrees latitude and that only about 5% of Canada's land mass is farmland.