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Food for Thought: Farmland disappearing at alarming rate in Ontario

Farmers are great at managing their own operations, but there are a number of areas which are out of their control.

Farmers always have been innovative. They have to be. Changing world conditions and rapid advances in technology keeps them finding more efficient and effective ways to manage and expand their farming businesses.

Farmers are great at managing their own operations, but there are a number of areas which are out of their control.

Food for Thought: Farmland disappearing at alarming rate in Ontario Back to video

One is the weather, and every year, farmers are subject to conditions which can have a huge impact on the crops they grow.

Another factor is crop prices. For commodities such as soybeans, corn, wheat, and others, crop prices are affected by so many outside influences.

One other factor that worries farmers, and should worry each one of us, is the rapid loss of farmland due to urban expansion.

There is an ever-increasing demand for land to construct or expand industrial areas, homes, apartments, and infrastructure all across Ontario.

We only have so much land. Farmers can grow many different crops, but they cannot grow more land.

How much farmland are we losing? Latest estimates from government census numbers show Ontario is losing around 129 hectares (319 acres) of farmland a day.

This is roughly 58 city blocks or 797 hockey rinks, or nine family farms lost every day in our province.

During the last 50 years, Ontario has lost 20 per cent of its farmland. This loss is unsustainable, and could mean all Ontario farmland could be gone within 100 years if this trend continues.

We don’t know how many hectares we are losing every day in Chatham-Kent and Windsor-Essex, but we are losing too much valuable farmland.

Let’s break this down so we can see what we are really losing.

Let’s take one hectare of various food crops and products made from those specific crops. I have determined the average crop yield, per hectare for each crop, according to government and commodity statistics.

The figure beside each crop shows us just how much food and food products are also disappearing for every one acre of farmland we lose.

Tomato and tomato products – 2,200 kg (4,900 lbs.)

Potato and potato products – 22,420 kg (49,420 lbs.)

Cucumbers – 44,800 kg (98,800 lbs.)

Corn and corn products – 12,390 kgs (27,200 lbs.)

Wheat and wheat products – 8,750 kg (19,300 lbs.)

Soybeans and soybean products – 4,040 kg (8,900 lbs.)

Carrots – 41,460 kg (91,400 lbs.)

Green Peas – 2,800 kg (6,180 lbs.)

Onions – 42,600 kg (94,000 lbs.)

Apples – 16,800 kg (37,000 lbs.)

Peaches – 20,200 kg (44,500 lbs.)

Strawberries – 11,200 kg (24,700 lbs.)

Pumpkins – 25,750 kg (56,800 lbs.)

Brussels sprouts – 15,700 kg (34,600 lbs.)

Asparagus – 7,850 kg (17,300 lbs.)

Field Peppers – 33,600 kg  (74,000 lbs)

Sugar Beets – 78,500 kg  (173,000 lbs.)

For every hectare of land we lose, this is also how much food is not harvested.

This is how much food does not get processed.

This is how much food does not make it to our retail stores.

This is how much food does not make it to Ontario homes.

This loss of productive farmland should concern each one of us.

Kim Cooper has been involved in the agribusiness sector for more than 45 years.  kim.e.cooper@gmail.com

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