Home Grown marks one-year anniversary

The Home Grown campaign underscores one unalienable truth – you cannot farm without farmland, said Peggy Brekveld.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture’s (OFA) advocacy and awareness campaign is now one year old, and is beginning to gain traction around responsible land planning policies that acknowledge the importance of preserving farmland to support the production of local foods, fibres, fuels and flowers.

Brekveld expects the Ontario election to focus heavily on housing and the environment and partially on food, but all are intertwined.

“Since the pandemic, there has been an alarming expansion of low-density housing, warehouses, factories, and other non-agricultural land uses on land previously in agricultural production,” said Brekveld, OFA president.

“This is added pressure Ontario farmers simply don’t need.”

Cities like Hamilton, which have initiated a build-in-and-up, review-and-renew land planning strategy, or Halton, where intensification is a priority, indicate sprawl can be slowed, if not halted.

Brekveld said Waterloo had led the way in creating a land-use model that matches growth and housing needs to what and where building occurs to maximize space efficiency and minimize environmental impacts.

“There are some really amazing things happening,” she said. “We are doing a great job of connecting with the values of people who are not just farmers, but also people who live in bigger communities and care about where their food comes from and the impact that the farming community has.”

The election allows farmers and consumers to push candidates in all regions, rural and urban, to share their platforms for protecting Ontario’s farmland and food supply.

“There are some great opportunities at this time, especially an election time, to meet and engage with candidates who either will be elected and make great decisions – we hope,” Brekveld said. “(Or) who are already recognized as community leaders, engaged people in their communities and making a difference. Those conversations beyond this election period will have lasting impacts.”

The Home Grown campaign has generated 31,500 signatures of support, which continues to grow and has engaged more than 1.5 million people with their digital ads, which could heighten the pressure put on the Ontario government to take the crisis of disappearing farmland seriously, said Brekveld.