OFA Commentary #5204
Agriculture is no different than most businesses in Ontario – investment must result in a positive return on that investment. Farmers are willing to make investments in their operations, but they want some assurances of measurable benefits coming from the investments.
When they invest in production efficiencies on their farms, there is usually some solid evidence of what benefits they can expect to see. Science tells them that proper soil fertility will assure them optimum yields. It also tells them that investing in improved genetics will result in more milk production from their dairy herd, better carcasses from their beef, pork or sheep, and improved eggs and meat from their chicken flocks.
For decades, farmers have been successful stewards of a large portion of the lands that make up Ontario. It has been to their advantage to operate their farms in an environmentally sound fashion – healthy soil, water and air have given them the basis for healthy families and healthy animals on their farms – time proven investments that have paid dividends.
Now farmers find their governments coming at them with a multitude of laws and regulations and little or no evidence the capital investments required to incorporate them can be justified.
For more than a decade, farmers, on a voluntary basis, have taken part in the Environmental Farm Plan program. They were able to see benefits to their farming operations from the plan, and there was financial help available to make the improvements. For many, a considerable amount of their own money ended up being spent on the improvements.
Now our government wants farming operations with more than 300 animal unit equivalents to get involved in nutrient management planning. This requires farmers to hire consultants to produce plans that will ensure that the acres of land available for spreading animal nutrients can be balanced with the nutrient requirements of crops to be grown. Achieving this balance will help protect the land and adjacent water systems from nutrient overload.
For farmers, the benefits to this approach are obvious, but farmers aren’t the only beneficiaries from the work and the investment. All of society stands to benefit and farmers want to see an appropriate level of funding coming from society.
The government’s source water protection initiative also has a high investment requirement, but there’s no scientific evidence available to guide the apportioning of this investment. Farmers need to know society will be paying an appropriate amount for the relative benefit derived from the implementation of source water protection regulations.
Protecting green spaces from land development practices has now been targeted as a worthy cause by our provincial government. They want to get urban sprawl under control. There’s abundant visible evidence that this objective is worthwhile, especially in Ontario’s major urban community – the Greater Toronto Area.
Urban sprawl in the GTA has put tremendous pressure on farmland throughout the area, and the government’s stated objective of preserving farmland has placed an enormous cost factor on the owners of that farmland. Without having figures from scientifically conducted reviews of the impact of imposing a development freeze on the farmlands in the GTA, farmers are being asked to accept the government’s assertion that there will be no loss of land value because of the greenbelt designation.
Farmers are professionals with huge investments in land and equipment. They deserve to be treated with the same respect that other professionals receive from their governments.
~Geri Kamenz~
Vice-President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture