Ontario’s farmland is finite, and expensive.
Young farmers are essential to Ontario’s food future, but access to land is a huge barrier. Farmland is wickedly expensive, skyrocketing the initial overhead cost of starting a farm business. Ontario currently has the highest land price in Canada, at over $17,000 per acre. At the same time, speculative investment and encroaching residential development (urban sprawl) threaten to gobble up the province’s remaining farmland and and remove this viable land from production.
Latest Action to Protect Farmland in Ontario
No farmland + no farmers = no food.
Almost two thirds of Canadian farmers are 55 years or older but only 12% of farms have a succession plan in place. A succession plan outlines the transfer of farm ownership to the next generation. Farmers who own land are being pressured by the market to sell to the highest bidder to ensure stability for their retirement. Without a succession plan in place, farmland is at risk of land grabbing by developers, and with the majority of Canadian farmers expected to retire in the next 15 years, Canada’s farmland is at a high risk of being lost forever.
Land is a precious resource and fundamental to agriculture. Protecting against farmland-grabbing is of utmost importance to safeguard our food security, preserve agricultural heritage, and promote sustainable land use. Farmland grabbing is driven by profit-seeking motives that threaten the livelihoods of farmers and rural communities, disrupt ecosystems, and accelerate environmental degradation. New sprawling developments are only good for developers’ profits; the loss of critical farmland near urban centres removes the capacity to feed the people who will live in them.
Holding our ground: Protecting farmland for today and tomorrow.
Permanent farmland protection and access to land for new, young, and BIPOC farmers are among NFU-O's top priorities. There exists a future where we have both food to eat and affordable homes to live in. We believe it’s a future worth fighting for.
NFU-O has been a leading voice against short-sighted provincial policies that weaken farmland protection and expose it to sale and development. We firmly believe that building livable and affordable rural and urban communities while safeguarding agricultural and natural heritage lands should not be an either/or proposition. It is our unwavering position that agricultural production is the most valued and best use of farmland.
We firmly believe that permanent farmland protections are the only way to ensure this precious resource remains in the hands of those who will responsibly steward the land for generations to come: farmers. These protections would guarantee our ability to produce enough food to feed an ever-growing population, ensure the conservation of vital ecosystems, and contribute to the long-term well-being of our planet.
Agricultural land should be owned by the farmers who grow our food and not by companies that are speculating on land prices rising even higher, or seeking to increase dividends through high rents – or both – at the expense of eaters and growers alike.
– Max Hansgen, NFU-O President
Want to learn more about farmland protection & access?
Frequently Asked Questions
Ontario has the highest land price in Canada. The average price of farmland in Ontario exceeds $17,000 per acre. These inflated farmland prices are even steeper in some parts of the province; in 2022, Southwestern Ontario median land value reached $23,077 per acre.
L'UNF-O est l'organisation agricole accréditée idéale pour vous.
L'UNF-O est l'organisation agricole accréditée idéale pour vous.