Land Access

Ontario’s fertile land is crucial for food security, especially as climate change poses a looming threat. Without adequate support for the new farming generation, these valuable agricultural lands risk being lost to development, putting Ontario’s farming industry and food security at stake.
The NFU-O has focused on land access work since 2018, and has provided a wide range of support to land seekers and land holders. For example, in 2020 and 2021, together with the Ontario Farmland Trust, we organized a series of workshops covering various topics like land partnerships, BIPOC farming opportunities, and farm financing and business planning. Beginning in 2021, we collaborated with the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (EFAO) by facilitating Land Access Coalition meetings that brought together organizations and farmers from across the country, to discuss land access challenges and opportunities in Ontario. In 2025, we released “Rooting For Tomorrow: An Equitable Land Access Policy Framework for Ontario’s Next-Generation Farmers”; a policy recommendations document stemming from the work done in the Land Access Coalition meetings. We also released “Fields of Opportunity: A Guide for Alternative Farmland Access,” collaborating with Farms At Work, to provide updated resources about accessing land in alternative ways, be it through public land, a co-op, or other non-traditional land access methods. In 2025, we will be working to provide support and resources around succession planning in non-family farm transitions, and will continue to offer wrap-around support for land access into the future.

Throughout our efforts, we prioritize supporting access to land for BIPOC farmers and sharing their land access stories. We extend our gratitude to the NFU's BIPOC Caucus, the EFAO's BIPOC Farmer Network, and individual BIPOC farmers who contribute their valuable input to this work.