Farmland preservation needed to maintain locally sourced food

By Peggy Brekveld, Vice-President, OFA

The value of local Ontario food goes beyond the amazing taste of DeBruin’s Greenhouse tomatoes, Thunder Oak cheese, and My-Pride Farm veal – a few of my local favourites. It is also about the importance of food security, its economic impact, and our regional identity.

To have local food, we need farmers and growers to take on the challenge of raising crops and livestock. We also need to quote our licence plate slogan, “Places to Grow” in Ontario. The importance of farmland preservation and long-term land use planning has been highlighted in our current pandemic.

The COVID-19 health crisis has forced the world to press pause on our normally busy lives and re-evaluate what is most important as a society.