The following message appeared in the Canadian Farm Business Management Commenataries this morning. I'd be curious to get your reaction to the comment.
The historic pattern of doubling production from our farms
every 20 years cannot hold.
Each year, 40,000 new residents move into rural and small-town Ontario.
Agriculture's freedom to adopt new technology, to expand, to capture
economies of scale is now constrained by the growing urban shadows.
Your freedom ends where my toes begin!
Minimum Distance Separation formulas have kept a semblance of order in
this scattered approach to rural development and in many communities
it's still possible to expand if the family farm is growing from 120 sows to
250 or from 80 cows to 140. But the opportunities for yet bigger are
fading fast.
Our barns have doubled in size and could do so again, given today's
technology. All the impacts from these expanded production facilities
cannot be managed by reasonable distance rules.
Ontario municipalities are adopting new tools to protect the interests of
production agriculture's neighbours.
* One municipality has capped barns at 600 livestock units.
* Another has restricted density of livestock to 1.5 units per acre.
* A dozen municipalities have enacted interim control bylaws stopping all
expansion beyond 50 livestock units until a permanent bylaw will manage
production livestock operations.
* Fifty plus municipalities have adopted Nutrient Management Planning
bylaws that require a detailed, public and third party reviewed nutrient
management plan with any building permit application for a large livestock
facility.
Ontario agriculture must turn away from the big technology, megabarn
model of U.S. livestock production. It is the only way to maintain a
working relationship with our increasing number of non-production
neighbours.
Of course, it won't be easy. If we do not adopt the latest, biggest
technology, how will we maintain our competitiveness in the North
American marketplace?
That is the challenge that a new vision for rural development must define
in this new millennium. The present pattern won't hold.
For CBC commentary, I'm Elbert van Donkersgoed with the
Christian Farmers Federation in Guelph, Ontario.
The historic pattern of doubling production from our farms
every 20 years cannot hold.
Each year, 40,000 new residents move into rural and small-town Ontario.
Agriculture's freedom to adopt new technology, to expand, to capture
economies of scale is now constrained by the growing urban shadows.
Your freedom ends where my toes begin!
Minimum Distance Separation formulas have kept a semblance of order in
this scattered approach to rural development and in many communities
it's still possible to expand if the family farm is growing from 120 sows to
250 or from 80 cows to 140. But the opportunities for yet bigger are
fading fast.
Our barns have doubled in size and could do so again, given today's
technology. All the impacts from these expanded production facilities
cannot be managed by reasonable distance rules.
Ontario municipalities are adopting new tools to protect the interests of
production agriculture's neighbours.
* One municipality has capped barns at 600 livestock units.
* Another has restricted density of livestock to 1.5 units per acre.
* A dozen municipalities have enacted interim control bylaws stopping all
expansion beyond 50 livestock units until a permanent bylaw will manage
production livestock operations.
* Fifty plus municipalities have adopted Nutrient Management Planning
bylaws that require a detailed, public and third party reviewed nutrient
management plan with any building permit application for a large livestock
facility.
Ontario agriculture must turn away from the big technology, megabarn
model of U.S. livestock production. It is the only way to maintain a
working relationship with our increasing number of non-production
neighbours.
Of course, it won't be easy. If we do not adopt the latest, biggest
technology, how will we maintain our competitiveness in the North
American marketplace?
That is the challenge that a new vision for rural development must define
in this new millennium. The present pattern won't hold.
For CBC commentary, I'm Elbert van Donkersgoed with the
Christian Farmers Federation in Guelph, Ontario.
Comment