If we value local food and want to maintain the critical benefits that nature provides, we must put food and water first.

By David Suzuki with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Ontario Director Faisal Moola

Despite its huge area, Canada has relatively little dependable farmland. After all, a lot of our country is rock, or buried under ice and snow. Fertile soil and a friendly climate are hard to find. So it might seem like good news that on a clear day you can see about half the best agricultural land in Canada from the top of Toronto’s CN Tower. To feed our growing urban populations and sustain local food security, it’s critical to have productive land close to where people live.
Some regions of the country, like the Golden Horseshoe surrounding Toronto, have an abundance of class 1 soils — the best there is for food production. But there, and in most urbanized regions of Canada, increasing proportions of these superior soils now lie beneath sprawling housing developments, highways, strip-malls and other infrastructure. As urban communities have grown over the years, agricultural lands and natural areas have been drained, dug up and paved over.

Only five per cent of Canada’s entire land base is suitable for growing food. According to a study by Statistics Canada, our spreading cities sprawl over what was once mostly farmland. Urban uses have consumed over 7,400 square kilometres of dependable agricultural land in recent decades — an area almost three times the size of Prince Edward Island.

Almost half of Canada’s urban base now occupies land that only a few generations ago was farmed. Most of it can never be used for agriculture again, despite city peoples’ efforts to grow food in community plots, on green roofs and by guerrilla gardening.

Though there are strong, sprawl-busting policies in provinces such as Ontario, with its Greenbelt Act and Greater Golden Horseshoe Growth Plan, and British Columbia, with its renowned Agricultural Land Reserve, sadly, our urbanizing ways aren’t slowing.

A recent study by the David Suzuki Foundation examined threats to farmland in a 94,000-hectare patchwork of farms, forests and wetlands circling Toronto and surrounding suburbs called the Whitebelt Study Area. The report warns that this productive mosaic of green space and rich farmland is at risk from the blistering pace of urban expansion in the Golden Horseshoe.

Municipalities there propose developing more than 10,000 hectares of the Whitebelt over the next three decades, in addition to 52,000 hectares of land the province already approved for development before new policies to curb urban sprawl came into effect. Together, these lands are more than twice the area of the City of Mississauga.

Paving over prime farmland and natural assets like wetlands is foolhardy. Studies show that near-urban croplands and farms contribute billions of dollars in revenue to local economies each year, producing a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, dairy and award-winning wines.

As the Foundation report shows, near-urban farmland and green space represents a Fort Knox of natural benefits that we typically take for granted: trees clean the air, wetlands filter water and rich, productive soils store greenhouse gases.

Today, most of Canada’s towns and cities are at a crossroads. Down one path is continued low-density, creeping urban expansion. We know how this well-worn route looks: endless pavement, long commutes and traffic jams, not to mention the high social and ecological costs associated with such a wasteful form of urban design. Simply put, continued sprawl threatens the health and well-being of our communities and the ecosystems that sustain us.

In the other direction is an extraordinary new path: ending sprawl using the principles of smart growth and creating compact, higher-density communities serviced by public transit, bike paths and walking trails, surrounded by local greenbelts of protected farmland and green space.

Our political leaders and citizens must seize this opportunity to embark on a visionary path to grow our communities smarter and protect Canada’s near-urban nature and farmland.

If we value local food and want to maintain the critical benefits that nature provides, we must put food and water first. That’s why we’re calling on municipalities and provincial governments to redouble their efforts to protect our remaining farmland and green space from costly, polluting urban sprawl.
-David Suzuki Foundation

By David Staples, Edmonton Journal

Edmonton city council has never once protected a plot of prime farmland from suburban development.

That is about to change, but exactly how much land will be preserved is the subject of a fierce fight. It pits private rights against the public good, a multinational property company against a community group, neighbour against neighbour. Fortunes both small and large are on the line.

In January, city council will be asked to decide whether or not six sq. kilometres (600 hectares) of prime farmland in a fertile belt northeast of the city along the North Saskatchewan River should be preserved as farmland.

A multinational real estate company, Walton, is pushing forward with an Area Structure Plan, one that would see the eventual transformation of most of Edmonton’s northeast from farmland into suburbs.

About two sq. kilometres (200 hectares) in the area is owned by farmers who want to keep the land as farmland. Under the new plan, the agricultural zoning on that 200 hectares will remain. But the zoning of another four sq. kilometres (400 hectares) of prime farmland is disputed.

The Greater Edmonton Alliance, a non-profit community group, wants to see the 400 hectares kept as farmland, but the land is owned either by Walton or by longtime landowners.

Northeast Edmonton landowners have now fractured into two camps.

Todd Molineaux, whose family has been in the area since 1927, refers to his farmland conservationist opponents as “granola munchers.”

He and his property right’s group, the Northeast Edmonton Alliance, make a number of points:

• that the special quality of the 600 hectares is greatly overstated and there’s plentiful prime farmland in central Alberta and the Edmonton region.

• that the northeast area was annexed by the city 30 years ago and has been pegged ever since for urban development.

• that the 200 hectares to be kept as farmland is all that is currently being farmed. “There are no farms to be saved,” says the group’s website. “No land being used for agricultural purposed by major vegetable producers is at risk.”

Molineaux doesn’t want to lose his ability to sell his land for redevelopment. Rezoned land is worth many, many times more than agricultural land. “If you put it under agriculture, then it’s locked down, and you’ve just locked me down at a price,” he says.

Down the river from Molineaux’s 23 acres, Aaron and Janelle Herbert live on a vegetable farm, Riverbend Gardens. It produces beets, potatoes, squash, carrots, cabbage and other veggies by the truck load. Herbert is part of the Northeast Edmonton Agricultural Producers, which is pushing for the prime agricultural land to be set aside.

It’s important that the farm land be in a large, separate zone, as farming and suburbs don’t mix, she says. “I feel if we don’t get our whole ask (of 600 acres), then I might as well sell out, too, because if I’m surrounded by development it doesn’t make sense for me to farm anymore. People will start complaining about noise, or if I have to run irrigation pipes over people’s walkways.”

The preservation of farmland is a bigger issue than individual property rights, Herbert says. “It’s not within our property rights to decide what the zoning of our property is.

“I just think the value of farm land is highly underrated. … This land has generated an income for our family for decades and to me that is invaluable. If the economy crashes, I know that my family can still make a living off this land and provide a good product for everybody else in the community.”

The next stage of this battle will be fought this month in a series of public hearings on Edmonton’s draft food strategy. Before any more area structure plans for new suburbs are approved, Edmonton’s overall food requirements must be considered. A draft policy is being worked on, one that intends to give council a system to assess whether or not farmland should be preserved.

My own take is that the city hasn’t promised anyone that this northeast farmland will be rezoned and redeveloped. It might be done. It might not. But that is up to city councillors, who must carefully plan this city’s growth. As for me, I’ve yet to see convincing proof that council should approve a plan that will lead to more sprawl on our outskirts, especially when the future of valuable farmland is at stake.

-Edmonton Journal

As we approach Oct. 26, the day of the public hearing into Edmonton’s proposed food and agriculture strategy, it is a good time to reflect on what it means to have a food movement. What Pollan points out is that there is a big difference between a movement and a farmers market. The former, ideally, comes with some political clout. The latter sells carrots.

Here in Edmonton, we have a farmers market. In fact, we have lots of farmers markets, where people congregate to meet producers, enjoy fresh air, spend their money supporting the local economy and generally feel good about themselves and the city we live in. What we need, however, is a food movement, one that threatens the political establishment with that pesky little democratic structure, the vote.

City council may well get away with doing precisely nothing of any substance to deal with the issue of urban agriculture because nobody is going to make them. There’s not a single council member who has shown any real interest in the urban food debate. In the absence of a municipal election, with a few new candidates who care about urban food enough to challenge the status quo, there’s little to motivate councilors to do anything but pay lip service to an urban food and agriculture policy.

Without a food movement – noisy, large, foot-stomping and engaged – there will be no budging city hall.
-Edmonton Journal

Jackie Clark explains to tour-goers last month what it takes to grow raspberries on Horse Hill Berry Farm in northeast Edmonton.

Late last month, Greater Edmonton Alliance and Live Local organized a public tour of some of the farmland within Edmonton’s northeastern city limits. More than 400 people got the chance to experience, first-hand, the foodland that city council will be ruling on this fall.

The choice is between two futures: one which paves over virtually all the prime foodland remaining in Edmonton and one which protects a significant amount of that land to build a resilient food economy that can withstand and adapt to sudden global changes.

Two years ago, more than 500 citizens came to city hall over three occasions to press council to gather good information before making that decision — information about our foodland’s potential contribution to economic prosperity, financial sustainability, increased food security and resilience to threats posed by climate change and oil supply constraints.

Many of us shared our vision of a vibrant local food economy and its social, economic and environmental benefits. Council embraced this vision in unanimously passing The Way We Grow, our city’s land-use plan that included a policy that tied the future development of agricultural areas to adherence with a citywide food and agriculture strategy.

No one is suggesting the city will ever be self-sufficient in food production. We will always need access to food produced outside our community. But a resilient food system has a diversity of sources where food is eaten as close as possible to where it is produced.

Compelling reasons for supporting local food production include environmental sustainability, freshness and quality, transparency and accountability for the provenance of our food, and many economic spinoffs from local production, processing and food service businesses.

Building a local food system is not about stifling growth either. Edmonton’s population is projected to increase from 812,000 to 1.2 million people by 2040, requiring 146,000 new housing units. A policy framework that gives priority to enhancing access to local food can meet these needs. In fact, the city’s draft Growth Co-ordination Strategy indicates we already have enough land approved for development to meet the housing demand for 25 years.

We are concerned that land speculation and development pressures may lead the city to miss a unique opportunity in the northeast.

Northeast Edmonton’s foodland has unique soils and microclimate, access to irrigation, and several farmers already supplying our local markets. Early this year, Greater Edmonton Alliance developed a Citizens’ Vision that calls for preservation of at least 600 contiguous hectares of prime foodland in the city’s northeast.

With an eye to rezoning for development or for land speculation, developers and investors have already bought much of the foodland in northeast Edmonton. They are now completing the Horse Hill Area Structure Plan, which aims to pave over the vast majority of prime foodland, and hope to bring this plan before council in November. We believe that plan trades the city’s future for short-term profit benefiting investors who have minimal stake in our community.

There are, however, win-win solutions that could provide development opportunities, fair returns on investment and preserve precious prime foodland for future generations. The Greater Edmonton Alliance has made efforts to identify alternative options such as the transfer of development credits, conservation easements and land trusts, which other communities in North America have successfully used to preserve their foodland.

The key is political will on the part of the city and a shared vision that this foodland is worth preserving. Unfortunately, pressures are mounting to push decisions on this land forward quickly in a way that denies the time to explore options and, more concerning, marginalizes the voices of citizens.

In 1907, a vision for a river valley park system emerged. Subsequent city councils developed parks, protected parkland and opposed further private development in the valley. Today we enjoy a valley parks system unsurpassed in the world. We owe it to future generations to show that same long-term vision when deciding about our foodland.

Elizabeth Smythe and Nancy Siever are members of Greater Edmonton Alliance.
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

Owen Dorward, 5, gets a handful of raspberries from his father, Craig, at Horse Hill Berry Farm. Farm owner Jackie Clark.

Five-year-old Owen Dorward comes running back from the berry bushes, his fists filled with raspberries.

With an ecstatic smile, he shouts he’s going to eat all his berries at once, but his dad tells him to wait and take a picture first.

Quickly he poses for his photo, then starts plowing into the now-sticky raspberries in his hands.

Owen was visiting Horse Hill Berry Farm, one of the stops on the Farming in the City tour on Sunday. Organized by Live Local Alberta and the Greater Edmonton Alliance, the sold-out guided tour brought more than 400 local food enthusiasts to a handful of farms within Edmonton’s city limits. Tour-goers boarded 10 schoolbuses throughout the day, leaving the city to venture into farmland that is just half an hour away from the downtown core.

Like Owen with his raspberries, the tour attendees had the chance to sample locally grown carrots from Riverbend Gardens, and to take home a bag of freshly dug-up potatoes, still covered in dirt.

They also had the chance to ask questions and learn more about where their food comes from, before it hits the farmer’s market.

Owen’s father, Craig Dorward, says he and his family always try to put local food on the table.

“I just think it’s important to eat local,” he says, adding his family has even planted their own little garden at the front of their house.

Dorward added he came on the tour because he wanted to support local food. He believes land close to the city should be preserved as farmland, instead of being used to build new stores or houses.

“Cheap produce from Mexico is good, but … this land would become bad vinyl housing,” he says.

During the tour stop at Norbest Farms, Dorward had a lot of questions for Gord Visser, the farm’s owner. Visser and his family produce about 1,000 tons of potatoes on their 50 acres of land every year. It’s a family operation — he bought the farm from his father, and his cousin works on a neighbouring plot. He expects his son to get into farming as well.

“We feel real strongly about the land. It’s been giving for generations and it keeps giving,” he says. “I believe the land needs to stay in agriculture in perpetuity, even if our family moves away.”

Local farmers are concerned about how the city is planning to use the 3,800 hectares of land in the northern part of the city of which 90 per cent is zoned for agriculture, says Debbie Hubbard, one of the co-chairs of the local food team for the GEA.

The city is considering changing the area’s designated use from agricultural land to residential and commercial. If developers move in and start building houses and stores, that would encroach on the work of local food producers like Norbest Farms and Horse Hill Berry Farm.

Farmers are also worried about the prospect of a new provincial road in the area. While plans to build the road have not yet been finalized, they’re concerned this new road could cut through their crops, Hubbard says. If the road does go through, it would mean the end of Riverbend Gardens and Arrowhead Nurseries.

Getting citizens’ support in preserving the farmland is one reason why this tour was created, she says.

“We know people are hugely interested in the issue of locally grown food,” she says, adding she doesn’t want to see the farmland surrounding Edmonton go to waste. “We have a microclimate up there, and a market. We’re close to a workforce that can drive up there and work … we have a wonderful opportunity.”

“Our real hope is people will go out, stand on the land, and meet the producers whose gifts in Edmonton build our local food system. It’s all based on land,” she says.

Hubbard adds that the city will be making decisions about the area’s development this fall, so the GEA and Live Local are doing all they can now to galvanize Edmontonians to get involved and talk to city council.

The tour was an eye-opening experience for some of the people attending. Diane Gersky came with her grown daughters, Janelle and Alana. She says their family has just begun to pay attention to the local food scene in Edmonton, taking cooking classes that use local foods as ingredients and trying to buy more at the farmer’s market every month.

“We came just to see where food comes from locally, and to see what’s available. We’re not familiar with what’s around here,” Diane says.

Yet they’re already able to appreciate the difference between locally grown food and produce that’s from elsewhere, they say. They usually opt for cucumbers and carrots from farms near Edmonton, like Kuhlmann’s Market Gardens and Greenhouses, which was one of the stops on the tour.

“Carrots that are frozen are gross,” adds Janelle.

Visser says he’s glad people like the Gerskys are keen to try food that isn’t grown in California, choosing instead to support independent farms like his own.

“It’s not about money. As a farmer, you nurture your land. After all of the years of nurturing it … if you put it into business (development), that’s a contradiction,” he says.

“The land is bigger than us.”

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

Owen Dorward, 5, proudly shows off a handful of berries at Horse Hill Berry Farm. Owen was part of a tour that visited local farms near Edmonton.

Edmontonians and their local food were brought a little closer with the Farming in the City tour Sunday.

More than 400 people took 10 bus tours throughout the day to visit nearby farms and get a glimpse of how local food is grown before it’s brought to their weekend farmers’ markets.

Tour-goers stopped at farms like Riverbend Gardens, Norbest Farms and Horse Hill Berry Farm, all within the city limits and less than a half-hour from the downtown core. They also had the chance to sample the fresh carrots, raspberries and potatoes.

Craig Dorward and his wife, Cindy, brought their five-year-old son and seven-month-old daughter on the tour. Dorward said he and his wife are keen to eat local produce as much as possible and wants to pass that habit onto their children.

“I just think it’s important to eat local. Kids really become disconnected from the food we eat,” he said. “And yeah, cheap produce from Mexico is good, but … this land would become bad vinyl housing.”

The tours were organized by Live Local and the Greater Edmonton Alliance.

Debbie Hubbard, one of the co-chairs of the GEA, was happy that all 10 of the tours were sold out.

“I just think people are hugely aware of the land,” she said. “There’s a huge desire to learn more … I was doing phone-in (orders for tickets) all week and I heard stories about why people were going on the tour. One elderly gentleman told me he was bringing his son because he wanted him to grow a garden similar to the one he had in Italy.”

She hopes the tours will educate people about how important it is to keep nearby land designated for agricultural use instead of allowing it become residential or commercial land.

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

The tour stopped at a number of farms in northeast Edmonton, including Riverbend Gardens. Janelle Herbert’s family has owned the land since 1958 and has been producing food locally, ever since. Herbert is worried her land, and business may soon be taken away from her.

“Right now, Edmonton is planning for an area structure plan in the northeast, which includes our property,” she says adding “One of the plans actually has a highway slated to go right through our property. So, that would mean the end of Riverbend Gardens and we would no longer be in operation.”

The city of Edmonton is currently working on a Food and Agriculture Strategy. It will address issues such as increasing access to local food, providing opportunities to grow and process food in the city, and reducing the city’s ecological footprint.

The Greater Edmonton Alliance is an organization that hopes preserving some of the land in northeast Edmonton will become part of the city’s strategy.

“We just hope our city council makes decisions to ensure as much self-reliance in food production for the future as possible,” says Monique Nutter adding, “While we haven’t seen the strategy yet, we’re really hopeful that it will contain provisions for preserving agricultural land.”

The Greater Edmonton Alliance hosted the “Farming in the City” guided bus tours Sunday, in hopes of giving people a sense of where local food comes from. It is also intended to stress the importance of urban farms and locally produced food.

“It’s important to have local food, partly for choice, and for quality and freshness. Consumers are looking for local product and there’s a demand for it,” says Herbert.

Mack Male took one of the tours Sunday.

“I think it’s incredible that we’ve got such fertile land that grows vegetables and fruit for Edmontonians, right in the city.”

He says if the city goes ahead with development in the area, people will really lose out on the benefits it provides.

Herbert says she’s hopeful, but knows there are people that are unaware of what she’s trying to save.

“We’re hoping it’s something of value for Edmontonians and we believe it is, and they should know if they’re going to lose this piece of paradise.”

Read it on Global News www.globaltvedmonton.com

A series of three-hour tours were held Sunday in northeast Edmonton, with the goal of showing Edmontonians where local food is grown.

The bus tours were put on by the Greater Edmonton Alliance and Live Local – and more than 400 people hopped on the buses, to see farmland within the city limits.

“So what we’ve done is organized over 400 citizens to go on bus tours to northeast Edmonton and meet some of the producers and stand on the land,” Organizer Debbie Hubbard said. “[They could] sample some of the produce of the people who are growing some of the food here in Edmonton.”

The event was held ahead of a decision from City Councillors.

This fall, City Council will decide what to do with the land where much of the produce is grown, as part of their food and agriculture strategy.

Local berry farmer Jackie Clark believes that developing the land into commercial or residential property will be a great loss to the city.

“We would suggest that this area would be best for growing,” Clark said. “If it was to turn commercial or residential this particular area along the river, that’s number one soil for growing food.

“I think it would be a loss to the city.”

The GEA and Live Local hoped this event will not only raise awareness for local food producers, but encourage more Edmontonians to eat locally grown food.

Read more: http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/tour-of-local-farmland-aims-to-teach-edmontonians-about-locally-grown-food-1.930872#ixzz267Z1ennr

Tour of local farmland aims to teach Edmontonians about locally-grown food | Edmonton.

GOOD EATING – Do you know where your veggies are grown? Take a bus tour on Sunday and find out.

There’s a lot of talk these days about creating a viable and sustainable food economy.

With political instability around the world, weather variability, a slowly fracturing food system and global water issues, Alberta could be facing an interruption of food supplies in coming years, says St. Albert’s Debbie Hubbard.

Hubbard, a speech language pathologist, is also the co-chair for the Greater Edmonton Alliance, a non-partisan, multi-issue organization dedicated to furthering social issues. One of its ventures is assisting in the creation of a long-term food strategy.

“In the area of water, it’s not the Saskatchewan River we should be worried about. It’s the Colorado River,” Hubbard says.

She explains that most of our winter vegetables come from Arizona and California. The farms are fed by the Colorado River, but it is in serious trouble. Since the 20th century, exhaustive water consumption has lowered the course of the river to the point it no longer reaches the sea except in years of heavy runoff. Many believe that the declines and heavy water usage could lead to serious shortages by the mid-21st century.

In 2010, recognizing potential future catastrophes, the City of Edmonton starting developing a food and agriculture strategy. Last year the municipal development plan struck the Food and Urban Agriculture Strategy.

Part of it was to look at the strengths of the local food economy. One aspect of the strategy was recognizing there is rich agrarian soil in Edmonton’s northeast corner with producers who are keen to continue harvesting their crops.

While there is a strong argument to pave land for development, the concept of cultivating a sustainable food system is gaining traction. There are numerous advantages to designating Edmonton’s northeast corner as farmland.

“The northeast has an excellent microclimate with six to eight more frost free days,” says Hubbard. “It’s close to the city with easy access to markets and it’s easy for workers to reach the farms. And they’re on the Henday, which is a good transportation route.”

Rather than just wait for things to happen, the alliance is presenting the Farming in the City guided bus tour on Sunday, Aug. 26.

The three-hour guided tours will make stops at Horsehill Berry Farms, Norbest Farmers and the farms of two St. Albert Farmer’s Market producers, Kuhlmann’s Market Gardens and Riverbend Gardens.

“Part of our tour is to help people make the connection that food bought at the farmers’ market is produced in Edmonton.”

The departure and drop-off point is Northlands, 11331 73 St. The tours run every 45 minutes starting at 8:30 a.m. with the last tour departing at 2:15 p.m. Single tickets are $10 or $25 per family. To buy a ticket visit www.live-local.ca.

“I grew up on a farm. But in the 20 years since I left, I became very disconnected,” says Hubbard. “I forgot how important good food is. I just want people to go out and meet the producers, stand on the land and get feel for what a gift the land is and how each of us can make the food movement more secure.”

CBC News, Posted: Aug 27, 2012 9:17 AM MT

Busloads of people who toured farms in the northeast corner of Edmonton on Sunday were urged to support a new plan to preserve agricultural lands within city limits.

Debbie Hubbard from the Greater Edmonton Alliance wants councillors to set aside land for farming when they review the city’s food and agricultural policy this fall.

“This fall they’ve got some really important decisions to make around the future of food and food producing and the food system,” Hubbard said.

“And we’re just helping people connect and become aware of that by connecting them with the people who are helping to feed them.”

But not all landowners agree that the city should place restrictions on the area.

“It’ll lock us down,” said Todd Molineaux, whose family has lived in the Horse Hill area for 85 years.

“It’ll really limit .. who we can sell to because not everyone will be interested if it’s an agricultural zone only. I know what they’re speaking on is my property rights and my decisions and that’s not my plan and my goals.”

Molineaux and other landowners have formed a group called the North East Edmonton Alliance.

Photograph by: Rick MacWilliam

Food activists say the city is rushing the preparation of its new food and agriculture strategy and more time is needed to look at ways to preserve farmland in the northeast.

But Janine de la Salle, the Vancouver food policy expert running the Edmonton project, says the short time frame is just what’s needed, since the “contentious” issues on the northeast’s future are long-standing and well known.

Some farmers and food activists wants to find a way to preserve large scale vegetable gardening on the rich soil while developers and acreage owners in the area are keen to see residential and commercial development on most of the land.

People on all sides of the issues attended the city’s first Food in the City Conference Saturday where de la Salle gave an update on the food strategy which they have been working on since January and must finish by September.

“I like the short time line, the dialogue has been going on for years on the contentious issues,” she told the crowd.

“Let’s just cut the mustard and get a strategy. A short process is absolutely what is needed.”

In her presentation, de La Salle, from HB Lanarc consulting, noted that farmland in the city is declining, as is the number of farmers.

“There is no easy solution to protecting agricultural land, when there is potential conflict over the land use,” she said.

Some options might be land swaps or integrating farming into a residential neighbourhood, she added.

The food strategy “has to come up with something to address the conflict between agriculture and urban development but I can’t speak further,” said de la Salle.

Mike Cooper, a concerned citizen who attended the conference, was disappointed that de la Salle would not address the competing interests between farmers, developers and local residents. He’s worried the planning department “just wants to pave over the land” and de la Salle’s response “didn’t give me much hope.”

The food strategy must be approved before city council can deal with developers’ proposals for housing and commercial development in the northeast, which are also expected to be approved this fall.

Dave Lokken, the city councillor charged with the food strategy initiative, says the situation in the northeast is “very complicated.”

It won’t be easy to come up with a solution that will make all parties happy, he said.

“We should not shut the door on anything and look at every possibility on how the land will be used,” Lokken said.

Asked if the city would consider a land swap as a way to resolve the dispute Lokken said: “anything is possible, though it’s tough for me to comment.”

Gerry Bouma, a consultant who sits on the city’s 15-member food and agriculture advisory committee, says the northeast lands will be a “tough issue” to resolve.

When the northeast was annexed to Edmonton in the 1980s, it was almost all farmland. But the annexation sent a signal that eventually the city intended to use the land for urban purposes. Developers bought land there with that expectation.

Also, many farmers in the area have sold their land to the developer and are using it on a lease basis.

“The other issues is that Edmonton does not operate in isolation, there are other communities who will pick up the suburban development if Edmonton does not,” said Bouma.

“So the urban sprawl will leapfrog over the city boundaries and into surrounding towns.”

Bouma also questioned the economics of local food production, noting that production has declined from a decade ago.

“The economics are difficult. People are driven by convenience when it comes to eating,” said Bouma.

One way the city could preserve the land is to buy it and put it in a land trust for agricultural use, but that would be costly, he added.

Todd Molineaux lives on an acreage in Horse Hills in the northeast and he says area residents need a stronger voice in this debate.

“Property rights are at stake” Molineaux said.

Molineaux set up the Northeast Alliance to represent about 200 families in Horse Hills. He also worked as an adviser on the draft policy recently submitted to the planning department.

“I’m in favour of the (policy). The city is going to grow and we want the infrastructure out there,” he said.

He also disputed the local nature of the vegetable farming, saying that he’s discovered that some of the farmers in the area export vegetables across Western Canada and into the U.S.

“It sounds to me like we have a surplus,” he said.

spratt@edmontonjournal.com
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal