By Alice McFarlane

NFU calls for ban on investor farmland ownership

Nov 17, 2023 | 2:34 PM

Farmers, farm workers, and supporters will be gathering on Parliament Hill on Nov. 22 to demand the Federal government impose a ban on investor ownership of farmland.

Young farmers and farm workers will lead a farmland access visioning activity where participants will create squares to form a collective quilt, share seeds, create an art piece, and spread messages of resistance and solidarity.

National Farmers Union-Ontario youth advisor Rav Singh said it’s well known what happens when land speculators are allowed to run rampant.

“It was land speculators who bought up Greenbelt farmland with the help of the Ford government, planning to pave it over and build high-end townhouses,” Singh said. “Investment companies should not have the power to gamble with the future of farming.”

An open letter outlining the need for protection of Canada’s farmland is circulating, and has the support of food policy and climate justice organizations.

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Recent reports show 40 per cent of Canadian farm operators plan to retire over the next decade and most don’t have a succession plan. The number one barrier facing new farmers is access to farmland. By 2033, a shortfall of 24,000 general farm, nursery and greenhouse workers is expected to emerge. Young farmers and Indigenous land stewards cannot grow, harvest, and produce food without secure land access. Black, Indigenous, and Farmers of Colour are particularly disadvantaged by generations of discriminatory policies that continue to dispossess them of land.

The NFU said in a news release investment firms are pushing the cost of land out of reach.

In Saskatchewan, large investors and landlords have purchased a million acres of farmland in the last 20 years – an area almost 18 times the size of Saskatoon.

The average cost of farmland has increased by an average of 16 per cent annually while average values for cultivated farmland in Ontario increased by 19.4 per cent in 2022.

NFU Youth President Jessie MacInnis said governments must pull the emergency brake and keep farmland in farmers’ hands.

“We need land legislation that favours the next generation of farmers, not investment firms. NFU demands that governments enact a total ban on investor ownership of farmland,” MacInnis said.

The rally will be held Wednesday from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Parliament Hill.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @farmnewsNOW