The Historical Development of Agricultural Policy and Urban Planning in Southern Ontario
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Settlement, Food Lands, and Sustainable Habitation: The Historical Development of Agricultural Policy and Urban Planning in Southern Ontario By: Joel Fridman A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Geography, Collaborative Program in Environmental Studies Department of Geography and Program in Planning University of Toronto © Copyright by Joel Fridman 2014 Settlement, Food Lands, and Sustainable Habitation: The Historical Development of Agricultural Policy and Urban Planning in Southern Ontario Joel Fridman Masters of Arts in Geography, Collaborative Program in Environmental Studies Department of Geography and Program in Planning University of Toronto 2014 Abstract In this thesis I recount the historical relationship between settlement and food lands in Southern Ontario. Informed by landscape and food regime theory, I use a landscape approach to interpret the history of this relationship to deepen our understanding of a pertinent, and historically specific problem of land access for sustainable farming. This thesis presents entrenched barriers to landscape renewal as institutional legacies of various layers of history. It argues that at the moment and for the last century Southern Ontario has had two different, parallel sets of determinants for land use operating on the same landscape in the form of agricultural policy and urban planning. To the extent that they are not purposefully coordinated, not just with each other but with the social and ecological foundations of our habitation, this is at the root of the problem of land access for sustainable farming. ii Acknowledgements This thesis is accomplished with the help and support of many. I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Harriet Friedmann, for kindly encouraging me in the right direction. I would also thank my committee members, Professor Sarah Wakefield and Professor Ken MacDonald for their guidance and helpful comments. Thank you to Professor Alison Blay-Palmer and the Nourishing Ontario Research Group for providing me the opportunity to engage in the issues I care about, and for supporting me in the research stages of the project. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council also supported this research. Finally, thank you to my family and friends, your love and support is unwavering. iii Table of Contents 1. Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 2. Literature and Methodology - The Landscape Approach ................................... 10 2.1 Understanding Agricultural Land Use: Land Value, Land use Planning, and Property Rights Perspectives.....................................................................................10 2.2 Food Regime Theory.........................................................................................................13 2.3 Landscape Theory .............................................................................................................14 2.4 The Landscape Approach................................................................................................15 2.5 Methods.................................................................................................................................18 3. The Historical Development of Agricultural Policy and Urban Planning in Southern Ontario .................................................................................................................. 19 3.1 Food Getting and Settlement Among Indigenous Bioregional Networks .......19 3.2 1613–1763: European Contact to The Royal Proclamation - European Out- posts Within an Indigenous Landscape, Connecting Bioregional to Transatlantic Trade.......................................................................................................24 3.3 1763-1841: Constructing a Colonial Landscape - Organization of Land and Property in British North America...........................................................................33 3.4 1841-1867: The Shifting Colonial Landscape - Forging the Railroads and the Reciprocal Evolution of Farms and Towns in a Rapidly Changing Landscape. ..............................................................................................................................................50 3.5 1867-1914: Confederation to the First World War - The Southern Ontario Landscape within the Canadian Nation-State Adapts to Westward Expansion..........................................................................................................................62 3.6 1914 -1947: Creating the Urban Rural Divide - The Foundations of Urban Planning and Agricultural Policy in Times of Global Crisis. ............................75 3.7 1945-1973: Industrialization of the Southern Ontario Landscape - Intensive Farm Production Amid Encroaching Urban Settlement....................................88 3.8 1973-Present: Land Reregulation in Times of Global Capital Deregulation - Farm Preservation and Barriers to Diverse Sets of Rural-Urban Relationships................................................................................................................ 113 4. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................137 Bibliography.........................................................................................................................141 iv 1. Introduction Couched between a west branch of the Humber River on one side and rows of houses on the other, in the heart of suburban Brampton just north and west of Toronto, sits 45 acres of prime, certified organic soil cultivated by 36 new farmers – 20 different farm enterprises in all. These 45 acres make up McVean Farm, one of two farms run by FarmStart, an organization based in Guelph, Ontario that seeks to support a new generation of farmers. FarmStart engages anyone who desires to farm in a different a way: those who want to start farms of a small to medium scale, without intensive mechanization or heavy use of external inputs; who want to farm a diversity of crops for markets, instead of just one or even a handful; and those who want to farm in a way that works in partnership with nature, rather than in a way that seeks to dominate it (FarmStart 2013). FarmStart aims to encourage and support a new generation who want to practice ecological farming. Growing numbers of people want to farm in an ecological way. Those who approach FarmStart tend to be young, urban-born Canadians removed from any direct farm heritage, second career farmers who wish to turn away from the practices honed in more conventional farming operations, as well as newcomers to Canada who have come to settle in the Greater Toronto Area – even those who may have lived in Canada for as many as 15 years – who have experience and a recent history of farming in the country whence they came. These potential farmers desire to farm with different land parcel sizes, different inputs, different values, and with different relationships to urban markets than is conventionally the case within the agricultural sector in Ontario, where farming contributes significantly to the Ontario economy (Wolfson 2010) but where it is generally practiced on parcels of over two hundred acres, is highly mechanized using the latest technology in farm equipment, has generally high uses of fertilizers and pesticides and is predominantly export-oriented (Filson 2005). FarmStart’s objective is to give people new to farming in Southern Ontario a low- risk way to start and a place to develop ecological farming practices, in order to support new farmers starting their own viable, ecologically sound farm enterprises. FarmStart calls McVean Farm an “incubator farm.” The 45 acre parcel that makes up McVean is leased from the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). It is a place where 1 those interested in starting a farm based on ecological land use principles, seeking fulfillment through a meaningful farming career and livelihood, can come and try their hand at it and learn the seasons, soils, and market opportunities in Ontario. Farmers entering FarmStart’s start-up program have up to six years at McVean, where they can rent one to fives acres of land, enroll in a few workshops, and build a farm business plan while receiving the advice of FarmStart staff as well as the help of one permanent Farm Manager. FarmStart started in 2005, because, as they proclaim, we in Ontario, and in Canada more broadly, are facing a “crisis of renewal” in the farm sector (FarmStart 2013). The current farm population in Ontario is aging, and with traditional farm succession diminishing, few are taking the place of retiring farmers. Young people in traditional farming communities are moving off the farm in great numbers. Canada-wide, farmers under the age of 35 represent only 8.2% of total farmers in 2011, which is lower than in 2006 and less than half the proportion of young farmers two decades ago (Statistics Canada 2011). Ontario is losing its already historically diminished farmer population. Meanwhile, of the farmers who are retiring, they have come to depend on their land for their retirement savings (Bunce and Maurer 2005). With no family succession plans, retiring farmers are selling their land at speculative prices for their retirement income, and farmland is being converted to non- agricultural uses, primarily for urban-type development (Caldwell and Weir 2002). The farmland