Dear Dr Polonsky,
I am writing to voice my concern about the future of the prime farmland in North Pickering
(known as the Federal Lands) that has been earmarked since 1972 as the site of a Pickering
airport and is the subject of your study now. While just over half the original site was
recently protected within the Rouge National Urban Park (and the farmland preserved), the
remainder – almost entirely prime farmland – is still under threat of a “potential future
airport” and economic development that does not include agricultural uses.
I wish to put on record my opposition to such a plan, and for the following reasons:
** An airport or non-agricultural development of any kind on the prime farmland would
destroy it, leaving no way back. Development on farmland is a one-way street.
** Most of the food we eat comes from field crops, and such crops can only be grown
reliably, year after year, on prime farmland.
** Prime farmland is a rare and non-renewable resource. We are losing it – not just in
Ontario but worldwide – at an alarming rate, even as the global population continues to
climb. According to the latest UN projections, our numbers will increase from 7.3 billion
today to 10 billion by 2056. Every one of those 10 billion people will need food.
** In an uncertain world in which climate change may change everything, we won’t be able
to rely on importing food. The Federals Lands’ prime farmland must be protected to help
provide food security to Canada’s largest urban centre and beyond.
** Four decades of limbo have left North Pickering a jobless basket-case – and for what?
There’s still no airport or need for one. There is a desperate need for jobs – right now –
which could easily be met by killing the airport threat and enabling an agricultural
renaissance, the basis of a food hub (no desperate search for companies willing to relocate
to remote farmland, no major infrastructure costs, etc.). This plan would attract farmsupport services, food processors, restaurants, bistros, you name it. A perfect neighbour
for the Rouge National Urban Park, with its pro-farming mandate! The Region would
benefit from capitalizing on its finest natural asset (the Class 1 soil) and its main economic
driver (agriculture).
[This space should contain an additional reason, to keep letters from being form letters.]
Respectfully,
Name (and name of organization, where appropriate)
Address