Strengthen and protect the Greenbelt and Ontario foodlands
- Keep the lid on costly and polluting urban sprawl by expanding the boundaries of the Greenbelt in cooperation with neighbouring municipalities to protect foodlands and natural habitat.
- Strengthen the local food system in the Greenbelt and across Ontario by increasing purchases of sustainably grown local food by schools, hospitals and other provincial institutions.
- Spur economic development in rural Ontario by supporting regional food processing facilities rather than penalizing farm-based food processors.
Around the world, Ontario’s Greenbelt is considered a farsighted example of good land use planning. The Greenbelt helps to keep farmer’s farming to meet our local food needs, it protects water sources and habitat for wildlife, and it helps to curb costly and polluting urban sprawl by directing urban development to existing towns, villages and cities where infrastructure already exists.
Farmers in Ontario can take advantage of some of the best growing conditions in the country. But they need more help getting healthy, sustainably grown food off the farm and onto our plates. That means more local food processing infrastructure and preferential local purchasing by schools, hospitals, daycares and other provincial and municipal institutions.
We all need to eat and we all want to eat healthier. Protecting farmland and helping farmers grow more sustainable food is good for all of us.