Municipalities need to 'grow up' not out, Thunder Bay dairy farmer says

Superior Morning7:02"Growing" the Agriculture Industry - Peggy Brekveld

The Province wants to create 120,000 jobs in agriculture...so what's stopping that? Peggy Brekveld of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture says sometimes it's municipalities.

Groups representingfarm families across Ontario arequestioning whether municipalities are putting up barriers to the growth of the agriculture sector.

The vice president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, who is also a Thunder Bay dairy farmer, said one of the key issues is how municipalities deal with land use planning.

"I love to see when farmland is preserved and remains as farmland," Peggy Brekveld said.

"It makes sense, both to the cities and the farmers, [that] agricultural land, once it becomes houses, it can't go back to farm land."

Brekveld said municipalities should be renewing their inner cores, growing in and up, rather than spreading out.