At the Ontario Farmland Trust (OFT), we deeply appreciate the work of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI), an organization that continues to bring rigour, insight, and relevance to some of the most pressing challenges facing Canada’s agri-food sector. Their recent report, The Economics of Farmland Use, Farmland Values and Returns and Futurability, authored by Courtney Anderson, is no exception.
This report is a timely and critical contribution to the conversation around farmland use and protection in Canada. At OFT, as an organization that works to permanently protect Ontario’s finite farmland, it affirmed much of what we see on the ground every day, offering new data to support our work in protecting Ontario’s agricultural lands for future generations.
The report, based on three decades of Census of Agriculture data, paints a nuanced picture of farmland economics across Canada. While farmland values have soared over the past 30 years, this appreciation alone does not translate into economic viability for farmers, especially in regions like Ontario, where development pressure has inflated land prices far beyond what farm incomes can support.
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