Housing Prices Causing Canadian Farmland Shrinkage

Sep 23, 2021

It’s not really new news, but urban sprawl continues to play into the shrinking landscape that is farmable land in Canada.

Despite being the second-largest country on the planet and only 40 million people to occupy it, Canada’s arable farmland is diminishing owing to continued demands for more housing—reigniting concerns of eventual food production shortages.

Recently, lower interest rates in Canada have helped fuel the desire to purchase property, and developers are keen to oblige—purchasing arable acreage close to urban populations to turn into new housing.

Usually, the larger the city the more expensive the housing is, becoming less expensive as one moves away from the urban centre. This causes more and more farmable land to be snatched up by developers looking to turn it into a new urban suburb.

In defense of the developers, many have sat on purchased property for decades, and make their money back by leasing it to farmers of every kind.

Along with the financial incentive of lower interest rates, the ongoing pandemic has also been pointed to as a reason for some wanting less to do with the urban with fewer “concerns” in a newly gentrified rural community. IE, they want to move out of the city and into a new suburb to avoid future contamination.

According to the advocacy group, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Ontario is losing 70 hectares of agricultural land every day. Every single day. And it’s due to the creation of new urban rural habitation.

But it’s not all bad—cities such as Toronto and Vancouver already have in place a Green Belt policy to protect agricultural farmland to prohibit further development.

Although provinces are the official arbiters of more expansive land-use planning regulations, the federal government has measures to ensure that the ag sector will have the necessary support to provide food for Canadian tables by monitoring the challenges farmers face.

And yet, for the many people willing to leave their urbanized surroundings, others continue to follow their own goal of owning and operating their own farm and agricultural business—and where better to seek out that dream than by perusing the Farms.com Real Estate section.

Video: Sweetener Effects on Gut Health - Dr. Kwangwook Kim

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Dr. Kwangwook Kim, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, discusses the use of non-nutritive sweeteners in nursery pig diets. He explains how sucralose and neotame influence feed intake, gut health, metabolism, and the frequency of diarrhea compared to antibiotics. The conversation highlights mechanisms beyond palatability, including hormone signaling and nutrient transport. Listen now on all major platforms!

“Receptors responsible for sweet taste are present not only in the mouth but also along the intestinal tract.”

Meet the guest: Dr. Kwangwook Kim / kwangwook-kim is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, specializing in swine nutrition and feed additives under disease challenge models. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Sciences from the University of California, Davis, where he focused on intestinal health and metabolic responses in pigs. His research evaluates alternatives to antibiotics, targeting gut health and performance in nursery pigs.