I was flabbergasted when I picked up the Farmtario paper and I saw that now, 50 years later, the federal government is letting go of the remaining farmland it assembled for a proposed airport near Pickering.
    Though it’s half a province away, the Pickering airport debate was personal to me because my wife’s brother was (at that time) married to a girl from Pickering. Her parents were among those whose land was purchased by the  federal government under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
    I remember visiting my sister-in-law’s parents who still lived in the old farmhouse on the property.
    It was the vision of the federal government in 1972 that a second airport would be required for the metropolitan Toronto area. They bought up 18,600 acres of land, much of it Class 1 farmland. Then, in 1975, it was decided that Toronto International Airport could simply be expanded and the land was unneeded. 
    I’d lost track of the issue and had no idea that 8,700 acres of the land assembled for the airport was still owned by the federal government and leased out to farmers. That land, under an agreement in January, will be transferred to the Rouge National Urban Park.
    Pickering was only a village in the 1970s. My sister-in-law built a new house on the edge of the growing town. Today it is in the middle of the city which has been built around her. Pickering’s population, according to the 2021 census was 99,186, up 4,000 from the previous census. Airports can be stopped, but Toronto region’s population expands uncontrollably.
    A photo accompanying the Pickering story showed a protesting farmer in 1972 in front of a sign that read “17% use airports, 100% use food.” I’m sure with so much  tourism these days, far more than 17 per cent of  people use airports but 100 per cent still need food.
    If there is one good thing about the federal government holding on to the former airport lands so long, it’s that they prevented the land from being developed for housing. Turning over the land to Parks Canada, it is uncertain how much farming will be allowed there, but at least it won’t be buried under houses.
    But the message remains the same: we need that land for people to grow food, not just to keep expanding urban areas with new highways to link people to urban jobs.
    We’re fooling ourselves, thanks to the tremendous efficiency of the farmers we have. Our grocery stores are still overflowing with food, causing urban decision-makers to take food production for granted. In the past 35 years, Ontario has lost 2.8 million acres (18 per cent) of its farmland to non-agricultural land uses like urbanization and aggregate mining.
    Once this land is paved and covered with houses, it is lost to farming forever! A really inventive government could find a way to incentivize growth in areas of the province that are not on prime farmland, but leaders of all our parties are urban-based and urban media doesn’t even recognize the future farmland dilemma we face.
    So I guess I’m thankful that the federal government has been so slow in reacting to the cancellation of an airport in Pickering. This way land that might have been developed to expand the city of Pickering has been saved from expansion. It may be designated parkland, but at least it isn’t paved.
    I wish the same thing could be happening around London, Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph to preserve food-growing land.
    I’m old enough that it won’t matter to me. There will still be plenty of food for me, but what about my grandchildren and great-grandchildren? And what about the people around the world who won’t be able to import food from Canada anymore? ◊