An Assessment of the Impact of Rural Non-Farm Development on ...

<strong>Impact</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Rural</strong> <strong>Non</strong>-<strong>Farm</strong> <strong>Development</strong> on <strong>the</strong> Viability <strong>of</strong> Agriculture: Literature Reviewprimarily for sustainable resource use” (Ontario Smart Growth, 2003, p. 15). <strong>Farm</strong>landhas been recognized as a strategic resource, fundamental to national (U.S.A) securityand <strong>the</strong>refore should be worth protecting (Daniels and Bowers, 1997). The samestatement can be made about Canada’s agricultural land.Agricultural land preservation has remained a contentious goal that has hadlimited success in Canada. It continues to provoke debate about its purpose andeffectiveness, but it has never quite matured into an integrated element <strong>of</strong> rural land-useplanning. The preservation <strong>of</strong> agricultural land is a key component <strong>of</strong> somemunicipalities’ planning, while o<strong>the</strong>r jurisdictions do not truly incorporate agriculturalpreservation as part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir planning strategy. The Canadian approach to agriculturalland preservation has typically been policy and process based (Caldwell, 1995). Thedevelopment <strong>of</strong> policy as a planning tool to protect and preserve agriculture as aresource in Ontario came about initially because <strong>of</strong> an increase in public awareness <strong>of</strong><strong>the</strong> loss <strong>of</strong> agricultural land and <strong>the</strong> demands <strong>of</strong> an academic and pr<strong>of</strong>essionalcommunity to conserve <strong>the</strong> agricultural resource.Throughout <strong>the</strong> 1950s and 1960s <strong>the</strong> dominant public perception was <strong>of</strong> acontinent with a limitless supply <strong>of</strong> farmland and unbounded technological capabilities,which was <strong>the</strong> breadbasket <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> world (Bunce, 1998, p.233). A study by Krueger(1959) on <strong>the</strong> loss <strong>of</strong> tender fruit lands in <strong>the</strong> Niagara Peninsula was one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> first inCanada to focus attention on <strong>the</strong> issue <strong>of</strong> agricultural land loss. This study and severalo<strong>the</strong>rs elsewhere, combined with public demand, gradually led to provincial action in <strong>the</strong>early 1970s.- 13 -