creative ways to protect brant county's farmland and natural heritage – ella haley &...
TRANSCRIPT
Creative Ways to Protect Brant County's Farmland and Natural Heritage
ELLA HALEY RICHARD TUNSTALL
10.18 #PARISNORTH
LCONSERV.ORG
Protecting Brant County’s Watershed, Farmland & Natural Heritage
Richard Tunstall and Ella Haley Langford Conservancy
[email protected] Lconserv.org, 519-647-0307
Two greatest barriers to new farmers are lack of access to land and capital.
1 National Young Farmers Coalition Report, 2015
The Ontario Greenbelt – 10 Year Review
The Great Canadian Landgrab
No Farmland = No Local Farmers =
No Local Food
Sprawl – Brant/Brantford Boundary Deal
Brant County: 1980 Protected Agricultural Ribbon
1) If the Minister Approves the Brant/Brantford Boundary Deal – Appeal
2) Grow the Greenbelt 3) Conservation Easements 4) Land Trust buys land
Creative Solutions:
1) Challenge the Brant/Brantford Boundary Deal
2) Create a Grand River Watershed Greenbelt
3) Protect Land with Conservation Easements
4) Purchase by Land Trust and Lease to New Farmers
SOLUTION
Preserve farmland and provide new small-scale organic farmers access to affordable farmland
Langford Conservancy
Our Aim: • To initially sell community bonds to raise
funds to buy a farm • Organic farmers will be able to hold
long-term leases on protected land
Community Bond Campaign
Timeline & MilestonesSept 2016
March 2017
✓ Complete Fundraising ✓ Recruit New Organic Farmers ✓ Make the offer on the Farm
✓ Complete Renovation for 5 Housing Units ✓ Complete building the pond for irrigation ✓ Review the applications for New Organic Farmers ✓ First round of New Farmers start farming (no housing req)
Sept 2017 ✓ Second round of New organic farmers move-in & start farming ✓ Ultimate vision: knowledge sharing to scale the project elsewhere
10.18 #PARISNORTH
Langford Conservancy
LCONSERV.ORG