Ontario’s Greenbelt: The Key to Food Security in the Greater Golden Horseshoe

This report, prepared by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute as part of the Visioning the Future of the Greenbelt series, examines the Greenbelt as a strategic asset for Ontario. With prime farmland located next to Canada’s largest consumer market and agri-food hub, the Greenbelt has the potential to strengthen domestic food production, support the agri-food economy, and advance food sovereignty and economic security. 

Ontario faces growing pressures from population growth, housing demand, trade disruptions, rising food insecurity, and climate change. The report highlights how protecting farmland in and around the Greenbelt, while investing in product innovation and market diversification, infrastructure, and farm succession, can help expand food production, strengthen local markets, and ensure the region continues to feed Ontario’s growing population. 

Key Recommendations 

• Develop an agriculture and agri-food strategy for Ontario that capitalizes on the Greenbelt as a strategic asset to meet the growing demand for local and affordable food and the Grow Ontario Strategy goal of 30% production and consumption of local food by 2032. 

• Contribute to Canada’s national food security by ensuring that Ontario’s most productive and close to market farmland in, and around the Greenbelt, is preserved and stays in active production by prioritizing farmland protection at municipal and provincial levels. 

• Protect Ontario in the face of economic instability and US trade disruptions and drive stable market rates for producers and affordability for consumers in Ontario. 

• Incentivize connectivity and a critical mass of prime farmland, safe from fragmentation, to provide long-term business certainty and maintain economic viability of farms and support farm succession. 

• Strengthen the future of Ontario agriculture by encouraging succession planning, especially in specialty and high value crops (e.g. fruit and vegetables) where there is potential to replace imports. 

• Invest in local market development and infrastructure around the GGH to take advantage of interest in local food. 

• Invest in the ag innovation ecosystem to support variety development and new products to meet evolving consumer demand. 

• Raise awareness of the importance of agriculture and agri-food to the GGH and the province, including its role in economic growth, food sovereignty, and addressing food insecurity. 

• Facilitate a move toward value added exports and a more diversified export market. 

• Facilitate greater collaboration between stakeholders and land use planners to boost clarity and coordination in decision-making under the new PPS, 2024 and Greenbelt plans and legislation. 

• Ensure Greenbelt policies remain effective in the face of emerging pressures over the next decade by addressing policy gaps and increasing awareness of the importance of the Greenbelt for Ontario’s future productivity, growth, food security, sovereignty, and the overall well-being of its citizens. 

Through a series of discussion papers, the Visioning the Greenbelt Series explores the Greenbelt’s current and future role in addressing the challenges and opportunities of our time, positioning it as a vital solution for the province’s sustainable future.