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LETTER: Politicians need to do more to safeguard farmland

'The farm sellers will not deny themselves financial security. The developer/speculator will not sacrifice profits. Politicians, however, who set the rules, can force this harmful process to cease,' says reader

BradfordToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). This letter from reader Albert Wierenga about the loss of farmland to developers. 
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Having often passed by this site on the southwest corner of Highway 88 and Sideroad 10, where the Langford farm used to be, I decided to finally have a closer look at what was left of this big thriving farm with its many silos and farm buildings.

Standing at the closed gate and seeing all signs of there once having been a farm erased, an old Persian fable about the scorpion and the turtle popped into my mind. That fable which I first heard in Calcutta in the ’70s, goes like this: A scorpion and a turtle meet on a riverbank. The scorpion cannot swim, so it asks for a ride across the river on the turtle’s back. The turtle has heard the stories about scorpions and their deadly stings, and replies “No”. It knows better than to trust the scorpion. The scorpion promises by all that is holy not to sting the turtle because it needs to get to the other side. A believing turtle ultimately relents. Halfway crossing the scorpion stings the turtle dooming them to drown. The shocked turtle asks the scorpion, “Why did you sting me so both of us will die?” The scorpion replies, “It is my nature to sting”.

The farm was wiped off the earth except for a row of trees and a bit of machinery. The developer who bought it followed his nature by buying the land for future development and profits. And this dance between farmers and developers is replayed everywhere in the Greater Toronto Area, as in many other places. Farmland continues to be swallowed for development either today or at some time in the future. The developer, like the scorpion, follows his nature, and we, turtles, continue to facilitate them to build. If people desire to live with lands for producing food and oxygen, hard rules and defined borders must be put in place to stop developers from buying all the farmland for building. The developers/speculators do as their nature dictates. They will take the easier option of building on new land instead of building higher in established places. We know that the continual demise of farmland will lead to the eventual death of both the scorpion and the turtle.

The farm sellers will not deny themselves financial security. The developer/speculator will not sacrifice profits. Politicians, however, who set the rules, can force this harmful process to cease.

Ask your politicians whether they favour developers and leave our grandchildren with one massive city from the shores of Lake Ontario to Barrie, or whether they commit to safeguarding farmland and green lands. 

Albert Wierenga, Bradford

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