Housing is not being built…

Housing is not being built for the workers and retiring farmers that grow food. Farm succession is a crisis. A recent report by UofGuelph and RBC shows that about 40% of farmers are set to retire in the next 10 years.

While farm land adjacent to cities and towns is being gobbled up, farms farther out have no housing for new farmers or aging farmers.

We don't want to sever lots from our farm. We want good building code and policy that encourages zero impact attainable beautiful housing on the farm.

Beautifully designed, smart, modular co-housing designed to LEED standards can create little communities of families, caregivers, new farmers, elderly. They will get expertise and support to manage these delicate lands with food forests, permaculture design, and regenerative agriculture methods.

But we must be very careful that in the pursuit of supplying housing on farms that we do not allow estate homes or sprawling subdivisions to address this need. We need innovative solutions.

CO-Housing is one option that allows a greater number of units to be constructed to address the issue of housing supply in rural areas. There are several models to look at, including Groundswell Co-housing in British Columbia that houses over 100 people in 35 units on 3-acres of land while preserving another 25 acres for farmland. This model has created a form of rural densification that addressed the need for housing while still protecting farmland, which provides the residents access to land to produce their own food.

Farmers Wanted: The labour renewal Canada needs to build the Next Green Revolution, Royal Bank paper, April 2, 2023.

The Farm Succession Crisis, Ontario Farmland Trust, https://ontariofarmlandtrust.ca/2020/08/03/the-farm-succession-crisis/ excerpted May 25, 2023.