Farming and The Full Economic Development of the Federal Pickering Lands

  By Ted Nickerson At the recent City of Pickering Council meeting regarding the motion to reverse the City’s support for an airport on the Pickering lands, I was struck by one presenter’s comments. , A clearly pro-farming, anti-airport advocate, stated their firm opposition to vertical farming or greenhouses on the lands.  The comments were […]

Philosophically Speaking…#1: Class 1 Farmland

By Ted Nickerson This is the first of three-part series on the deeper meaning of the fight over the development of Pickering airport. The events of the last few weeks, (the City of Pickering motion to rescind support for an airport / the Region’s Draft Official Plan Statutory Public meeting) got me wondering about the […]

Does Toronto’s Growth Reduce Cropland?

Across Canada self-proclaimed environmental groups are trying to stop our cities from growing. They claim that growth, and the immigration that drives it, must be stopped to save the irreplaceable land where we grow our food. Urban planners and elected local officials claim there is no threat. Are our elected officials and planning experts right […]

Critique of the Land Over Landings Research Paper 11 – Indoor Farming and North Pickering

By Ted Nickerson Released in October 2020 by Land Over Landings (LOL), a document titled Research Paper 11 focuses on rebutting comments by local politicians regarding the potential for greenhouses and vertical farming on the federal Pickering Airport Lands.  The comments by local elected officials were made in the context of including agriculture as part […]

Will building Pickering Airport help or hurt Toronto’s food security?

An agricultural lobby group wants to stop the soon to be built Pickering Airport and instead repurpose the land to agribusiness on the grounds that Toronto’s food security is at risk.  Is this just another attempt by a lobby group to hoodwink our politicians with a billion dollar land grab?  Or does Toronto have a […]