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Better Farming Ontario Featured Articles

Better Farming Ontario magazine is published 11 times per year. After each edition is published, we share featured articles online.


Are urban farms too big?

Monday, December 3, 2012

"Urban farms" may be getting too big, according to Grist, a non-profit organization, based in Seattle, Wash., which describes itself as "dishing out environmental news and commentary with a wry twist."

San Diego's 140-acre Suzie's Farm and 40-acre Skarsgard Farms in Albuquerque N.M. each sell more than US$1 million in organic product in a season. Cleveland, Ohio, San Francisco, Calif. and Kansas City, Mo., all plan to turn disused properties into farmland, some on a substantial scale.

Yet Kaid Benfield, director of sustainable communities, Natural Resources Defense Council, worries that urban farming on a large scale will make cities less walkable and less dense. He argues that growing food in cities should support urbanism, not displace it. Grist writer Christopher Weber notes that Benfield is concerned that a city where pedestrians walk past a 20-acre field isn't a city any more. Plus, residents will get upset when that green space is inevitably turned back into buildings again when the economy turns around. (And that is going to happen when?)

Toronto has its 7.5 acre Riverdale Farm. John Hantz, the founder of Detroit's Hantz Farm, started with a grandiose scheme for a 10,000 acre farm in the city. Local outcry, and his lowballing on land prices, forced him to downsize to 200 acres for a tree farm, Weber wrote. BF 

Current Issue

May 2025

Better Farming Magazine

Farms.com Breaking News

Mother’s Day Q&A with Anna McCutcheon

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Mother’s Day is only a few days away (that’s another reminder), and this week Farms.com has connected with moms in ag for their thoughts on motherhood, its challenges, and how being a parent has changed them. Anna McCutcheon (AM) and her husband Mark are the first generation on their... Read this article online

Creating Safe Farms for Kids

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

The Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) is hosting the second annual Kids FarmSafe Week from May 12 to 18, with the theme “Nurturing the Future of Agriculture.” The initiative aims to raise awareness about health and safety risks for children and youth on farms. According... Read this article online

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