Behind the Lines - May 2013

Thursday, May 2, 2013

A decade and a half ago, there was a rush to build big barns as the province's producers took advantage of a boom in the pork industry to meet a burgeoning demand. We couldn't help but notice a comparison with the current push to use rural lands to dispose of material excavated from the province's construction sites.

As during the big-barn building phase, provincial regulations were scant. In the meantime, municipalities have been taking things into their own hands. Some laws were over the top, and legitimate farmers found that their operations were being throttled back while governments decided what is and isn't normal farm practice. And protests and lawyers are involved.

The big-barn rush is long over. Today, the same thing is happening with materials left over from construction of subdivisions and highrises, many of them in the circle of rural farmland that surrounds the Greater Toronto Area.

Some of that "fill" may be topsoil that can enrich farmland. Some of it is suspect, of dubious value and may carry contaminants. And there's the rub. In the meantime, legitimate farmers who would like to use some of this material or make improvements on their properties are caught up. That story, by field editor Mary Baxter, begins on page 10.

Research drives agricultural progress. In this issue, we have two articles on research and both of them involve collaboration. Starting on page 28, writer Susan Mann reports on the province's livestock sectors working together to get rid of duplication and get the most benefit from the dollars that their producers are committing to research through their organizations.

Similarly, senior staff editor Don Stoneman writes about groups taking a lesson from last year's drought and planning to make the most of that sometimes scarce resource, water, to grow crops. That story starts on page 32.

And from water we move to other essential nutrients like phosphorus and potash. For those who are involved in renting crop land, regular contributor Pat Lynch details the need to plan for fertility management and ensure that both landowner and renter are fairly compensated by using a soil testing regimen. Lynch's column begins on page 36. BF

ROBERT IRWIN & DON STONEMAN