Running out of food?

Vincent J. Curtis

24 July 24, 2024

RE: Vanishing farmland should set off alarm bells. Op-ed by Tim O’Hare. The Hamilton Spectator. (O’Hare is a municipal councillor for the city of Thorold)

No one nowadays grows all his own food. Even farmers specialize.  A farmer who grows corn, or apples, doesn’t raise and butcher his own beef cattle, get his butter and milk from his own cows.  Everyone gets their food the same way, with money at a market.  So, what, then, does it mean for Ontario to run out of farmland?

The fear of running out of food harkens back to Malthusianism, the old fear that humans were overpopulating the earth.  That fear of running out of farmland has been used to halt “urban sprawl”. Great Britain did outgrow its capacity to feed itself, but even through the blockades of two world wars, the combination of markets and money kept Britons fed.

Where is the food to feed Ontario’s burgeoning population to come from?  Author Tim O’Hare thinks it will have to come from the U.S., or Mexico, or China.  Neglect that Ontario already does get food from the U.S. and Mexico, but much comes from the rest of Canada, which includes Alberta, Quebec, PEI, and British Columbia. Special foods and wines come from France and Italy.

The magic of markets and money will ensure Ontario never runs short of food. Just don’t run short of money by screwing up Ontario’s economy with irrational fears, like the fears of urban sprawl and “climate change” and development.

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