The Guardian reports that the Council of Canadians, the PEI Food Security Network and the National Farmers Union are all strongly opposed to increasing corporate land holdings under the province’s Land Protection Act. The groups made their views known at a public consultation Monday night in Charlottetown.
“The Land Protection Act, introduced more than 30 years ago, aims to prevent the province’s agricultural land base from falling under the control of a limited number of owners – individuals or corporations. It limits individual ownership to 1,000 acres and corporate ownership to 3,000 acres.”
“Edith Ling of the NFU said the group is strongly opposed to increasing any land holdings for corporations on PEI. ‘We must continue to insist that farmland is destined for producing healthy food in sustainable way,’ Ling said. ‘Farmland is an un-renewable natural resource that must be protected, not a commodity to be exploited.’ …Increasing those limits could also increase debt, break down rural communities and erode a way of life, said members of the NFU. It could also make it difficult for smaller producers and younger generations to enter the agriculture industry, the NFU said in a brief to the commissioner. ‘Rock solid legislative restrictions on land ownership is the only hope of protecting farmland for the future,’ added Randall Affleck of the NFU.”
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