Oct 02, 2008 - 03:43 PM

By Melissa Mancini

DURHAM -- Food or fuel. It's a debate that has been hot in the media since the issue of ethanol has come to the forefront.

But it's a question that has been asked in the agricultural world for years, said Ivan DeJong, Scugog representative, Durham Agricultural Advisory Committee (DAAC).

And it doesn't just stop at food or fuel.

"What's happened with ethanol has put emphasis on food or fuel," Mr. DeJong said. "But the debate is wider than that, it's food land or residential development, food land or recreational land, food land or sod..."

Never has the debate been more relevant than now, with residential developments popping up further and further north. It's not just a matter of rezoning. It's a problem of finding a way to have agricultural and residential land zones, which are more often becoming neighbours, co-exist in a way that allows farms to be profitable businesses.

Many farmers know the pain of trying to farm so close to residential areas.

"Development is always happening, when you are near a city, it's a moving front," Mountjoy Farms owner Dale Mountjoy said.

Mr. Mountjoy remembers when he was young and farmland stretched as far south as Adelaide Road in Oshawa. His farm sits on the corner of Colin and Harmony roads, where houses are visible directly south of his land.

This creates many transportation issues. The intersection there has stop signs for those driving east and west on Conlin, but not north and south on Harmony.

During rush hour, it's difficult for Mr. Mountjoy to get anywhere. He plans to go places at off-peak traffic times and does work in the shop when the roads are busy, but there are times when that is just not possible, he said.

Issues arise when Mr. Mountjoy has to take a piece of equipment on the road to use it to farm a piece of land that isn't on his property. Before northern roads became busier, he would drive a slower piece of equipment and if a car was behind him, they could pass fairly easily. Now if there are a line of cars behind him and many cars coming the other way, his slow progression causes a backlog.

"There are increased stress levels for other drivers and me," he said.

It also causes havoc when there is a car accident. One day last month, there were three car accidents at the intersection. He's had cars hit the fence around the land where his cows graze, he said.

In a situation like this, cows can wander into local residential areas, or even walk the half a kilometres south into commercial development. It doesn't happen often, by any means, he said, but it is a concern.

The DAAC advocates for a buffer area between agricultural and developed land to make running a business easier, Mr. DeJong said.

The buffer strip is a necessity because it removes the irritation of farming in a developed area, Mr. DeJong said.

"It should be paid for by the developing end," Mr. DeJong said. "It adversely affects how you can farm (being so close to development)."

All but two acres of the Mountjoy's farmland has been sold and is slated for development.

Many people who farm near cities deal with the irritation with the hope their land will be worth more and when they want to retire, they can sell it to developers, Mr. DeJong said.

However, this has become an impossible dream for many farmers because their farms have been zoned as greenbelt land, which can not be built on.

"If you can never develop that land, you have to live with all the inconveniences with no form of restitution," Mr. DeJong said.

Despite this, the DAAC believes in preserving agricultural land and what the greenbelt is doing to assist that preservation, Mr. DeJong said.

"I don't think we should allow development to spread ad nauseum," he said. "We should intensify development where it already exists."