Belleville champions Schreiner’s Foodbelt Bill

March 27, 2026

BELLEVILLE — The City of Belleville joins the ten other municipalities that support MPP Mike Schreiner’s joint bill with MPP Bobbi Ann Brady, Bill 21: Protect Our Food Act.

As support grows for the proposed legislation to protect farmland, it’s clear that local leaders and their communities are tired of this province overriding local planning and bulldozing over their farms to benefit wealthy investors.

Protecting farmland is of critical importance to Ontario’s economy, natural heritage and hundreds of thousands of jobs. 

“Ontario farmers grow more than 200 different crops on 49,600 farms across the province. The sector contributes over $52 billion to the provincial economy, employing over 875,000 people—one in nine Ontario jobs. All of that is at risk because Ontario is losing 319 acres of farmland every day mostly to unnecessary sprawl,” said Schreiner. 

If passed, the Protect Our Food Act would create a Foodbelt that would permanently protect our agricultural lands from being paved over by establishing a task force of farmers, agricultural experts and land-use planners to develop recommendations for a strong Foodbelt Protection Plan. 

The Ontario Farmland Trust, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario and the National Farmers Union have also endorsed this bill. “Now is the time to protect our farmland, support farmers, and grow more food right here at home because without farmland there are no farms, there is no food, no future,” said Schreiner.

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