Engage In A Greenbelt Review To Protect What’s Left Of Niagara’s Unique Grape And Tender Fruit-Growing Lands

By John Bacher 

One of the most important roles Ontario’s Greenbelt plays is that it protects most of what is left of Niagara’s precious fruit belt, from urban sprawl.

Sign put up by west St. Catharines peach farmer going out of business. File photo by Doug Draper

 Niagara is one of the only places in Canada where it is still economically viable to grow, on a large scale and for the fresh market, a wide variety of tree fruit crops. These fruits include plums, pears, apricots peaches and sweet and sour cherries.

Another extraordinary aspect of Niagara’s fruit belt is that it is also grape belt. Although new areas in Ontario are opening up for grapes for wine cultivation, virtually all of the grapes grown for juice and jellies in Canada are located in Niagara where many grape growers have long time contracts with Welch’s, one of the largest agricultural co-operatives in the world. 

The Niagara fruit belt makes up a rare part of Ontario where it is possible to grow economically healthy foods that every nutritionist believes we need to eat more of. While for now cheap transportation makes it possible for such healthy food to be imported without driving up the price, this will not endure. Growing concern over the ecological health of the planet make carbon taxes inevitability.

The fruit belt of Niagara has a climate which makes it the best place on the continent to grow fruit. The late Ralph Krueger, a Waterloo University Professor of Geography, was constantly astounded to find that the climate here is superior to the vaunted American “peach state” of Georgia.

Several years ago, during a growth plan conformity exercise by the Niagara Region, the Grimsby municipal council announced its intentions during the planned Greenbelt Review for what is left of their fruit lands. The council recommended that all the remaining fruit land north of the Niagara Escarpment be removed from the Greenbelt.

The Greenbelt’s protection for good grape growing lands is inadequate. There are excellent grape growing lands in Niagara Falls south of the Niagara Escarpment. However, only a tiny area of these lands is protected by the Greenbelt. These lands outside of the shrinking agriculturally zoned area between Thorold and Niagara Fall north of the Well and River should be put into the Greenbelt to protect new areas for good grape growing.

To defend the Greenbelt and Niagara’s fruit belt, there is a simple way to get involved. Come to the Niagara public meeting on the Greenbelt Review. It is being held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15 in St. Catharines at the Holiday Inn and Suites Parkway Convention Center at 327 Ontario Street.

John Becher is working on Greenbelt issues for the Sierra Club of Canada and is a researcher with the Niagara-based citizens group Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society.

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