When you think about the historical roots of Whitchurch-Stouffville, your mind may immediately go to thoughts of agriculture and farming. After all, it was a group of Mennonite farmers from Pennsylvania who moved here and incorporated Whitchurch and Stouffville in the mid-1800s.
One issue that is often raised to me and to my office is in regards to maintaining some touch points to our agricultural roots as we grow and develop new parts of our community.
How would we do that and what does all this have to do with future development in Whitchurch-Stouffville?
Well, as I have been doing research on new models of development in Canada, I have found some innovative and exciting communities that are being built under a new model of development (well, new to me!) called Agricultural Urbanism.
Matthew Somerville of the Ontario Barn Preservation group writes,
“What is Agricultural Urbanism? In its simplest form it is the integration of food systems (the planting, growing, harvesting, processing and selling of food) into urban development. It is a field to fork approach that by its very nature and physical constraints places a premium on small-scale value-added production. The intent is to use food to reconnect those who live in cities to the cycles of the seasons, localize our unsustainable global food system and find new uses for heritage agricultural structures. By shedding light on the processes behind food production the hope is that a new appreciation for farming will emerge, bringing new people into a dying community and breathing new life into agricultural buildings.”
A friend passed on this article to me: Agricultural Urbanism: Linking sustainability, food protection and rural heritage protection
Obviously, our community is not dying, but the concept of Agricultural Urbanism could still be applied.
Two very exciting communities, one in B.C and one in Quebec, that are being built are master planned, strategically and purposefully tied to the land once farmed there. Hendrick Farm and Southlands are but two examples of what future development in Whitchurch-Stouffville could be.
Would you want to live in a community like this?
Let me know your thoughts. Email [email protected]
