If we value local food and want to maintain the critical benefits that nature provides, we must put food and water first. That's why we're calling on municipalities and provincial governments to redouble their efforts to protect our remaining farmland and green space from costly, polluting urban sprawl.

The lack of affordable housing in Toronto drives demand for suburban housing and this threatens the implementation of the Growth Plan. To prevent social and environmental collapse, we need to link sprawl-related environmental issues with affordability.

For 32 years, my family has looked forward to our annual trip toward the Okanagan Valley to pick cherries. Now, much of that land has been converted to accommodate big houses. We have to make sure we don't sacrifice the very things that made a community attractive in the first place.