Rant of an Environmentalist/Farmer

I took an interesting position for my local government seminar this week, where I’m supposed to present briefly in support of the greenbelt.
It’s a conflicting issue for me, to say the least. My environmentalist tendencies come head to head with my heritage as a farmer.
Although I don’t live in the greenbelt, currently I live on 225 acres of apple orchard, zoned special agriculture. This means no development can occur unless it’s agriculturally related. This causes yearly frustrations with the town as we attempt to build upon our businesses. As the owner of a piece of property, should it not be their right to do whatever they wish with their land, so long as it doesn’t impact the lives of other people negatively?
Though in the same strain, to hear a farmer complaining that he can’t sell his farm when he retires to a developer who has plans to build housing on it rails me with anger. Yet isn’t that the same right I’m complaining about? I’m a hypocrite, I know.
So what about the environment? This type of legislation protects forests and other wilderness areas from development as well as farms. Complaints about this aspect of the greenbelt are just classic. Everyone and their grandma supports the environment…until it inconveniences them that is. People all feel like they do their part by throwing their can into the recycling bin, but would they do it if they knew that dirty cans cause that entire bag of recycling to go straight to the dump? Cleaning that can out isn’t very convenient for them. Same with the green belt. The second profit is lost because of this legislation, you can say bye to public support. So in truth, do I support the greenbelt or not? I don’t know. Should make for an interesting presentation.