Introduction
In some ways agriculture and the rural community have evolved in different directions. Production agriculture has increasingly industrialized – it has gotten larger, more specialized, more intensive and some would argue it now represents a significant risk to the environment and the quality of life of rural residents. In contrast, the rural community has become less farm oriented, less tolerant towards agriculture, more urban and relative to agriculture, it has become more politically influential – locally, provincially and nationally. In the midst of these processes, municipalities are expected to make decisions that balance these competing interests.
This paper reviews a number of community and agricultural trends that municipalities must consider. As municipalities attempt to cope with an ever changing agricultural industry and a significantly different rural community, it is pressured to develop appropriate planning tools. This paper builds on earlier work by Caldwell (2001) and presents a number of Best Management Practices (BMPs) that municipalities should consider in planning for agriculture. Are agriculture and the rural community heading in the same direction? Until the middle of the 20th century, agriculture and the rural community were largely inseparable. Farming was a lifestyle that largely defined the rural community. Small familybased units of production, close ties with neighbours, traditional technologies, and minimal change from generation to generation defined North America’s agricultural industry. With increasing mechanization following the Second World War, and with numerous social, demographic and technical changes throughout society, the rural community and agriculture began to head in separate directions. Today, while there remains a strong linkage between agriculture and the rural community, there are many trends that contribute to a divergent rural ommunity (Caldwell, 1998).