Southern Ontario Agricultural Implosion

Agricultural Implosion in Southern Ontario

In Southern Ontario, a conspicuous dichotomy among densities of agricultural implosion has occurred: southern regions have agglomerated while northern regions have not. Agricultural implosion refers to the ability to produced more food (or, specifically for this discussion, more agriculture) on less land by way of technology, better farming techniques, et cetera. Since it cannot be assumed that this dichotomy has arisen randomly, there must be influential co-ordinating factors involved. One of these factors is the relationship between soil quality and agricultural implosion. Further, there tends to be another relationship, aside from the soil quality, encouraging agricultural implosion: proximity to the United States. Furthermore, in the surrounding regions of the Manufacturing Belt, there is very little unused land with agricultural capability (Agricultural Lands, 1980). These aforementioned observations suggest that Southern Ontario's agricultural implosions agglomerate due to geographic influences and commodities.

Landscape fertility is one of these commodities. In Southern Ontario, there is an incremental escalation of soil quality from north to south: southern counties, such as Middlesex, have exceptional soil qualities, while northern counties, such as Muskoka have poor soil qualities. Concurrently, northernmost counties in Southern Ontario tend to have a lower level of agricultural implosion, while southernmost counties in Southern Ontario tend to have a higher level. For example, Middlesex--a county with a relatively high level of agricultural implosion--has primarily the best soil quality (type 1), while Muskoka--a count...

... middle of paper ...

... proximity to the United States, or proximity to the Manufacturing Belt--is what determines which agricultural areas will experience agricultural implosion. Via the exemplar comparison of Middlesex and Muskoka, it has been illustrated that location is capable of determining a county's supply capability: with greater soil quality, a county is able to sustain greater amounts of agriculture. Moreover, location is additionally capable of determining a county's demand level as exemplified by the production level of the three counties' Middlesex, Simcoe, and Muskoka: greater access to regions demanding agriculture leads to greater demand upon a region. Thus, the dichotomy of agricultural implosion densities in Southern Ontario has not arisen randomly; it has occurred because geography determines the amount of both demand and supply exerted upon a region.