Farmland conversion and landfill sites

[danbrotherston]

This came up in a different thread (on the townships). I didn't realize this was an expropriation. To me, that's completely unacceptable. Should farms be converted to industrial is a question we can discuss. But whether our government should use the power of eminent domain to seize land from individuals and give it to a private company for private use and private wealth...that is unquestionably wrong. I don't know why it is even being considered?

As for the "NIMBY" aspect...I would argue that concerns about a toxic, polluting factory next to a farm is much more legitimate than concerns about the wrong kind of people living next to me is.

Expropriation by municipalities of farm land for industrial use is far from uncommon.

If true...that is a very unpleasant thing to learn...

But again, to be clear, it is not expropriation, or even necessarily the use that is bad.

Expropriation of land (any land) by a government and transfer of that land to a private, for profit, corporation is the problem. Eminent domain should not be used for the benefit of corporations, it should be used directly for the benefit of the commons only.

If the government feels that industrial use is so important to the common benefit of our society, they should own the land and lease it.