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The land deal has been approved by cabinet, although a complex transfer deal between Agriculture Canada and the National Capital Commission — which will then lease it to the hospital for a nominal amount — is still being ironed out. An advisory committee to Agriculture Canada and groups including Friends of the Farm say they were not consulted ahead of time and have been told the land transfer is a “done deal.”

There is still no approved funding for a new hospital — with an expected price tag of $2.5 billion or more — and it could be years before it is built.

Clarke Topp, one of the scientists who spent a career working on long-term experiments in the farm’s Field No. 1, the proposed site of the new hospital, is among those raising alarm bells about the plan. Topp argues the deal would mean the end of long-term soil experiments. The internationally recognized scientist, who is now retired, says he cannot watch decades of important scientific study get washed down the drain without speaking out.

Topp said he has heard from current government scientists who back his efforts to draw attention to the loss of the research to make room for a hospital.

“They can’t speak up, but they were pleased that I decided to become the usual s**t disturber that I was in my career. A number called me and thanked me.”

Some of the experiments on Field No. 1, bordered by Carling Avenue in the north, Fisher Avenue in the west, Ash Lane in the east and close to the Scenic Driveway in the south, have been underway for decades. A key one involves studying the effects of low-tilling and no tilling on carbon in soils, something that contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, making Agriculture Canada scientists among joint recipients of the prize.