This past weekend, some of the top chefs from around the country descended on a small farm in rural Ontario to share some of their best creations with anyone willing to pay a small fee for a ticket. At the same time, famous recording artists such as Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo and Sara Harmer entertained the crowds offering their services for free. The event became known as Foodstock and, despite the difficult fall weather, it was a big success.
So what motivated these award- winning cooks and musicians to offer their services at such an unusual venue as a farm field in the township of Melancthon just outside of Shelburne?
They came to bring attention to a proposed mega-quarry that is threatening to gobble up the land surrounding the small farm that hosted Foodstock. Participants were there to try to convince governing officials to reject this landscape-altering proposal and to bring public attention to the issue in the hopes that pressure from citizens would help their cause.
The mega-quarry that has been planned would cover 2400 acres and be over 200 feet deep with the potential to grow to over 8,000 acres in time. Since the quarry will be well below the water table, pumps will be employed to remove over 600 million liters of water a day from the hole.
The purpose of the mine is to get at the aggregates (mainly limestone) just below the surface in order to use the material to build roads and bridges.
The company that would be profiting from this, the Highland Company, is owned by a Boston Hedge fund and started buying up the farmland years ago with the stated intention of continuing to farm potatoes.
Some farmers became concerned and refused to sell and their suspicions proved to be well founded when the Highland Company suddenly made their real intentions known after acquiring enough land.
Opponents of the project point out that if Highland is allowed to go ahead, this mine would become the second largest quarry in North America and would directly threaten the drinking water of over one million people in the surrounding area.
In addition, several rivers including the Mad, Nottawasga and Grand River are part of the eco-shed that would be drained and blasted, likely disrupting the flow of these important bodies of water and threatening their biodiversity.
They point out that the farmland itself is some of the best in Ontario, if not the world and once gone, it could never be recovered.
The group opposed to the quarry is diverse and includes farmers, realtors, environmentalists, politicians and service providers to name a few.
Many have never found themselves on the same side of an issue until the massive impact of the proposed quarry united a community and started conversations about food security that are long past due.
Hopefully, this group will win out over the desire for short-term profits and they will succeed in stopping this insane proposal.
With the world’s population passing seven billion people this month this kind of valuable farmland will be critical for our future survival.
It must be protected.
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