Food and Water First
Food Water First"Food and Water First" Comes to Mulmur
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- Published on Friday, 05 April 2013 15:32
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The North Dufferin Agricultural Task Force is rolling out its next phase of advocacy following its successful, if precarious, defeat of the mega quarry proposal in Melancthon. On Wednesday, spokesperson Shirley Boxem brought NDACT’s new “Food and Water First” message to Mulmur Council, hoping that the municipality will lend its support to the new campaign once it gets fully underway.
“The main goal of Food and Water First is to ensure that farmers across Ontario are never again in the position of having to defend their precious land and water against inappropriate development,” said Boxem.
The new campaign, she said, would “augment and expand” the successful communications framework that NDACT built during the Stop the Mega Quarry fight.
A new website, foodandwaterfirst.com, will go live in mid-April, and businesses, organizations and municipal governments will be encouraged to put a “Food and Water First” button on their own websites, linking them to the new NDACT site. In doing so, they will also be asked to sign a pledge. In a municipality’s case, Boxem said this would let developers know in advance that “this is a community that has planning in place,” that weighs the benefits of all development versus its potential impact on prime farmland and source water.
Boxem said the campaign would also utilize social media, which played a key role in growing the movement during the quarry fight, and involve a “spring planting” of Food and Water First signs across the province in May.
Mayor Paul Mills followed Boxem’s presentation by asserting Mulmur’s continuing support for NDACT’s work, and said Council would debate the inclusion of the button on the Township’s website when the time came.
By Brad Holden
Published in "The Creemore Echo", Apr. 4, 2103
Time to Unite for Food and Water First
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- Published on Monday, 01 April 2013 23:15
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Dear editor,
The community of Melancthon are first in Ontario to declare its support for Food and Water First in light of the support they recently received from thousands of people province-wide and elsewhere who supported them in their fight against Highland Companies proposed mega-quarry.
The mayor and council have allowed the Food and Water logo to be placed on their website and a sign on township property to celebrate this victory and take a stand for future encounters.
While Highland still owns the property, this will be sending them a strong message that we are aware of the issue and their possibly restarting their fight to harvest the limestone at a later date suggesting we will fall asleep at the wheel and not fight back to save our farmland and the water under its soil.
It would be a bonus for all who support this cause, and our farmland, if the Town of Orangeville and other surrounding townships would give their support by also declaring their support for Food and Water First .... not quietly, but actively.
By Ron Lehman, Orangeville
Published in the "Orangeville Banner", Editorial Section, April 1, 2013
We’re using up farmland at rapid rate
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- Published on Thursday, 28 March 2013 17:18
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At Saturday’s AWARE meeting in Bradford, Carl Cosack of the North Dufferin Agricultural Task Force said, “We’re using up land, land, land, in a way that is not recoverable and we will pay a price. We’re living way beyond our means... this (farmland) is fundamental to life itself.”
His comments dovetail with AWARE Simcoe’s Vision for Simcoe County that calls for evaluating growth to determine if the results of projected growth will be positive or negative or whether it is sustainable in the long run.
In other words, will we have enough food and water to take care of the projected population?
Kudos to the province for its new local food efforts, but food requires farmland. Despite supposed provincial regulations, we are using up farmland at an alarming rate.
Most of Bradford, for example, is built on arable farmland. It comes down to this: How much water can we take out of Lake Simcoe? How much processed sewage can we dump into a lake that turns over at an incredibly slow rate?
How many acres do we need to feed our growing population? At one time, it seemed water and farmland were endless, but we know now that it isn’t. Unending growth is not sustainable in the long run.
Most lost civilizations died out because they outgrew their resources.
I think it is best summed up in a proverb that has been attributed to various First Nations people, including the Cree: When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.
By Meade Helman, Bond Head
Posted in the Opinion Section of simcoe.com Mar. 28, 2013
Agricultural prosperity key to county future
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- Published on Thursday, 28 March 2013 17:13
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Residents meet to discuss sustainable growth
Photo : Susie Kockerscheidt
AWARE Simcoe met Saturday at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Bradford to discuss the group’s vision of creating a healthier community. Laura Bowman, adresses the panel and guest speaker Carl Cosack, NDACT chairperson
An environmental watchdog group has a vision for Simcoe County’, including agricultural prosperity, local employment improvements and a healthy environment.
And the group wants business, political and residential support to ensure a sustainable future through Simcoe County.
The AWARE Simcoe group shared its vision for a sustainable future March 23 at St. John’s Presbyterian Church where residents were able to learn more about projected development, population growth and planning within the county, Barrie and Orillia and how AWARE aims to alter the planning process.
As stated by the draft of the group’s vision, planning and development changes do not evaluate if growth will be beneficial or harmful county residents. The draft outlines all seven of the goals, which include: a healthy environment, agricultural prosperity, development that is a net benefit to the community, bringing employment home, reliable sustainable energy, awareness of the need for sustainability and healthy lifestyles.
The main purpose of the vision is to implement a series of steps, aimed at achieving the goals and objectives and that they should be discussed and agreed upon by the community itself.
Guest speaker Carl Cosack, chairperson of North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Task Force (NDACT), began his presentation by giving an overview of the Food and Water First initiative in relation to an ongoing battle of a Mega Quarry in Melancthon Township just west of Bradford.
In 2006, the Highland Companies purchased 8,000 acres of farmland in the township, claiming it wished to be the largest potato producer in Ontario.
“In 2011, we found out quite differently. The company sent in 3,100 pages to the Ministry of Natural Resources to initiate one of the largest quarries in Canada — the Mega Quarry,” said Mr. Cosack.
In Sept. 2011, the province ordered an environmental assessment for the application, halting further changes. In October of that same year, an event known as “Foodstock” was held by farm owners who did not sell land to Highlands. About 28,000 people attended, capping it as one of the biggest protests ever held in Ontario. Letters from within the community also began pouring in and, by November 2012, the application had been withdrawn.
Mr. Cosack congratulated AWARE Simcoe for its individual efforts within the county, as “solving things within their reach.” He also extended his discussion into the importance of making sure the surrounding communities are aware of how critical agriculture is to Ontario.
“We need to keep highlighting what matters most. We will have leverage by being together on some of these issues, but what we ask to government has to be simple,” he said.
For the draft to become more recognized, AWARE Simcoe, along with organizations such as NDACT, are asking for businesses to show their support and become involved in the process by giving feedback and input on the matter.
Both groups will also aim to involve local politicians throughout the process to gain support and understanding of why the vision is so important to Simcoe County and surrounding areas.
By Bea Bartholet
Posted in simcoe.com Mar. 28, 2013
Growth plan rankles environmental action group
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- Published on Tuesday, 26 March 2013 20:20
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Are residents of Simcoe County too enamoured with growth and too easily persuaded that growth and development are necessary for economic prosperity?
AWARE Simcoe, a local environmental awareness action group, believes so, and it has released its own Vision for Simcoe County as a response to the province’s growth plan for the Simcoe County region.
The group held a public meeting Saturday at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Bradford to present some of its alternatives to growth and host a panel discussion of the challenges facing the area.
AWARE Simcoe’s motto is Elect to Protect, encouraging citizens to look at the environmental records of local politicians and speak with their votes.
Speaker Bernard Pope, of Ontario Farmland Preservation, called for greater public involvement in the planning process to offset the amendments “developed through lobbyists, speculators and developers” that have “weakened” the province’s Places to Grow policies.
“The loss of a farmer is the loss of character, experience and knowledge of the production of food. The loss of farmland is forever,” he said.
“Politicians and planners need to understand the impact of the decisions that cost farmland. Agriculture is the No. 1 value-added sector in the province,” he added. “Agriculture has a commanding financial footprint in the province.”
Pope called for long-term policies that would ensure the security of agriculture in Ontario’s future.
“The farmer always sells the farm, eventually,” he acknowledged, but development pressures mean that all too often, the death of the farmer leads to “the death of the soil” and prime agricultural land being lost to urban sprawl.
Pope called for more education for rural and urban Ontarians about the importance of a “symbiotic relationship with food production.”
Among the speakers was Carl Cosack, of the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Task Force, established to fight the 2,300-acre mega-quarry proposal of The Highland Companies, in Melancthon Township.
The mega-quarry has been stopped — the proponents have abandoned their bid — but Cosack’s new focus is a provincewide awareness campaign, Food and Water First, that seeks to place protection of agricultural land and clean drinking water ahead of development interests.
All of the speakers said agriculture is the key to Ontario’s economic prosperity.
Bill French, a Collingwood resident, urged environmental groups to “win the hearts and minds of people” and put pressure on municipal politicians. Asked how residents can have an impact on decisions at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) when development issues come up, he suggested winning the support of the local municipal government is key.
But Cosack suggested by the time an issue ends up at the OMB, it may be too late.
“You end up in front of the OMB because there’s issues about planning,” Cosack said. “Get engaged with your official plan today,” he urged, to ensure it contains protection for agriculture and the environment.
The Highland Companies chose Melancthon Township for a mega-quarry because “it had the smallest population with the least amount of regulation and governance for resource extraction,” he said, adding the company did its research. Melancthon is now changing its official plan.
“Change is happening everywhere. It just has to be change in the right way.”
For more information, or to see AWARE Simcoe’s Vision for Simcoe County, visit aware-simcoe.ca
By Miriam King
Published in the Midland Free Press, Mar. 25, 2103