Celebrating one victory and setting sights on another

This Sunday’s annual NDACT party at the Honeywood Arena is sure to have a celebratory tone, given the recent blockbuster news that the Highland Companies had sold the Melancthon land formerly slated for a mega quarry development to an investment company that specializes in leasing farmland to farmers.

But NDACT (the North Dufferin Agricultural Task Force, originally set up to counter the mega quarry threat) has spent most of this year morphing into a different organization altogether, and Sunday’s party, while sure to feature some pats on the back about the former issue, will also be a call to action on a new one – the need to protect prime farmland and water resources right across this province, so that we can continue to put food on our tables.

“Canadians really have a false sense of security when it comes to how much good land we have in this country,” said Shirley Boxem, one of the organizer’s of Sunday’s event. “That’s one of the main things that came out of the mega quarry situation. We think we have all this land to the north of us, but it’s all rock. There’s only so much good soil, and you can’t just make more of it.”

To that end, Food & Water First, the new campaign that’s grown out of NDACT’s initial mandate, is seeking to have Class 1, 2 and 3 farmland and important sourcewater regions protected from aggregate development in both the Aggregate Resources Act and the Provincial Policy Statement. To do this, they’re building a broad coalition of businesses, organizations, municipal governments and individuals, all signing a “Food & Water First” pledge and promising to make their opinion heard.

Getting involved is as easy as visiting foodandwaterfirst.com and signing the pledge there. “It’s really picking up steam,” said Boxem of the campaign. “In a sense, we feel that everyone’s already signed on, they just don’t know it yet. If you like to eat fresh and local food, if you like to see your farmers supported, then you’re on board.”

Another way to show your support, of course, will be to attend the Food and Water First party this Sunday, August 18, taking place from 11 am to 3 pm. Admission is $5, with kids under 5 attending for free.

The Honeywood Arena will be transformed into a massive farmers’ market, with all kinds of local produce and goods for sale. Several chefs will be in attendance, providing local morsels for $2 a pop.

The Artists Against the Mega Quarry, a group that staged several important “paint-ins” during the mega quarry battle, will be set up on the Second Line south of Honeywood. Guests of the Food & Water First event will be able to take wagon rides to the site, watch the artists at work, and enjoy a vista to the west that encompasses much of the land that would have been transformed forever had the Highland Companies plans been approved.

Besides some quality live music entertainment by Big Whiskey and Harlan Pepper, there will also be speeches by NDACT chair Carl Cosack and radio personality Dale Goldhawk.

And should the weather cooperate, the event will see a special visit from “Father Goose” Bill Lishman, who 20 years ago led a flock of Canada Geese on a migration route to the United States using his ultralight plane, an adventure that inspired the movie Fly Away Home. Lishman will speak in the Honeywood arena at noon and then conduct a flypast over the Hills of Headwaters to show his support for Food & Water First, and to symbolically link the Class 1 farmland in Dufferin County to the Class 1 farmland in his hometown of Pickering that’s slated for a new airport.

“The most precious thing we have is the land that sustains us,” says Lishman of his participation in the event. “To permanently destroy prime growing land, for whatever cause, is tantamount to theft from our offspring.”

Those who attend Sunday’s event are asked to bring their own plate, fork and cup. The event will be bottled-water-free, with a “Quench Buggy” on site.