Food & Water FirstLand Over Landings
As we head into the fall, we reflect on a tremendous summer in the Food & Water First campaign and make plans for what lies ahead! Over the past few months, much has been accomplished and there were sweet surprises along the way. Bonnefield Financial purchased all 6,500-acres of Class 1 farmland owned by the Highland Companies. This ended a hard-fought battle to save the rare agricultural soil and an aquifer from the Mega Quarry. The land will be leased to local farmers.
Food & Water First also signed up new Partners, including the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Toronto Food Policy Council, Toronto Youth Food Policy Council, Ontario Farmland Trust, Burlington Green and many more!
We also connected with Land Over Landings, the citizens’ group that’s been campaigning for 40 years to protect 18,600-acres of Class 1 farmland in the Pickering area. The federal government wants to build a controversial airport on a chunk of that farmland, but Land Over Landings maintains it should be growing food instead. We agree. It’s one of the reasons Bill Lishman flew his ultralight from the Pickering area to Melancthon for Celebrate Food & Water First on August 18th. His flight symbolically linked the former Mega Quarry lands to the Pickering Lands, bringing attention to the latest effort to protect the land that feeds us!
The Globe and Mail featured a great article “The 40-year Argument: A Pickering airport or farmland?” on Saturday, August 31st.
We will be active in the Land Over Landings campaign. Stay tuned for further events!
