FOODSTOCK wins big at tourism awards

November 17^th, 2011

Honeywood, ON – One month after 28,000 people gathered for FOODSTOCK, the event has won two top tourism awards in the Hills of Headwaters. The festival, which celebrated the bounty of farmland at risk of a proposed mega quarry, was honoured at the Taste of Tourism Awards last night. FOODSTOCK was awarded Best Agri-Tourism Experience and Best Culinary Tourism Experience in the Hills of Headwaters for 2011.

On that blustery Sunday in October, 100 chefs from Nunavut to Saskatchewan descended on a small farming community north of Shelburne, ON to help put a stop to a proposed mega quarry project that would potentially devastate thousands of acres of high yield, Class 1 farmland.  Using local ingredients, they cooked for the thousands who participated in one of the largest protests in Canadian history.

In a year of record nominations for tourism awards, FOODSTOCK walked away with top honours. “FOODSTOCK fits right in with our organization’s values,” affirms Michele Harris, Executive Director for The Hills of Headwaters Tourism Association. “Respect for our natural landscapes, our rural heritage and our sense of community.”

Carl Cosack, the Stetson-wearing owner of PeaceValley Ranch and Chairman of NDACT, attended the awards ceremony last night at the Dufferin County Museum. "On behalf of Michael Stadtländerand the Canadian Chefs’ Congress, I'd like to thank the hundreds of volunteers who made FOODSTOCKan epic event,” says Cosack. “It was an outstanding experience for all of us involved."

Stadtländer—a celebrated chef whose nearby Eigensinn Farm and Haisai Restaurant have become internationally-recognized gourmet destinations—headed up the event together with the Canadian Chefs’Congress, a national organization that kicked into high gear to help preserve valuable farmland.   

Hundreds of people like Stadtländer and Cosack helped with FOODSTOCK. The Canadian Chefs’ Congress organized, financed and produced the event, aided by local farming families who donated food and volunteers who came from as far away as Toronto to contribute time and resources to make the event possible.

The mega quarry proposal was put forward last spring by The Highland Companies, a Canadian corporation created by a Boston hedge fund, the BaupostGroup.

The proposed quarry would:

·         Be Canada’s largest open pit quarry at 2,316 acres

·         Require extraction of at least 600 million litres of water per day FOREVER, affecting the watersheds of southern Ontario rivers

·         Impact thousands of acres of Class 1 farmland made up of Honeywood Silt Loam—a specialty soil now producing many kinds of vegetables in addition to approximately 50% of the potatoes consumed in the GTA.

For specific media inquiries, please contact: Carl Michener, Outwrite Communications 416 476 7484.