Food & Water First - The Legacy of the Mega Quarry Fight

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Published on Monday, 08 April 2013 02:34

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Published in Local Magazine, Green 2013 Edition

Click here to view online edition.

Our piece de resistance for this year’s Green issue is Donna Tranquada’s article about Food & Water First. First of all, we were thrilled to have a talented journalist like Donna writing for Local and to have her words accompanied by the brilliant photographs taken by local photographer Natalia Shields created one of the prettier layouts we’ve run. As important as the talent is the movement itself. Food & Water First is the follow up campaign to the Stop the Mega Quarry movement that led to Soupstock in the Fall and a win on the part of the movement. While the mega quarry application was withdrawn however, everyone who got a glimpse of what could be lost is keen to ensure that this significant and arguably sacred land is saved for the long-term. Enter Food & Water First. Read the article for all the details and then get your lawn sign at the Grinder cafe and probably other locations TBD. We’ll try to keep you in the loop in our May issue.

Click here to read Donna's article with photos. (1008.8 KB)

Food & Water First

The Legacy of the Mega Quarry Fight

STORY: Donna Tranquada – a volunteer in the movement to stop the mega quarry.

PHOTOS: Natalia Shields

Ralph and Mary Lynne Armstrong stood on a small hill at Woodbine Park last October and were amazed by what they saw. On that brilliant Sunday afternoon, tens of thousands of people carrying bowls and spoons cheerfully lined-up for soup as musicians played on the outdoor stage. The throngs had gathered at the park for Soupstock, a culinary protest against a proposed mega quarry on prime farmland 90 minutes northwest of Toronto. “Seeing all those people, with the Toronto skyline behind them, was overwhelming,” says Ralph Armstrong.

Earlier that morning, before boarding a bus for the city, Ralph and his wife, Mary Lynne, rose at 5:30 to carry out chores on their farm in Melancthon Township, Dufferin County. Their land has been in the Armstrong family since the 1850s and they helped lead the campaign to prevent the proposed Highland mega quarry from destroying the rare farmland adjacent to their property. “My heart was so thankful that people understood the mega quarry had to be stopped,” says Mary Lynne Armstrong. “The sight of that huge crowd brought tears to my eyes.”

For the Armstrongs and other farmers who made the trip to Toronto that day, Soupstock was a testament to the newly-formed bond between urban residents and the farming communities that border the Greater Toronto Area. The fight to stop the mega quarry launched an unexpected grassroots movement that grew in the vast fields of Melancthon and spread quickly to downtown neighbourhoods. City residents who had only seen potatoes and other veggies in the supermarket joined forces with 5th-generation farmers for a common cause.

It was an unlikely alliance that was forged not long after the Highland Companies, a numbered company backed by the $25-billion Baupost Group hedge fund in Boston, started buying potato farms in Melancthon in 2006. Highland purchased 3,240 hectares (8,000-acres) of prime agricultural soil known as Honeywood loam, and originally stated it wanted to become the largest potato producer in Ontario. But in March 2011, Highland filed an application with the province to excavate the largest quarry in Canada on the best farmland in Ontario and at the headwaters of five river systems. It was to sprawl 930 hectares (2,300-acres) and plunge 61-metres (200–feet) below the water table. Word spread about the potential impact of the limestone quarry on prime agricultural soil, water and the environment. In the spring of 2011, the $10 red-and-white Stop the Mega Quarry lawn signs that were popular throughout the countryside soon sprouted in Toronto front yards.

Residents in the Beach raised concerns about the mega quarry with their MP Matthew Kellway (Beaches-East York.) He travelled to Melancthon in the winter of 2012 and toured the area with rancher Carl Cosack, the chair of the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce (NDACT), the citizens’ group fighting the mega quarry. “The loss of water resources and local food sources struck me as a tragedy,” recalls Kellway.

Kellway then organized a ‘field trip’ for constituents and fellow New Democrat MPs Craig Scott, Peggy Nash and NDP MPP Jonah Schein last summer. About 50 people spent the day aboard a yellow school bus exploring Melancthon’s fields, forests and rivers. The farmland sits on a 6,070-hectare (15,000-acre) plateau at the highest point of land in Southern Ontario known as the Hills of Headwaters. The region provides an estimated 50 percent of the potatoes consumed in the GTA. “Part of the magic is the sheer productive capacity of the land.” says Kellway, who filled his water bottle at a fresh spring gushing from a hillside. “Everywhere things were growing and water was running.”

The visit also gave city residents an opportunity to walk the potato and vegetable fields, and chat with local farmers, including the Armstrongs. “We discovered the mega quarry was our fight, too,” says Kellway. “I hope they discovered that in us, their city cousins, they have friends.”

A few months later, the Beach community hosted Soupstock bringing country and city residents together for the second year in a row. Soupstock was the sequel to Foodstock, which was organized by the Chefs’ Congress of Canada along with NDACT, and held in the fall of 2011 on a large potato farm in Melancthon. An estimated 28,000 people – ten times the population of the township – gathered in the muddy fields and forest on the property, dining on local food prepared by 100 chefs while musicians Jim Cuddy, Ron Sexsmith, Sarah Harmer and others performed on a small stage. Then, last October, the Chefs’ Congress partnered with the David Suzuki Foundation to bring Soupstock to Toronto. “We wanted to have an event that would educate and connect urban dwellers to important issues like maintaining local food security in an engaging way,” says Dr. Faisal Moola of the David Suzuki Foundation. An estimated 40,000 people enjoyed 200 kinds of soup served by 200 chefs in the autumn sunshine. The fight to stop the mega quarry was now heating up in Canada’s largest city.

Exactly one month after Soupstock, on November 21st, 2012, the Highland Companies suddenly announced it was withdrawing its mega quarry application, saying it “does not have significant support from the community and the government.” Highland announced it would focus on growing potatoes, just as it pledged seven years ago. But is the company truly “Committed to farming for the future” as its Melancthon billboard states or will it re-apply for a quarry one day? Opponents to the mega quarry remain suspicious and are pressing ahead with an ambitious plan.

From the beginning, those fighting Highland believed stopping the project was just one goal in a wider campaign to change provincial land-use policies. In September 2011, the grassroots movement convinced the Liberal government to order a review of the Aggregate Resources Act, arguing the legislation was flawed and outdated. Prime farmland (Classes 1, 2 & 3) is not exempt from aggregate operations, so under the ARA, aggregate trumps agriculture. Rock takes precedent over food.

Last spring, the Standing Committee on General Government held hearings into the ARA. Representatives from agricultural groups argued that the rarest agricultural soil in the country and vital water resources should be protected. Similar suggestions were made in the review of the Provincial Policy Statement that guides governments on land-use planning. The message to Queen’s Park was clear: Food and Water First.

Canada is the second-largest country in the world yet a mere .5 percent of our land mass is comprised of Class 1 farmland, the best soil for food production. More than half of Canada’s Class 1 farmland is in southern Ontario. (96 percent of the farmland Highland wanted to destroy for the mega quarry is Class 1 soil.) According to the Ontario Farmland Trust, the province’s farmland is the single most important agricultural resource in the country. Ontario’s agri-food sector is the largest in Canada, pouring $33-billion a year into the provincial economy and employing nearly 700-thousand people. Yet, according to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, we are losing farmland at an annual rate of 51,000 hectares (127,000 acres) to non-farm development such as urban sprawl and aggregate operations.

As for water, Ontario has one-quarter of a million lakes, rivers and streams; fresh groundwater runs beneath its surface. Yet many quarries are allowed to excavate below the water table and often turn into lakes once the aggregate is extracted. The proposed Highland mega quarry would have required the pumping of 600-million-litres of groundwater a day in perpetuity in order to keep the mine from flooding. If the application had been approved, this staggering amount of water flowing into five river systems would have been at risk forever.

A Food and Water First policy for Ontario would ensure the best agricultural soils and water resources would take priority in all land-use planning. It’s a move Kellway supports. “With 100,00 new people coming to Toronto every year, it only takes a moment’s hesitation to lose what could provide us with sustenance forever,” he warns. “Such a policy would ensure our governments keep their focus on sustainable urban development and the protection of vital sources of our survival.”

During the month of May, farmers and city residents will participate in a unique “spring planting.” Food and Water First lawn signs will pop up in farmers’ fields and Toronto front yards as rural and urban residents push for land-use policy changes. “There are people in the world who don’t have food and water,” says Mary Lynne Armstrong. “We in Ontario and Canada must stop destroying our own foodland and water resources.”

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