Food security experts speak out against proposed MegaQuarry

July 14, 2011, Toronto, ON -------- Leaders of three organizations

specializing in food safety, sustainability and sovereigntyFood Secure Canada, Sustain Ontario and the Toronto Food Policy Council have come together to voice their opposition to a proposed 2,300plus acre mega quarry. The quarry is slated for prime farm country in Melancthon, 100 kilometers north of Toronto. This marks the first time that food security advocates have worked together with rural residents and farmers to oppose a development issue. Each of the three groups has a slightly different reason for opposing it. Food Secure Canada is most concerned with long-term food security for Canadians. As a national organization, part of our job is to defend and enhance Canada's food sovereignty, says Cathleen Kneen, Chair of the organizations steering committee. Long-term food security is only possible if we have the capacity to produce the basics for sustenance in our own country, she continues. The supply of fertile land where there is a decent climate for growing food in Canada is very limited. We strongly support the local residents in protecting against 'land grabs' by foreign venture financiers and hedge funds. The quarry proposal was put forward by The Highland Companies, a Canadian corporation backed by Boston-based hedge fund the Baupost Group. The quarry would plunge 200 feet below the water table on land now covered in what is known as Honeywood loam, a specialty vegetable soil, and currently supplying approximately 50% of the Toronto market for potatoes, both for direct consumption and food processing needs. There is no question that we need to protect our food production capacity, agrees Lauren Baker, Coordinator of the Toronto Food Policy Council for the City of Toronto Public Health Department. Especially in southern Ontario where development pressures are high. The link between a healthy countryside and a healthy city is

incontrovertible, she continues. Obliterating rich farmland to access aggregatewhile disrupting a vital groundwater recharge area, no lessis a direct contradiction between local food demand and our ability to provide it. Ravenna Nuaimy-Barker, Director of Sustain Ontario, the Alliance for Healthy Food and Farming, agrees. But in addition to the food security and health issues raised by her colleagues, she also acknowledges the disastrous social and long-term economic impacts on local communities. The proposed quarry is a short-term initiative, she says, that will destroy the fabric of the community and impact food access in Ontario for centuries if not forever. No more farming, no more community, no more food.
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