Greenbelt Collective

Cogeco TV Interview, A big THANK YOU to Stephen Parr!

2010-04-04T19:13:00.001-07:00

2010-01-13T08:43:00.000-08:00

MICHELLE TEITSMA

Artist Statement

My paintings are the culmination of an ongoing study of Greenbelt legislation imposed on farmers, including grape and tender fruit growers. Going into this project I had intended to depict the many benefits of the Greenbelt legislation. However, after interviewing people who are closely affected by this law I have discovered that there is more to the Greenbelt act than I had anticipated.

Orest and the ruined grapes

oil on canvas
16x20in, 200

Since all of the canneries have closed or moved, the mainstay of income from farming has drastically shifted and many have been forced to sell. Growers who tried to keep farming their land- who have been doing so for generations- cannot exist solely on selling to farmers' markets. The major markets buy imported foods that are less expensive because of cheap labour overseas and warmer climates that allow for three or four harvests. That is why we can purchase food from China so easily as opposed to finding Ontario produce in our local grocery stores.

However many of the countries that we import our foods from, like Argentina, do not have strict regulations for pesticides. We do, and rightly so, but this is at the expense of the farmer. In years past when there was an industry for Ontario farmers to sell in this country, when the canneries were in business, the farmers had to deal with the usual problems such as weather, disease and pests. But they had options in order to get them through.

One of the most devastating impacts of the Greenbelt law is that a farmer is no longer able to sever land.' Pre'- Greenbelt, if a grower had any agricultural problems that would set them back a year or more, they had the option of severing some of their land to sell in order to offset this loss. They would still be able to function as a farm and 'weather the storm'. Under Greenbelt restrictions they cannot do this.

There is also the issue of trying to sell their farms- to forfeit all that they have worked for and all that they intended to pass onto their children. Land ‘protected’ under Greenbelt legislation is more challenging to sell as it puts constraints on what it’s owner can and can not do with it.

In the end, will we end up with abandoned farms and land that is fallow? There are a lot of positive sides to the Greenbelt Legislation but what is the cost to our agricultural sector? To our small family farms? To us? Do we want to eat more imported foods? Growing food locally could be more challenging in these uncertain times, especially with weather patterns changing or if countries stop importing our food supply- will we have options?

My works featured in this exhibition are portraits of the people. They are our farmers. Our grape and tender fruit growers. These are faces of families who have worked so very hard to do what they love and to make a living. I hope my paintings convey pride in these stewards of our land and I am thankful to those who have laboured to sustain it.

Gerry

oil on canvas

16x20in, 2009

Paintings for this exhibition will consist of approximately ten to twenty portraits rendered in oil on canvas sizes ranging from 16x20in to 30x40in. My intention is to portray the intimacy between the viewer and the subject of the portrait, inviting one to respond to the faces of the men and women who work our land.

2010-01-12T21:56:00.000-08:00

JAN YATES, SCA

Artist Statement

February, Greenbelt Disaster

oil on canvas

36x48in, 2010

Like the majority of Ontario residents, I was pleased with the Greenbelt Legislation when it came into effect. It was implemented to protect our natural resources and to control urban sprawl. I was all for it but like most of Ontario’s population I wasn’t aware of its impact on our agricultural industry. I live on escarpment land protected by the Greenbelt policy. Although I don’t farm, my neighbours do, and they enlightened me as to the constraints of this legislation and how it has impacted their way of life and livelihood.

It is this response that compelled me to create one series of paintings that will connect to another body of work for this exhibition.

November, Greenbelt Disaster

Niagara Escarpment

oil on canvas

10x30 in, 2009

The ‘Greenbelt Disaster’ series transpired after I caught sight of a hand painted sign of the same name propped up on the back of a tractor. The tractor was parked on the service road near Niagara’s QEW for all to see and behind it was a smouldering vineyard. It was a protest from local growers, whose vineyards and orchards were destroyed or left to go fallow because they could no longer afford to farm them. Since, I have visited and interviewed some of these growers and organizations and this series of paintings is a culmination of that investigation.

November, Greenbelt Disaster

Niagara Escarpment

oil on canvas

16x20 in, 2009

The second body of work, titled ‘Protection’ looks into maintaining ecological integrity within conflicting laws concerning public use of Greenbelt spaces. On one hand, organizations including Friends of the Greenbelt and AGCare, campaign for outdoor public activities for all Ontario residents to enjoy such as 'canoeing and kayaking, hiking, camping, bird watching, biking, trail riding, photography, dog walking, skiing, running and walking.' On the other hand, a policy decision aimed to enhance agricultural land protection and enforce provincial parks as public spaces is now at risk. The same government that created the Greenbelt land protection for the public to enjoy proposes to extend private and commercial land leases. This will undermine park protection, and extend unlimited private and privileged access to ecologically sensitive provincial parks to only a few individuals at the exclusion of all other Ontario residents. Such is the Greenbelt Dichotomy.

March, Greenbelt Disaster

Niagara Escarpment

oil on panel

6x8in, 2010

Images for the ‘Greenbelt Disaster’ series are primarily rendered in oil and painted on location. For me ‘growing’ a painting this way cultivates a connection to the farmer’s reliance on Mother Nature . Approximately twenty paintings executed since Greenbelt legislation came into effect will be exhibited. Sizes of these plein air works range from 8x10in to 36x48in.

July

Niagara Escarpment

oil on canvas

24x48n, 2009

Also included in this body of work will be an almanac quilt comprised of small paintings and my intent is to continue to add to this quilt as our exploration grows. Approximate size by exhibition date is four feet by six feet.

The ‘Protection’ series will comprise of encaustic ‘field boxes’; where migratory birds and their habitat are the primary focus. These boxes are 6x10 inches and I am hoping to complete a series of at least ten by exhibition deadline.

Klee Wyk

encaustic on box

8x16in, 2009

November

Niagara Escarpment

oil on canvas

6x6in, 2009

As well, three larger paintings, approximately 36x70in, rendered in oil and mixed media, examine the imminent threat to wildlife if current government carries through on a policy to extend private and commercial land leases.

***

For the past decade in all seasons and cycles I have been compelled to create work directly from the rural land where I live on the Niagara Escarpment (an UNESCO world biosphere reserve). These paintings are grown primarily with oil on canvas and I am struck by the common elements between my own art practice and the seasons and cycle of harvest. Each must have faith in what the land will give. When I am out painting in the land I am surrounded by new growth as well as the old and dying. All have grown from the same place and all go back to the same place: "each seed according to its own kind.. each one knowing what to do, each one demanding its own rights on the earth..." - Emily Carr.

The experience of painting directly from the land is immediate and intuitive and it is affected on a daily basis by what cannot be controlled- climate. Through direct painting from nature I am cultivating a deeper understanding of the environmental factors that determine our world's future. What I also find enlightening in painting on open land is that I am in the midst of so very many creatures ‘unseen' -their continued presence entirely dependent on the land's eco system. Protection and the importance of maintaining ecological integrity concerning protected land informs my work. Beyond this, however, there is an internal force that exceeds even artistic sensibilities when I am in the land, painting. To quote Emily Carr: ‘There are no words, no paints to express all this, only a beautiful dumbness in the soul, life speaking to life.'

June
Niagara Escarpment
oil on canvas
24x40in, 2007

2010-01-06T07:53:00.000-08:00

Farmers Fleeing Ontario's Greenbelt

LETTER FROM THE HILDENBRANTS

With interest we read your article. Our family is a 4th generation farm operation.

We are located on Reg 81 - the "wine" route, just east of Jordan. Our houses sit on the escarpment overlooking our 42 acre farm. With heartache we are watching the demise of our farm. We do not want to go out of business, because we love what we are doing, however we lost our sales when Cadbury closed several years ago. Yes, we had only labrusca grapes, and now the only market available for us is New York. The Grape Growers marketing board encouraged us several years ago to replant with vinifera grapes, but we chose not to. We would have been in debt, with also no sale for the wine grapes.

So over the last 2 years we have been removing our vineyards in order to be eligible for the measily 1600.00 an acre pull out program. So what do we look at out our front window? About 21 acres of grapes still in the ground, surrounded by open land covered with weeds. Our farm was our pride and joy and something for our children to take over, however they are both working elsewhere, and we have been forced to put our farm up for sale along with many of our neighboors. Now we wait for all those vultures out there hoping to pick up a deal on a farm going cheap!

Yes, our farm was meant to eventually allow us to retire comfortably, however after working as a full time farmer since he has been 16, now my husband at the age of 59 will have to join the work force- and there are no jobs in this area that will support us year round.

Come and sit on our hill top and take in the view- it will make you ask yourself what good the greenbelt has done for this family!

Eileen Hildenbrandt

Jessica Leeder | Toronto | December 23

Globe & Mail - One of the most unfriendly places for animal farmers in Ontario is the region designed to be one of the best: the 2-million acre swath of protected land that makes up the province's Greenbelt.
Ontario's Greenbelt is the largest protected area of its kind in the world. But animal agriculture is disappearing from the area so rapidly that it is having a negative impact on the local food system, according to University of Guelph researchers who are charting the exodus of livestock farmers from the area.
The culprits, researchers say, are a tag-team duo: encroaching urbanites repulsed by the less romantic aspects of animal farming and environmentalists who are winning a policy battle over whether to “pickle-jar” protected land or farm it.
Greenbelts all over the world have become sites of struggle between conservationists and agriculturalists. But the imbalance the tension has created in Ontario will only get worse without a new, pro-farm greenbelt policy, said lead researcher Harry Cummings.
“We need to make it [the greenbelt] farmer friendly. It can't just be a place that urban residents look on to go for a walk in the countryside or farmers are going to continue to abandon agriculture in the Greenbelt,” he said. “We're going to have to deal with this ... or it [workable land] will be gone.”
The move away from the Greenbelt by farmers increases transport distance to market. It could also result in relocating to land that isn't as good for farming as the Greenbelt.
The University of Guelph research, sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and based on agricultural census data collected by Statistics Canada in 2001 and 2006, shows declines in several areas of mainstream livestock farming that are steeper than the provincial averages for the same time period.
The number of hog farms in the Greenbelt decreased by 27 per cent in the Greenbelt versus 11 per cent province-wide; Greenbelt beef farms decreased 24 per cent versus 13 per cent across Ontario while the number of Greenbelt dairy farms dropped 5 per cent more than the provincial average. Prof. Cummings said that while some of the reductions are due to farm consolidation or farmer retirement, interviews conducted with several groups of farmers showed a lack of public and policy support for animal production weigh heavily in farmers' decisions to pack up and move elsewhere.
“It's difficult to do agriculture adjacent to an area without public support,” Prof. Cummings said. “You can't take your tractors out on the road for fear of an accident. You can't spread manure on your field without a neighbour complaining. There's certainly been an attack on industrial agriculture ... If you're a young farmer, you're going to go somewhere else rather than stay close to Toronto unless we can find a policy framework to make it attractive for you to stay,” he said.
For many, discussion of such a policy has come too late.
Peter Lambrick, a Halton Region farmer and director with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture who also chairs the GTA Agricultural Action Committee, knows several farmers who have moved off the Greenbelt to be “amongst their own rather than being in this near-urban situation where you have ... total disregard for farmers,” he said.
“We are starting to feel that the government looks at the Greenbelt as being park-like and have forgotten that for those of us who have got to try to make a living here, increased regulation doesn't make that any easier.”
By “increased regulation” Mr. Lambrick is referring to environmental and heritage policies that are popular with local governments across the Greenbelt aiming to conserve natural environments by restricting certain land-use practises, such as building near on-farm wood lots.
To conserve trees on those lots, farmers would build sheds near them to avoid building on more fertile parts of their land.
But new Greenbelt rules that limit building in proximity to wood lots, Mr. Lambrick said, have placed restrictions on farmers' ability to decide how to apportion and even work their own high-value land, which in some parts has been deemed untouchable.
Those policies have created a dynamic some argue seems counter-intuitive to the objectives of the Greenbelt.
“If you put parcels of land into pickle jars, you're not really getting at the heart of the problem,” said Geoff Cape, the director of Evergreen, a national not-for-profit environmental group that promotes sustainability. “The heart of the problem is the way we, as humans, behave ... you only get that shift by interacting with the land.”
To make high-margin livestock farming viable for local farmers, Mr. Cape said Greenbelt advocates – and policy makers – may need to develop a comfort level around industrial farming on a scale large enough to allows farmers a sustainable living but small enough to avoid the “complete bastardization of the food system” that activists attribute to industrial farm operations.
“Finding a way to thread the needle on the urbanizing edges of our cities is enormously challenging,” said Will Rogers, President of the Trust for Public Land, a land conservation group that works with communities in the U.S. to implement Greenbelt programs.
“Food is incredibly important. We have to figure out a way to support our agriculture, but also how to support other uses of our spaces.”
From one perspective, heavy-handed agricultural policy is not one of them.
Burkhard Mausberg, president of the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, said the act that created the Greenbelt had “no ambitions” to support farmland in the way researchers are suggesting it ought. And the data the study is based on is outdated given the Greenbelt was not officially designated until 2005, meaning that in reality, the situation may not be as dire as it seems.
“I look at the future with some hope that the right pieces of policy are in place and that we have successful farming in the Greenbelt for years come,” he said, adding that farmers need to toughen their resolve against complaining urbanites. “If I were a farmer, I'd just fight back.”

2009-12-15T21:17:00.000-08:00

http://www.agcare.org/

Welcome to AGCare!

AGCare, Agricultural Groups Concerned About Resources and the Environment, is a coalition of farm organizations committed to communicating about agriculture and the environment. We are the voice of Ontario’s 45,000 farmers who grow fruit, vegetables, and field crops on environmental issues.

On our website we offer resources that we hope you find useful, as well as information about AGCare. For more information on agriculture and the environment, please visit www.caringfortheland.com.

For more information about the CleanFARMS Ontario program please click here.

Stop bashing those who grow our food
October 19, 2009

Note: This editorial appearned in the Owen Sound Sun Times on Monday October 19, 2009.

I've started noticing a bit of a trend in popular media -- the bashing of farmers, especially those who grow crops we all depend on.

These horrible people -- or so the theme goes -- are ruining the environment by producing large volumes of corn and soybeans and they're making us fat to boot.

There are two sides to every story and the farmer's voice is rarely heard or included in the barrage of popular media and consumer criticism about agriculture. So let me debunk a few of these myths.

Yes, farmers grow corn and soybeans -- and much of Ontario's crop is used to feed livestock, not people. But some is also exported, like Canadian food grade soybeans, for example, which are popular with Japanese consumers.

Yes, farmers use nutrients to help their crops grow, but so do consumers who apply fertilizer to their lawns, gardens and flower pots. Fertilizer is expensive and there aren't too many farmers who are eager to spend more money growing their crops than they absolutely have to - especially when there is no guarantee of what price you are going to receive for your crop at the end of the season, and you have no idea whether Mother Nature will cooperate with you or not.

That's why farmers use other techniques, such as crop rotation, in order to preserve the fertility of the soil. Crop rotation means that you are regularly switching which crops you grow on what fields so that you don't deplete the soil's nutrients. They also use livestock manure to fertilize their crops -- much the same as urban gardeners who stock up on bags of sheep manure at the garden centre every spring.

Here in Ontario, there are few who have done more to contribute to environmental improvements than farmers. Greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by the equivalent of taking 125,000 cars off the road through improved soil conservation measures.

Farmers have spent at least $600 million on envrionmental improvements and 300,000 days in environmental training. Over 70% of them have voluntariliy participated in the Environmental Farm Plan program and the use of crop protection products has decreased by over 50 percent in the last 20 years.

Crops like corn and soybeans are also increasingly being used to create new "bio-products", made from a plant-base instead of using petroleum-derived ingredients. This includes products like car parts, adhesives, lubricants, plastics and rubber, paints and solvents, foams and beauty products.

These bio-products are better for the environment and they are helping us lessen our dependence on the world's depleting fossil fuel stocks. To me, these are definitely postive outcomes of crop production.

Now to the issue of weight. It is true that there are many of us in North America who are a little or even a lot heavier than we could be or should be. But when did that become the fault of the farmer?

Farmers grow products that they'll be able to sell come harvest time. They can't stay in business if they don't And once their corn or soybeans have left their farms, farmers have no say whatsoever over what happens to that crop, how it is processed or where it ends up.

And whatever happened to personal responsibility?

Ultimately, as consumers, we have the final say over what and how much we eat and the amount of exercise we choose to get. Granted, the availability of cheap fast food makes eating badly very easy and very tempting -- but companies wouldn't be producing these products if we weren't buying them.

It is up to us as consumers to demand change if that's what we want. But we aren't going to effect that change by simply pointing the finger at farmers and blaming them for broader societal problems like environmental damage and obesity.

There are more players ni the equation who have a role to play, and that includes us as consumers and the food choices we make.

Lilian Schaer was raised on a farm in Grey County and is an agricultural freelance writer and project manager. She writes about the farming side of food at www.foodandfarmingcanada.com.

Agriculture Hits the Trails Project

Agriculture Hits the Trails is a communications and awareness campaign focusing on agricultural and environmental messages targeting outdoor enthusiasts in the Greenbelt in Ontario. This includes families and outdoors enthusiasts who use walking and cycling trails and enjoy outdoor activities.

A key feature of this program is educational signage that have been placed along hiking trails within the Greenbelt.

The goal of the project is to communicate important messages about farming and environmental stewardship to outdoor enthusiasts. Farmers are doing great things for the environment (Environmental Farm Plans, nutrient management, crop rotation, minimum tillage and other stewardship projects) and trails through farmland provide an excellent backddrop to tell outdoor enthusiasts about farmers' activities.

To have a look at the interpretive signs that are being installed on trails across the Greenbelt, click here.

2009-12-04T09:05:00.001-08:00

Region backs fruit, veggie growers
Posted By MATTHEW VAN DONGEN , STANDARD STAFF
Posted 5 hours ago

Regional council is asking for provincial and federal aid for Niagara's endangered fruit and vegetable farmers.

Council unanimously voted Thursday to support the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association in its request for a government- supported risk-management program for the beleaguered horticulture industry.

Association chair Brenda Lammens said the tender-fruit industry faces "a catastrophe" born of skyrocketing production prices and cheap foreign imports "dumped" into the local market.

Lammens said tender-fruit-growing areas like Niagara are poised to lose farms and potentially "thousands of on-farm jobs" if a government-supported industry support program isn't developed.

"This really is a crisis ... a lack of profitability across the entire sector that will have serious consequences for Niagara farmers," she said.

The association represents 7,500 fruit and vegetable farmers across the province, which translates into 30,000 farming jobs and $1.2 billion annually to the economy.

Lammens said the association is seeking a premium-based support program that includes production insurance to "protect farmers from escalating costs and decreasing returns."

Lammens noted Ontario already provides a similar risk-management program for the grain and oilseed industry.

"This is insurance for us, but it's an insurance program for everyone in this room," she told councillors at Thursday's meeting. "It's ensuring you're still going to be able to get Ontario fruits and vegetables for your table."

Part of the problem is the quick jump in the minimum wage in an industry that relies on manual labour and competes with cheap overseas production. Lammens said over the last three years, the labour costs for Ontario growers will have increased by more than $70 million, or close to 30 per cent.

The other big problem, she said, is artificially low prices for imported products like peppers and peaches.

Advertisement

A report from Guelph's George Morris Centre, an agricultural think-tank, has also predicted catastrophe for the industry without government intervention.

Ontario Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky recently told The Standard she is "pleading the case" for improvements to come soon to federal-provincial business risk-management programs.

Lammens also said change needs to come soon. Her association has already petitioned Lincoln's municipal council for political support and plans to continue lobbying.

Niagara Regional Chairman Peter Partington called the tenderfruit industry "one of the drivers of our economy" and promised to write letter of support to both provincial and federal representatives.

Revenue shortfalls just the beginning

2009-11-02T07:27:00.001-08:00

Revenue shortfalls just the beginning
Revenue shortfalls just the beginning: Fertich Grimsby council calls for province to pick up the costs as greenbelt limits growth
By Amanda Street
Regional
Oct 30, 2009
Large Medium Small Print This Article Tell a friend
Grimsby didn’t “greenbelt” itself, which is why the province needs to step up and assist the town with future revenue shortfalls, say members of Grimsby town council.

The planning department is expecting revenue to fall $40,000 short of its 2009 budget, a recent report to the planning and development committee stated. The building department is also below budget, but with three major projects on the move, including the Westbrook subdivision development, director John Schoenwille expects to be on budget this year, but as open space in Grimsby becomes scarcer, deficits are on the horizon.

“For the next couple of years, we’ll be in good shape,” he said during a recent interview with The News. “After that, it’s a different story.”

Ald. Wayne Fertich, who chairs the administration and finance committee, noted it might be a good time for the mayor to engage in discussions with the provincial government about expanding the urban boundaries or come up with some way to compensate the town for lost revenue.

“Hopefully the government can appreciate the concern to expand the urban boundary to eliminate a deficit,” Fertich said during a recent council meeting. “This is just the beginning and certainly its time for the mayor and council to go after (Jim Watson, minister of municipal affairs and housing).”

Both Schonewille and Planning Director Keith Vogl were conservative in their budget planning this year, said Ald. Nick DiFlavio who chairs the planning committee, as the economic downturn was expected to impact new construction.

“Growth is not what we expected, and staff had conservative expectations,” he said. “But this is not a local phenomenon, it’a world-wide phenomenon ... and we are going to have to deal with a decrease in building. We can’t expect 500-home years anymore.”

DiFlavio said 2010 is going to be a difficult budget year for the planning and building departments with both expected to be below budget in terms of revenue.

With greenspace limited in Grimsby due to the Ontario Greenbelt restrictions, in the future, infilling will be the main means of growth. While infill projects require the same amount of staff time — they do not have the same revenue impacts.

“The ministry needs to make sure the costs associated with the Greenbelt are not put on the Greenbelt municipalities,” he said.

2009-10-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

'On behalf of the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance we would like to thank all those who supported Ontario farmers by joining the "Put the 'O' back in LCBO" campaign. Your support has made a huge difference.

Yesterday the Ontario government released a new plan for Ontario's wine industry that will give more support to

VQA wines which are made from 100% Ontario grapes. The new plan sets a direction that would more clearly identify and market VQA wines and create a larger market for Ontario's beleaguered grape growers, many of whom are in the Greenbelt.

This is a great victory for the long term security of this important and iconic Ontario crop! Thank you for making this possible. For more on this issue visit www.ontariogreenbeltalliance.ca.

There are many ways you can continue to support a healthy Greenbelt:

* Buy VQA wines (wine made of 100% Ontario grown grapes).
* Buy and ask for produce that is grown locally. See a list of farmers markets that sell Greenbelt produce here.
* Get to know the Greenbelt by hiking in Canada's largest network of hiking trails.
* Make a donation to the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance and support our ongoing efforts to secure a healthy Greenbelt. Click here to make a donation.

With thanks for your on-going support,'

Rick Smith, Ph.D.

Executive Director

Environmental Defence

2009-10-17T18:54:00.000-07:00

Cellared in Canada came about back when demand for wine was outstripping the availability of grapes locally. It was to be a stopgap to allow wineries to produce enough wine until grape production caught up. That happened, but now the pendulum has swung the other way. In 2008 Forty Tons of Ontario grapes rotted, unused, but worse, Cellared in Canada gained even more shelf space at the LCBO. How did this happen and why? It’s simple. Cheap imported grapes / bad trade laws, and a government that continues to promote the Ontario Wine industry with one hand while hurting it with the other.

2009-10-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

Local author tackles The War in the Country

Posted By Aimee Pianosi

Posted 24 days ago

Tom Pawlick was pissed off, and instead of counting to 10 and getting over it, he decided to write a book.

The War in the County was released Sept. 8 in Canada, and Pawlick begins a book tour in a couple of weeks.
The book follows several stories in our corner of rural Ontario, and how the decisions that were made in the cases have eroded food quality, food sovereignty, the environment, and the rural landscape.
For instance, he details the story of Mark Slack and his desire to build an intensive livestock operation (ILO), or a factory farm, first in Stone Mills Township, and then in Tweed, and how his quest divided the communities, and led to demonstrations, and even someone taking a shot at his tractor. Both Slack and his opponents are interviewed in the book.
"I've been following this kind of thing for years. I've been writing about agriculture for it must be 15 years at least, so I've been following what's happening. And it's like over the years there's just been a growing sense of outrage. And finally I said, 'aw the hell with it, nobody is writing about this. You don't see much about it in the newspaper, I'm going to write a book and try to get as many people aware of it as I can, because somebody's got to stop it."
The overlying theme of the book is that fighting for rural rights can work and has to work in order to ensure a safe, steady supply of food, and the preservation of the soil, air, and water.
"My book is intended to try to get people to start protecting and encouraging small family farms, and small rural business, small butcher shops, farmers' markets especially…when I go into Napanee I make it a point to do most of my shopping on Dundas [Street] downtown."
Pawlick says that small businesses are suffering as much as small farms.
"It's all of those people, native people, retirees, small farmers, back-to-the-landers, and small rural businesses they are all suffering, and suffering badly. If they go under, the whole complex of rural life goes under. The result is going to be the cities are going to really suffer. Because first of all their food will be the pits, and secondly their environment will be affected seriously, their water supply, air and the soil. Eventually city people will pay the price. So the book was written to sound a warning – 'look people, the rural world is dying around you, and if it dies, you'll die too, so don't let it die, get out there and defend it.'"
Pawlick has written several books, but an earlier one, The Invisible Farm, is a criticism of the media and a look at the rapid decline of agricultural journalism, in which he found the number of farm writers and editors in mainstream media had radically declined. He blames this loss of press or airtime for the lack of knowledge among non-rural people about their food supply, and what's really happening along the production chain.
"They just don't have the bodies to cover it.…but of course, what they are failing to realize is what is going on in the rural areas is going to affect people in the urban area, and has already affected them radically, so by not covering it, they're not giving their readers a story they need to know."

Pawlick is referring to what is sometimes called the urban-rural disconnect.

"The only way you would know in the old days would be because you would have a cousin or an uncle who was farming, and when you got together for family dinners, they would tell you and now nobody has a cousin or an uncle farming anymore."
Pawlick, despite his dreary subject matter, is an optimist. He says there is hope brewing among groups organizing, and movements moving to reverse the damage that has been done.
"There's been a really active movement for what they call CSA (community supported agriculture), and the popularity of the hundred mile diet has been gradually spreading. The Kingston region is a hotbed of this. There's a lot of CSA, and there's a lot of interest in this area in Frontenac County and Lennox & Addington County, "Pawlick said.
"They may have growing pains, but they are sure enthusiastic. I'm hoping at some point if public pressure begins to mount, that municipal councils will be as pleased to grant a zoning – and maybe even provide help with getting electrical hookup – to a farmer's market as they would be to provide it to a Wal-Mart."
Pawlick points out the only way this is going to happen is if people organize and begin at the municipal level, working all the way up to federal government, lobbying to change the way things are.
"If these elected officials, at the municipal level, who are close to the people, begin to realize this is what people really want, they're going to start making a whole lot of things easier for small outfits and local outfits to get started."
At the end of the book, Pawlick offers a 'to do' list of 16 items readers can take on to help solve the problem.
But they are not simple tasks. It's going to take time, money, and a huge will to get things changed.
For instance, Step #1 is to curb political influence of corporate farm system. Step #2 is to end secrecy around farm and environmental abuses. Step #3 is to restore power to municipalities. Another step he advocates is to renegotiate NAFTA. This is a weighty list, and Pawlick says right now there are only two groups working hard for rural life and the food chain – The Ontario Landowner's Association, and the National Farmer's Union.
"That's why I spent so much time talking about the landowners association [in the book], because, boy oh boy, do they get people's attention! Sometimes in a bad way. They're a mixed bag. I agree with an awful lot of what they say and do, but I also disagree with a lot of what they say and do. The point that I would make is 'well, who else is out there doing it?' – I'll support both of them until there's somebody better out there."
Pawlick said he was pleased when Randy Hillier was elected as MPP despite that fact he himself usually votes for the NDP or Green Party.
"He really cares about small business and small farm, and he's the only person for a long time who's gone out, and he's actually been arrested and booked at a police station. You know he's risking his reputation and his livelihood to do something about this. Even though on some issues the landowners are right wing, and I would disagree with them on those issues.
Pawlick says that what has to happen is "ordinary voters, are going to become more and more concerned, and more and aware of [the problem]."
The book title was chosen because, although the war must take place all over, it is for the possession of the country, for control of it.
Pawlick holds a masters degree in farm journalism and is the author of 10 books, including the best-selling The End of Food. He served six years as chief editor of Ceres magazine, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's flagship publication. He currently lives on a 150-acre farm in near Marlbank.
For a complete (uneited) transcript of the interview with Tom Pawlick, visit www.napaneeguide.com. His book is available online at www.chapters.ca, and at bookstores.
What kept you going?
I was pissed off by what I saw. I've been following this kind of thing for years, i've been writing about ag for it must be 15 years at least, so i've been following what's happening. and its like over the years theres' jsut been a growing sense of outrage. and finally i said, aw the hell with it, nobody is wriring about this you don't see much about it in the newspaper, i'm going to write a book and try to get as many people aware of it as i can, because somebody's got to stop it
why don't you read about it in the newspaper
i wrote another book on that subject called the invis farm,m an dit was direted at journalists, actu i did as a grad thesis for my grad degree and i wnet and did some reserach through old copies of editor and publisher yearbook, and a couple of catalogs for television and radio as well
i found the number of farm writers and editors in mainstream media had declined just unbelievably
at one time almost every daily paper had one, and now you're lucky if you find one in a province or a state that has an ag person and usually they only do i par time becausethey got two or three otehr beats
basically what it is is manpower shortages, newspapers have been cutting back, tvs have been cutting back, they just don' thave the bodies to cover it they also figure that there are so few peole in the rural ares, and we have so few people in teh rural areas and we have so little circulation out there, they think, why should we bother, our advertisers don't need that circulatoin, and what we're after is the urban audience, so they just figure why write about rural when our audience is urban. but of course, what they are failing to realize is what is going on in the rural areas is going to affect people in the urban area, and has already affected them radically, so by not covereing it, they're not giving their readers a story they need to know
that book came out and was publishede in the states and sold maybe 12 copies, so it didn't do much good, escept I got it off my chest
most newspaper and magazine people now are people without a farm background, they're urban people, and it just never enters their mind that there might be a story out there
here i am working at a rural newspaper, with a fairly direct connection to agriculture, and i can barely get to these stories, how are they ever going to make it to mainstream media?
yes, that's one of the problems, is that there is no manpower available either at the small or the large papers any more. a couple papers that did have
i can barely get to these story
rural people don't express or publicize themselves very much, there seems to be a natural reticence, and unless you're in regular contact with groups like the national farmers u nion for ex, you wouldn't be aware of it
used to edit un food and ag magazine, i covered ag all over the world
had correspondants all over the world including Terry Pugh
The overlying theme of the book is that fighting for rural rights and the right to farm can work?
Small farms and family farms, we already have the
When you use the term the right to farm, it means
my book is intended to try to get people to start protecting and encourging small family farms, and small rural business
small butcher shops, farmers markets especially, things like that which are needed to support the small family farm, without local famrs, the small f
people should not be only supporting family farms, but small businesses locally
like when i go into napanee ia make it a pont to do most of my shopping on dundas downtown, i don't go to the mall that often, the only time i go to the mall when i've looked everywhere else and there's no where else to got, my very last stop is wal-mart
it is happening more frequents because more and more downtown businesses are closing
it's the small town businesses that are suffering as much as the family farm, and also the native people, you know that whole uranium mine controversy up near sharbot lake, they're suffering, for that matter, anybody who lives in the country and is small potatos, it might be a retiree who went and bought a small farm or a woodlot and they're vulnerable
also subsistence farmers, the tax structure has been set up now so thta it's almost impossible to be a subsistence farmer, there's a lot of people who would like to be a sub farmer and maybe have a little prat time job on the sid ethat gives them a little income, they think oh its good for our kids and gives thema healthly life, but the tax man comes along and all the other regulators come along and say we're going to make it alsmost impossible for you to do that, and if yo're going to that you need to be almost a millionaire
so it's all of those people, native peole, retiress, small farmers, back tothe landers, and small rural businesses they are all suffereing, and suffering badly, and if they go under, the whole complex of rural life goes under, the result is going to be the cities are going to really suffer, because first of all their food will be the pits, and secondlyl their environment will be affected seriously, their water supply, air and th soil, eventually city people will pay the price, so the book was written to sound a warning of a toxin, look people the rural world is dying around you, and if it dies, you'll die too, so don't let it die, get out there and defend it
Where's the hope?
In all the groups that have sprung up in i would say the past five years, at least around here. They've been going a little longer aroudn here. they've been going a little bit longer in other places. usually what they say is it happens first in claifornia and then in the rest of the us. in canada it happens first in bc, and then the rest of canada. in bc and in californica there've been movements alive for at last the last 15 years to actively bring back the farmrers markets and start new onws. THere's been a really acivtive movement for what they call csa (community supported agriauclture), and the popularity of the hundred mile diet has been gradually spreading
kingston region is a hotbed of this, there's a lot of csa, and there's a lot of interest in this area in frontenac cty and len and ad county, in this sort of thing
the groups, some of them are quite new, they might be only a year or two old and thye may have growing pains, but they are sure enthusiastic, i'm hoping at some point if public pressure begins to mount, that municipal councils will be as pleased to grant a zoning and maybe even provide help with getting electrical hookup to a farmer's market as they would be to provide it to to wal-mart. in other words i'd like to see as many farmers markets as there are wal-marts
but the only way for that to happen is if ordinary people really push for it and indicate they want it, and go to planning board meetings, and council meetins and say 'well what have you done to help?' and if these if elected officials, at the municipal level, who are close to the people, begin to realize ths is what people realy wnat, they're going to start making a whole lot of things easier for small outfits and local outfits to get started
and not in terms of zoning or preoprty tax, but als in tersm of income tax, i think we should be going after the province and revunue canada to get these tax laws rewritten to make it easier for the small outfits to live. but before that happens you've got to get their attention, that's why I spent so much time talking about the landowners assn, because boy oh boy do they get people's attention
someteims in a bad way, they're a mixed bag, i agree with an awful lot of what they say and do, but I also disagree with a lot of what they say and do, the point that i would make is well, who else is out there doing it?
right now tehre are only two groups that i know of that are doing it on a large scale, and that's the landowners and the NFU, and I'll support both of them until there's somebody better out there
i was very pleased that hillier was elected as an mpp, becuase i know him farily well now, i've interviewed him seveal times, i've gone to his house and had dinner and so on, and i'm not a tory, i genrally vote NDP or green, and he's a tory, but he's a smart man, and he really cares about small business and small farm, and he's the only person for a long time who's gone out, and he's actually been arrested and booked at a police station. you know he's risking his reputation and his livelihood to do something about this. even though on some issues the landowners are right wing, and i would disagree with them on those issues, they remind me of the vietnam war people back during the vietnam war era. the only reason that war stopped was because of that kind of agitation. it would probably still be going ontoday if people hadn't gotten out there.
It's not just about food, it's also about mining, factories, and more. What is the biggest threat to rural life? First front we should be attacking on?
Government reg which have been written in response to multinational corporate pressure. that list that i gave in the last chapter
monopoly - control most of the sales in a given sector, can set prices, and even fix prices
monopsony - that is where they also control production, where large multinationals not only control sales to the consumer, but they also control their suppliers, or are their own suppliers.
eg. grocery also owns huges swaths of factory farmlands, provide own goods they later sell in their own stores, they control things at both ends
this is increasingly becoming the case all over the place
what's going to happen next?
i thinks what's going to happen is people, ordinary voters, are going to become more and more concerned, and more and aware of it, if the media
they
in illinois, the state govt just pased som eleg to make it easier for farmers to sell their food locally, they had done some studies and found that of all the farmers in illinois
The war for posession of the country, for control of it. it's taking place in the countyr, from the standpoint, like that one chapter on factory farm, the hog farm AND THEN the next door farmer had to go to court to try and stop them so there was a big legal battle going on there
ended up building just two of three
and then you had mark slack up in tweed, and thing actually resulted in a shooting, osmeone came and shot at his tractor, put bullet holes in it
Besides seed banks, and collectors, is there a plan in place to preserve diversified breeds of livestock, particularly poultry and hogs, which you detail in the book?
In interviewing for the book, were people generally cautious, or happy to tell their stories? Does that hold true for people who both lost and won their battle?
the opponents were very talkative and easy to get to, they were eager to tell their story, slack himself was not as eger as them, but he didn't hesitate to speak to me, he answered every question i asked, he was frank and truthful about it, and i waslked away from my interviews with him, i interviewed him a couple of times - thinking that the guy was not really any villian at all, he's actually a nice guy in some ways, it's just that he's really concentrating on survival, and i dn't htink he's really thought through the implications of the methods he's using for farming.
he's not a stupid man, he's a graduate of guelph, he gew up on a farm, he's a good farmer, what happens with a lot of smaller farmers, their backs are to the wall, and they don't want to go out of business, and they don't want to leave the country, so they'll tyr anything to survie, and on'ce you've embarked on that course, and you've invested money, and you've gone into debt, it's really hard to stop. actually i feel sorry for a lot of small farmers who have gone the industrial agricultural route as an effort to survi ve, because in the end they're going to lose their shirts, the hog market right now is the pits, and i don't know, a lot of these hog farms, how they are staying inbusiness. eventually it's going to move offshore.
marketing boards?
i'm for them, but i think they need some fairly radical reforms
for instance
, i always look at the marketing boards as farm farmers's unions, and they are bargaining to get higher wages for their members, but as evey knows from teh history of the labour movement, a lot of unions become crooked and corrupt or if not corrupt at least they lose track of their members real problem and i think the maketing boards have gone down that route, what's happened is, it all started when quota began to be bought and sold when marketing boards first started out quotat was not bought and sole, y ou were just assigned based on capacity to produce, someone would come out and look at your farm anmd if you could handle 40 head of dairy cattle, then you would get quota for 40 head of dairy cattle, and you didn't pay for it, it was just assigned
but later on quota became a commodity, and people began to buy and sell it, and at that point, the whole system went off the rails, and i think something has to be done to change that.
i don't advocate doing anything precipitously, becuase there are people out there who every penny in tehir whole life invested in quota...so obviously you would have to phase in any changes gradually, but the quota system needs to be reformed, it needs badly to be reformed, and there has to be some really strong provisions made to make it less diff for young people to enter farming in quota industries, it just costs too darn much
i was a bit worried when i said in the book that the mkting system needs to be reformed because i know that to the large corporations to reform a thing means to eliminate it and i'm afraid if you get the big multinationsals saying 'yes, yes, we have to reform the marketin boards' it will be interpreted as we have to get rid of it, and i'd like to see the mkting bd system continue, but i'd like to see some way to grad phase out the sale of quota, and some way to find mechanisms that will allow young people to get into farming without going so far into debt that the are serfs
what we do need to keep is the bargaiining power of the mktgi boards in the
international markets, because they group so many farmrer and so many producers, they have a large quantity of stuff they are dealing with and they have lverage, market leverage, and they can push up the prices that farmers get and keep the farmers from going broke, and that part of the mketg board system i'm really in favour of
today many of us couldn't afford to get into the industy, and if we could, we woudln't make enough money to make the work worth it, it would just be too much greif for too little return, and htat's not a healthy situation anywhere
Missing of minds
that was someething i wnated to put in there because i'm a hunter, i've also raised livestock and killed livestock for food, and i've know many peole working in urban areas in montral and detroit for a while, and i know that when i would tell the average urban resident that i hunt deer, or at one time i used to raise chickens and eat them for meet, they would look at me like i'm some kind of monster from another planet
and they get all huffy and say we're vegetarians and how can you be such an animal?
when rural people want to be heard politically, automat a lot of city people are prejudiced agaginst them and prej against their views because they think of them as backward rednecks
i wrote that chapter partly to dispell the image of the backward redneck farmer and show that they're not, and show people surprsingingly that thare are a lot of orural people who are vegetarians and do not hunt
the question is not simple and i didn't want city peo0pel to have this skewed version of country people
the groups that do more damage than good are what are is commonly called deep ecologists, their approach tends to be that humans are an aberration and don't belong in the natural world, people like that are totally unrealistic
how is that urban people are mn't more alarmed by this, everybody eats. why aren't people driving out from tronoto and saying 'hey, what's going on out here?'
becuase they just don't know. nobody has told them, if it's not in the papers and not on tv, how are you going to know? the only way you would know in the old days would be because you would have a cousin or an uncle who was farming, and when you got together for ffamily dinners they would tell you and now nobody has a cousin or an uncle farming anymore
why aren't they asking then?
they don't think about it, they just assume the food they get in the grocery store is ok, but it's not, it's the oppostie of OK, if they knew how bad that food really is, and if they knew the danger to the environment in terms of water, air and soil, then they would care, and they would start to make noise. i wrote a whole book trying to get journalists to get this message out, but nobody read the book, and then i wrote the end of food, which did seem to get some people's attendtion, and they began to realize what's in the supermarket isn't really that good after all, this book is intended to say, the other book told you your food was crappy, this one is telling you why and how you can really fight to turn things around
i don't thinkg there's any bones about it, the vested interests are so strong in favour of corporate control of the countryside, that in order to counter it people are going to have to get out there and make lots of noise, i mean they're going to have to go out there and have demonstaionts, and do what they did in the anti-war years, you've got to get people's attendtion if you want things to change
when released?
Sept. 23, already in stock in some bookstores
book tour?
First week of Oct. in Toronto, second week, Ottawa, then other cities depending on reaction to the book
it's special to people in Napanee, becuase it's about themselves? why did you choose to focus on one specific geographic area?
first of all because I live here, it was a lot easeir to travel, secondly, the univ. used to work for cut off salary and research budget, so I couldn't afford, even if i could have afforded it, it would have made such an unweildy book to try and cover several countries or all of the countries, it would have gone to 5,000 pages, theres's just too much tehre
things are the same everywhere, they're the same all over the united staes, all over canada, mexico, europe, japan, india, he same kinds of things are happening, basically what's happening is the corporate world is trying to consoliddates it's hold on the rural part of our planet, and that hold is not going to be benign, if the only resaons for excistance of an organizaiton is to make money, and to make the maximum amount of money, then it's impossible that they won't end up destroyng the evnironment and cheapening their product, so it's just not going to be healthy. of course, governments are run by polititicians who have to campaign for office, and tis very expensive to buy tv time, it's very expensive to print posters, if a a mulitnational comes to you and coughs up a few thousand dollars for your campaign fund, well, once bought, you're sold
reading?
Life of Samuel Johnson, by Boswell
a book about Francis of Assisi
to brother son and sister earch
he's someone i think is very close to farming, and i'm enjoying reading about his life
what's next?
i've got two other books on agriculture going, one almost completed, it's a collection of essays on rural life as its actually lived
the other is one that's going to take a lot more time, an acutal sequel to The War in the Country, if i can get it done, it w concentrate on people in groups who are trying to construct a new kind of agriculture, farmers makerts, csa, family farmers who are new farmrs, who are determined to sruvive and use organic methods, also consumers who are becoming aware of the problems and what they can do to solve it, so the book will be concentrating on those folks
who would you pick to read your book?
someone willing to carry a picket sign, willing to yell as part of a group in the street
someone willing not only to write a letter tot rhie MPP, but to go down to the guy's constituency office, or the woman's and actually talk to the them
people who aren't afraid to spend time and maybe even take a risk or two, maybe even go to jail for distubing the peace, not that i'm advocating to break the law
demondstartions the landowners have been doing in ontario, they're all non-violent, they don't hit anybody, or hurt anybody, they don't destroy anything, but boy they raise hell, and because they raise hell, the politicians are going to have to pay attention
if you can find five people that are willng to do that, that's the peopel i want to read the book
the media, our news media, we are very lucky in canada that our news media is not completely dominated as it is in the states by a certain agenda, we have several papers and we have several television networks that are stilll, comapred to the rest of the world, pretty darn free, and i know tv ontairo is a real strong advocate of some things, and the cbc still gets out there and does the odd good documentary and real report., and you've got individual reporters at teh G&M and Toronto Star whose mandate, in its founders will, is to foster social justice, so we've still got a pretty good media out there compared to the states, in the states we've got what you'd call the non-media
someone who isn't afraid to run for office, for municipal office first, i look at randy hillier, he ran for office and he won, i wish elizabeth may would win, it doesn't matter to me what party it is, but i want people to run for office and get elected because they care about the rural world and realize it's importance to the cities, and the more of those get elected, the greater chance we have of turning things around, it's just like climate change, and its connected with the climate change issues, and it's something thats come to a head now, and its an emergency situation, if we don't do something right quickly, we're going to have such a messed up world, i pity our kids

Jan

2009-10-07T21:21:00.000-07:00

'The Greenbelt disaster is a response by a group of large grape growers who

> have had to compete with imported grapes, and the imported grapes are
> significantly cheaper. The issue is simple, we as grape growers, have a
> fixed amount of expense in growing grapes. This is related to both amount of
> tonnes per acre we can grow, the region, climate and the industry
> regulations we follow. The cellared in Canada is not the problem, but a
> consequence to the main issue. The Ontario governments are interested in
> money from the industry as a whole, and through choices made as far back as
> 20 years ago have created a situation in which grape growers are most likely
> finished in Ontario. One number that I have been told through the Grape
> growers of Ontario ( GGO ) is that the Governments take over $ 16,000.00 per
> acre out of the industry in total, this is ten fold more than a average
> grower, as well, much more than a winery could make. Unfortunately the GGO
> has said that if the cellared in Canada was raised to 50 % there would still
> be a surplus in grapes. I will list for you some of the main issues in my
> opinion.
> * The main area of growth is really only forecasted from VQA sales. The VQA
> wineries have all the grapes they need, due to regulations on number of
> acres required to open a winery.
> * the dependence on cheap imported wines have shaped the industry in a
> semi-permanent way and these wines account for the majority of profit and
> taxes in the industry. These blended wines account for as much as 80% of the
> grapes purchased in Niagara, grape growers have to be very careful not to
> bite the hand that feeds them.
> * Government takes way too much money out of the system too allow anyone to
> make a reasonable profit on 100% Ontario wines.
> * the distribution system is the not working for VQA wines, the governments
> own study in 2005, I believe, broke it down correctly the issues but was
> shelved.
> * the cost is too high to grow grapes that can compete with other countries
> wines sold at the LCBO, the price a grower gets is less than cost of
> production for those VQA grapes.
> * Ontario must be a small niche market for our own wines, but due to taxes
> the industry is having problems making money..As well the LCBO has huge
> purchase power and gets great deals on good wine, which is heavily
> subsidized.
> * wineries and the GGO have had an adversarial relationship at best and now
> see the potential end of the GGO and are glad to take the organization down
> one grower at a time.
> *Even if we could sell all our fruit the new price for grapes is break even.
> This has been accomplish by imposing tonnage restrictions, which for quality
> wine makes sense but the price for gapes is just too low.
> * BC is doing well because they developed a market with a buy BC first
> policy and allowed VQA stores as required to sell all their wines. Ontario
> is reluctant to give up the LCBO monopoly.
> * the way to get the industry working together is to impose a buy Ontario
> first policy. The wineries would not like this but it would get everyone
> working together.
>
> For the Greenbelt relationship to this problem is simple. There are 5
> pillars in the act , first is agriculture and fourth is communities. The act
> recognizes the relationship between the economy and the community, both are
> grape and tender fruit based. The last 5 years has seen the demises of the
> apples, peaches and juice grapes. As the agricultural economy within the
> greenbelt is reduced sector by sector the local communities will start to
> fail or transform to GTA satellites. If the Greenbelt was set up to protect
> agriculture and local agricultural communities, it is a disaster. The last
> nail in the coffin would be the wine grape growers. Napa once was a
> collection of local farmers and wineries, they were greenbelted and quickly
> transformed to corporate farms and no real farm communities but tourist
> centres with much lower paying and quality jobs. The act restricts what we
> could do with our land, but the region and municipality have been doing that
> for years. Where the problem is coming for the municipalities is they can't
> tax enough if expansion is stopped. I bought my farm with hopes of becoming
> a small winery, today that is impossible due to unsurpassable property taxes
> from day one. Now I am restricted as a grape grower with no market. The
> cellared in Canada issue would help some growers and is an embarrassment to
> our industry to mislead people into believing they are buying a product of
> Canada when they are not.
> There is much more but that is a quick over view.'
>anonymous

2009-10-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

Places to Grow = Places to Sprawl

Province''s flagship growth plan falters as municipalities fail to comply with Ontario''s Places to Grow Act

Toronto – Municipalities failing to comply with the provincial government''s Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe are threatening to undermine the Places to Grow Act, requiring the McGuinty government take significant action to make good on its commitments to rein in poorly planned development, says a new report released today by the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance.

Places to Sprawl: Report on Municipal Conformity with the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, as provided for under Ontario''s Places to Grow Act reveals that four large upper tier municipalities - Durham Region, York Region, Niagara Region and Simcoe County – have passed, or drafted, official plan amendments that contain growth strategies that directly contradict the intent and spirit of the Places to Grow Act.

"The Region of Durham has completely disregarded the Places to Grow Act. By inflating employment growth numbers by 25,000 over what was determined for the area in conjunction with the Ontario government, Durham Council is trying to justify the destruction of prime agricultural land and environmentally significant areas. Simply put, Councilors seem intent on paving over what little is left of green space in southern Durham Region," said Dan McDermott, Director of Sierra Club Ontario, a member group of the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance.

"The proposed growth strategy for Simcoe County encourages sprawling leapfrog development by building up the Bradford area just north of Ontario’s world-renowned Greenbelt," said Claire Malcolmson, Coordinator of Campaign Lake Simcoe, a member of the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance. "We cannot save Lake Simcoe if we pave over massive areas of the watershed, which is what the strategy supports."

Between 2001 and 2031, the population of Ontario is expected to grow by 3.7 million people. To reduce the environmental impact of this magnitude of growth, and to curb urban sprawl and protect southern Ontario''s fragile natural landscapes and agricultural land, the Ontario government passed the Places to Grow Act in 2005. In the following year, the province adopted the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe to regulate growth in the area of southern Ontario in which the Greenbelt is located.

Initially, the province gave all municipalities up to three years to ensure that their growth plans were in compliance with the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. That deadline has come and gone and as of July 31, 2009, only six of the 89 affected lower tier municipalities had passed the requisite growth amendments with the vast majority of them waiting on upper tier conformity to provide direction for their growth.

"With four of the nine upper tier municipalities drafting or passing amendments that do not respect the spirit of the Place to Grow Act and actually threaten continued urban sprawl, the province needs to re-double its growth planning efforts if is truly going to ensure an economically and environmentally sustainable future for the Greater Golden Horseshoe," said Dr. Rick Smith, Executive Director, Environmental Defence.

The Ontario Greenbelt Alliance is calling on all municipalities to conform to the Places to Grow Act and plan for growth in a way that protects our province''s green spaces. The Alliance is also calling on the Ontario Government and an active citizenship to continue to challenge policies that encourage uncontrolled sprawl and damage the health of Ontario''s natural and agricultural spaces.

Places to Sprawl is available to download for free on the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance web site - www.greenbeltalliance.ca.

2009-09-28T14:20:00.001-07:00

2009-09-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

2009-09-25T07:40:00.000-07:00

August

Greenbelt Disaster

JAN YATES, SCA

oil on canvas

8x12in

Smouldering anger in the vineyard

Posted By Monique Beech, Standard Staff

Updated 1 month ago

A smouldering pile of recently-pulled grapevines matched the burning frustration of a group of grape growers who say their livelihood is on the brink of collapse.
The owner of the recently razed vineyard on Pelham Road in St. Catharines decided to pull out 20 acres of wine grapes after losing a contract with a major winery last month.
Watching the smoke from the vine fire fill the chilly air Thursday morning, neighbour and fellow grower Don Wiley said it’s tragic.
Last fall, he watched his own 150 acres of unsold grapes wither on the vine without a buyer after spending a season tending to his crop.
“To say the least, we’re bleeding and we’re bleeding bad,” said Wiley, 75, a St. Catharines grower who joined a handful of others for an informal rally in front of the vacant vineyard.
“If the tourniquet doesn’t come, we’re done. A whole lifetime of equity is gone in one fell swoop.”
Wiley isn’t alone.
About 4,000 tonnes of uncontracted grapes went unsold last year.
In November, the provincial government stepped in with a $4-million program and bought about 2,300 tonnes of these grapes from 79 growers.
This year, growers expect the grape surplus to be even bigger. Most wineries have full tanks of stock after several big harvests.
Wiley has decided to fight back. He’s started a grassroots movement called Ontario Greenbelt Disaster.
Wiley, who runs his 8th Avenue vineyard with his son, David, said if the government brought in the greenbelt legislation to perserve farmland, it needs to support farmers.
Wiley and other growers say the province needs to address several issues, including:
• Changing the amount of Ontario grapes that go into cellared in Canada or blended wines. Currently, wineries with licences that predate the North American Free Trade Agreement can use up to 70 per cent foreign grapes in their blended wines under the provincially-controlled Wine Content Act.
• Increase the amount of Ontario wine sold in Ontario to at least 50 per cent. Currently, Ontario wines make up about 43 per cent of the market.
• More retail outlets besides the LCBO, the farmgate and wineries to sell wine.
For the last six months, the Grape Growers of Ontario and the Wine Council of Ontario have worked to try and address some of these long-standing industry problems and make recommendations to the province on how to fix them.
The group’s joint report is expected to go to government in a few days.
Grape growers chairman Bill George could not be reached for comment.
St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley said his government is awaiting the report from GGO and the WCO: the offiical representatives of grape growers and wineries.
Bradley said he’s aware of long-standing concerns in the industry, and the many differing views of how to fix it. The government is ready to hear any recommendations, he said.
“We’ll give it full consideration and implement anything that can be implemented,” Bradley said.
Jordan grape grower Ian Johnston, 35, said he hopes solutions come quick.
The former juice grape grower pulled out more than 100 acres of vines after the Cadbury Schweppes juice plant in St. Catharines closed two years ago. He’s been searching for a winery contract ever since — and would like one before planting wine grapes, which cost about $25,000 per acre to put in the ground.
If things don’t improve, growers will go bankrupt and be forced to sell their land, he said.
“It’s a crisis situation,” said Johnston, a third-generation grower who has been renting out his 7th Avenue property for cash crops to survive.
“Guys can’t just keep growing grapes to put them on the ground. It would be like a guy going to work at GM and doing all the work for a year and getting no income at the end of a year.”

2009-09-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

August

Greenbelt Disaster

JAN YATES, SCA

oil on canvas

8x12in