04-20-2024, 06:49 AM
(04-19-2024, 05:30 PM)Acitta Wrote: Ontario NDP leader backs Wilmot farmers
At this time of year Tim and Eva Wagler are usually busy on their Wilmot Township farm, getting ready to plant a new crop of cabbages.
Their 101 acre farm at 3171 Bleams Rd. is not among the properties the Region of Waterloo and the Township of Wilmot want to assemble into a single, large site that is ready for a big economic investment. There are six farms and six residential properties bordered by Bleams Road, Nafziger Road, Highway 7/8 and Wilmot Centre Road the region and township want to buy or expropriate.
The Wagler’s farm is across the road.
The rainwater and spring melt flows off that parcel of land, and into a pond at Tim and Eva’s farm though. They use that water to irrigate crops. If that land is turned into an industrial site they fear losing that source of water. And they are dealing with real estate agents visiting their farm, offering to buy it.
Nah, it's fine, the industrial site will only contaminate that runoff with toxic chemicals, which will then leach into the soil, and destroy even more farmland, and for bonus points, we'll probably not know about it for several years and poison ourselves with what we grow.
But don't worry guys, we'll have created several more exploitative jobs where people can trade their health in return for not quite enough to live on to afford the promised "middle class life".
</cynical>
Ironically I was less cynical when I was reading Ursula La Guin's utopian anti-capitalist novel, than when I was reading Vernor Vinge's pro-capitalist novel.