Outside of Toronto

There’s a farming town a little outside of Toronto called Melancthon. This is where potatoes are grown, mostly sold in Toronto.

One day………. 1 company from the USA started buying all the small potato farms in the area.

One day………. 1 company from the USA started buying all the small potato farms in the area. They claimed that they wanted to keep growing potatoes. (just have 1 potato company)

This company had lots of money and paid a high price for the potato farms. This company was able to buy almost all of the land from the small farmers.

So this 1 company now owned almost all of the land.

However……….

Once this company owned the land they then “changed their mind”. They “found out” that they could make more money by mining the land for construction materials.

Said they were going to do this

But actually wanted to do this

As the new land owners they felt they had the FREEDOM to do what they wanted with THEIR land.

This would be great for the company. They could make lots of money.

It was not so great for the people who lived in the area.

-this destroyed food production the people needed.

It was not so great for the people who lived in the area. -this destroyed food production the people needed. -the mining process would have contaminated a river running through the are. About 1 million people use the water that would be downstream.

For the people who lived there: Lost food production Dirty water

The company’s perspective (shareholder) It’s our land We are free to do what we want with it.

The company’s perspective (shareholder) It’s our land We are free to do what we want with it. We are providing jobs for you We are helping your economy grow. If we don’t put a mine here we will put a mine somewhere else instead, and you won’t like that either.

Freedom Economic Growth Protecting the environment (somewhere else)

The perspective of the people (stakeholders) -The company’s actions put the local food security at risk -The company would pollute the water others depended on.

The perspective of the people (stakeholders) -The company’s actions put the local food security at risk -The company would pollute the water others depended on. They should not be allowed to do this.

What happened?

The company started to prepare to work on the mine.

The people got very angry.

The company started to prepare to work on the mine. The people got very angry. What could the people do?

Raise awareness, Educate people about what was happening.

People worked with others who also cared about what was happening Got media coverage. (news reports) e/ limestone-quarry-threatens- prime-farm-landhttp:// e/ limestone-quarry-threatens- prime-farm-land

Wrote to the government. Wrote to the Minister of the Environment to let them know what people thought.

Signed a petition. arry/ arry/ About people quickly signed.

Before the mine got started the Ontario government made the company stop.

Understand…. Governments in Canada like having good relationships with money. They also must listen to the people.

Before the mine got started the Ontario government made the company stop. (temporarily) Thousands of people told the government that this wasn’t fair and there needed to be time to study the environmental effects.

It was a very interesting reason why the government was able to get the company to stop….

-it wasn’t about the food security. -it wasn’t about the water contamination

It was because of this guy

The bobolink

The bobolink is a threatened species.

The bobolink sometimes lives in the trees near the potato farms.

The bobolink is a threatened species. The bobolink sometimes lives in the trees near the potato farms. Canada has the Species at Risk Act. This means Canada must protect the habitat of all species at risk.

The Species at Risk Act exists because Canada signed the International Convention on Biological Diversity

Because Canada was a part of the International convention on Biological Diversity, the people were able to prevent (temporarily) the company from destroying the farmland and ruining the water supply.

It is a very powerful law that people can use to protect their local environment.

It is also a law that can make things difficult for businesses that cause pollution.

Why didn’t the USA sign the International convention on Biological Diversity?

They wanted to protect the FREEDOM for the landowner to use the land how they wanted. The rights of the individual are more important than the rights of the group.

Shareholders are more important than stakeholders.

In some cases, Americans are a very misinformed about issues. who owns the media in the US? what message do they want Americans to get?)

k_Acthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_at_Ris k_Act lounge/2011/09/more-melancthon-mega- quarry-mysteries/ lounge/2011/09/more-melancthon-mega- quarry-mysteries/

htmhttp://sovereignty.net/p/land/biotreatystop. htm the-convention-on-biological-diversity-the- us-stands-with%E2%80%A6somalia-and- andorra-maybe-it%E2%80%99s-time-we- join-the-192-other-countries/ the-convention-on-biological-diversity-the- us-stands-with%E2%80%A6somalia-and- andorra-maybe-it%E2%80%99s-time-we- join-the-192-other-countries/