Ontario farmers raise concerns of dwindling farmland at rural expo

Several Ontario farmers raised concerns on Tuesday about dwindling farmland across the province as politicians of all stripes gather at an annual rural and agricultural expo.

Ontario politicians descended upon Lindsay, Ont., as part of their yearly pilgrimage to the International Plowing Match.

Several farmers from the Waterloo region said they are concerned with a massive land assembly of prime farmland in the area that is cloaked in non-disclosure agreements and threats of expropriation.

The Region of Waterloo has said it is trying to assemble a supersite in an effort to lure a massive manufacturing plant. The province is funding the land assembly, but has said they do not have any companies lined up for the site.

Alfred Lowrick, who lives next to the target site, said the entire process has shown a lack of respect to farmers, in addition to the threat of losing 770 acres of prime farmland in southwestern Ontario.

"We don't understand why all of a sudden it came out of the blue," said Lowrick, a spokesperson for the grassroots group, Fight for Farmland.