Community members express anger over apparent destruction of corn crop in Wilmot Township
CTV
Community members in Wilmot Township are once again raising concerns over the Region of Waterloo’s plan to acquire 770 acres of rural land.
Community members in Wilmot Township are once again raising concerns over the Region of Waterloo’s plan to acquire 770 acres of rural land.
The Fight for Farmland group gathered outside a Wilmot Township council meeting Monday night after photos of crops being supposedly destroyed surfaced online over the weekend.
The social media post, which now has over 180,000 views, sparked further outrage amongst local farmers who say the destruction of the crops is wasteful and unnecessary.
“Literally hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of corn completely shredded and chopped up and then tried to hide the evidence by plowing it under the ground”, said Kevin Thomason, vice-chair of the Grand River Environmental Network.
Local farmer and vice president of Waterloo Federation of Agriculture, Mark Reusser, mirrored those feelings.
“Everyone should hold them accountable. This is food for goodness sakes. This is what people eat. This is what people subsist on. We shouldn’t treat land that produces food so lightly,” he said.
The crop in question is on land that is part of the region’s plan to develop 770 acres into a “shovel-ready site” for future development. Although it is unclear what the crop would have been used for if the land stayed in the hands of the farmer, the Fight for Farmland group calls its destruction unnecessary.
