One Week to Go: Add Your Voice to the Foodbelt

One week from today, we'll be opening our farm to the community for the Protect the Foodbelt: Barn Mural Community Celebration.

What started with a nearly 50-foot mural on the front of our barn has become something much bigger: farmers, community members, agricultural organizations, businesses, artists and elected representatives coming together around the future of the land that feeds us.

But this campaign isn't really about our barn.

It's about adding our voices to a conversation about the future of Ontario farmland and food sovereignty in Canada.

And you don't have to be at our farm next Saturday to be part of it.

NEW THIS WEEK

Foodbelt Voices: Why Does Farmland Matter to You?

Today we're launching Foodbelt Voices.

Over the coming days, we'll be sharing voices from farmers and community members answering questions about farmland, food, agriculture and why protecting the land that feeds us matters to them.

But we don't just want you to listen.

We want to hear your voice too.

Follow along with #Foodbelt Voices on Instagram and Facebook, share the posts that resonate with you, and add your own perspective to the conversation.

Why does farmland matter to you? Add your answer to our Foodbelt Voices post. It can be a sentence, a story, or simply something you wish more Canadians understood.

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Not on social media? Reply to this email and tell us why farmland matters to you. We'd like Foodbelt Voices to include perspectives from across Canada.

TAKE ACTION

Add Your Name to the Petition

Farmland protection may be playing out differently from province to province, but the bigger question belongs to all of us: What happens to the land we depend on to grow food—and how much say do farmers have in the decisions that affect it?

Here in Ontario, that conversation is happening around Bill 21, the Protect Our Food Act. Our Change.org petition is one way we're building awareness and demonstrating that people care about protecting productive farmland.

You don't have to live in Ontario to add your voice. If you believe Canada's farmland is worth protecting, consider signing the petition, sharing the campaign, or starting a similar conversation about farmland where you live.

The Change.org petition helps build public awareness and demonstrate support. Ontario Legislature petitions require original signatures on the official paper petition, which will also be available at our September 26 event, or through Foodbelt.ca​

WORTH READING

Keep a Seat at the Table for Farmers

We need farmers to have a seat at the table when decisions are being made about farmland. Because we need farmland to keep food on everyone else's table.

In this week's article, I explore why farmland protection is also connected to farmer wellbeing—and what I've watched happen as concern and helplessness have begun shifting toward connection, agency and hope.

Sometimes we can't remove the pressures agriculture faces by simply asking farmers to become better at coping with them.

Sometimes we need to look upstream.

Systems matter. Policy matters. Agency matters. Community matters. And being heard matters.

​Read: Keep a Seat at the Table for Farmers​

ONE WEEK TO GO

Join Us at the Barn

Saturday, September 26 | 1–4 p.m.​
​Between Fergus and Guelph, ON

1 p.m. — Community activities begin​
Community banner painting • Barn quilt painting • Interactive drum circle with Kat from Organic Groove • Kids' activities

2 p.m. — Speakers​
Ailsa Kay (MC) • Shawna Percy • Joan Brady • Janet Harrop • Bronwynne Wilton • Bobbi Ann Brady • Mike Schreiner

Around 3 p.m. — Live music​
Jim Nemett & friends • Community art and activities continue

4 p.m. — Event concludes

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​Or visit Foodbelt.ca for more info.​

Thank You to Our Sponsors & Supporters

This event is being built by community.

From the barn mural itself to the materials, activities and gathering on September 26, organizations and local businesses have stepped forward to help make Protect the Foodbelt: Barn Mural Community Celebration possible.

We're grateful to every sponsor, donor and in-kind supporter who has contributed funding, materials, time or expertise. Your support is helping create a space where farmers, families and community members can come together, connect, and have conversations about farmland and the future of our food system.

Thank you for helping bring this community initiative to life.

Interested in supporting the campaign? There's still time to get involved.

Media, Podcasts, and Publications

If you're interested in covering this story or learning more about Ag Care Connect, view our Media Backgrounder or contact us.

FROM SHAWNA

You Don't Have to Come to the Barn to Be Part of This

A week from now, I hope there are a lot of people standing in front of our barn.

But I've realized that's not really how I'll measure whether this campaign mattered.

I'll measure it by whether more people are talking about farmland.

Whether farmers feel that someone is listening.

Whether someone who has never thought about where their food comes from starts noticing the fields they drive past differently.

Whether people add their names to the petition, contact their MPPs, share a Foodbelt Voice perspective, or start conversations of their own.

A barn mural can get people's attention. What we do with that attention is what matters.

So whether you're able to join us on September 26 or you're hundreds of kilometres away, please consider adding your voice. Email us your perspective at info@AgCareConnect.ca​

Our farms. Our food. Our future.

Shawna Percy
Farmer, Founder
Ag Care Connect
AgCareConnect.ca
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