Full podcast: https://lovethenorth.ca/article/261019-massey-solar-project-controversy-is While Ontario continues losing valuable farmland to development, something remarkable has been happening in the Massey area. Agriculture is making a comeback! In this episode of Love the North, Chloe Bachete, founding member of the Massey Wildlife Conservation Committee, explains how farming has expanded throughout the Township of Sables-Spanish Rivers. Beginning in the mid-2000s, Mennonite families started moving north, purchasing farms that had become inactive as older farmers retired and bringing agricultural land back into production. Today, those families are growing, their children are starting farms of their own, and demand for agricultural property continues to increase. Chloe, who is also a local real estate broker, says she regularly receives calls from people looking to purchase farmland, even smaller parcels of just 20 or 30 acres. New dairy operations, cattle farms, hay production, and local meat processing are helping strengthen the region's agricultural economy and food supply. But now a proposed industrial-scale solar development involving leases covering more than 1,000 acres is raising concerns about the future of some of that land. Chloe questions whether converting actively farmed properties to solar energy production makes sense when agriculture is expanding and more families want to farm. Renewable energy matters, but so does the ability to produce food close to home. Could industrial solar projects be located elsewhere while preserving productive farmland for future generations? And what happens to Northern Ontario's agricultural future if the land farmers need becomes unavailable? Watch the full conversation on Love the North. #LoveTheNorth #MasseyOntario #NorthernOntario #SupportLocalFarmers #FarmlandProtection #FoodSecurity