Oblivious to this charge by local farmers, Leona Dombrowsky has argued that you can see she values farmers by looking at the committees that will bring in source water protection.

A scan of the 21-member implementation committee and the 16-member expert committee shows a preponderance of environmental groupies but only two farmers, Allen Gardiner, member of the executive committee for OFA, and John Maaskant, a director with Chicken Farmers of Ontario. David Armitage, policy researcher with OFA, rounds out the agricultural component.

The group has scads of conservation managers, professor environmentalists, one member of Ducks Unlimited, one environmental lawyer, and several hydrologists.

The second committee or expert committee is heavy with environmentalists, including John Fitzgibbon of the University of Guelph. A colleague of his and member of the committee Michael Goss had focussed on the movement of bacteria in the soil in research.

Gordon Surgeoner, also from U of G, is on the implementation committee. He’s a PR type, who is touted at U of G as being CEO of Ontario Agri-Foods Technologies, an impressive title until you see the company publishes a web page consisting of articles from around the world on agriculture. The endeavour is supported by money from the ministry of agriculture and the Agricultural Adaptation Council.

The experts include several hydrologists, along with head well protection researchers from Ottawa and Waterloo Universities.

In total, the minister appointed two farmers among the 37 and one policy advisor from OFA. The University of Guelph has landed three appointments, all with pro environmental leanings, and only one with substantive research.

Winchester dairy farmer Dennis St. Pierre, an expert on how environmental committees work, says the push for change is coming from the universities and they’ll control the agenda.