As we enter the 50th year of #NoPickeringAirport, never have we owed such a debt of gratitude to People or Planes as we have during this pandemic – the year when the skies went silent, airports sat empty, and some foods suddenly became scarce or unavailable.
On March 2, 1972, the men and women of POP weren’t aware of climate change, the sixth mass extinction, or the staggering loss of prime farmland we face today. But they knew, absolutely, that you do not build an airport on prime farmland.
Thanks to POP’s creative, inspiring, fierce, and relentless opposition, Land Over Landings is able to continue the fight. Thanks to them, as the global aviation industry shuddered to a halt this past year, we do not have a ghost airport in North Pickering. Instead, we have a national park, pristine watersheds, and 8,700 acres of prime foodland, next door to our largest city: riches that are the envy of the world, wealth we must continue to protect, not just in a pandemic year but in perpetuity. Doc Godfrey was right: 100% will always need food. Airports? Not so much….