Sarah Harmer thinks the Greenbelt Harvest Picnic is more than “sonically awesome.”
The famed Canadian songwriter thinks it’s also an opportunity to promote organic farming.
The festival — set for Sept. 1 at the Christie Lake Conservation Area — promotes the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation’s work to protect Ontario’s Greenbelt, which Harmer says was an important vision on behalf of the Liberal government to “set aside this land so that it’s not just randomly bought up.”
By Kate Adach, CBC News
“Because there’s already been so much sprawl in the Greater Toronto and Golden Horseshoe Area,” said Harmer, who is from Burlington.
The festival and foundation’s objectives of protecting wetlands and farmlands overlap well with her environmental activism. The Juno award winner co-founded the community group “PERL” — Protecting Escarpment Rural Land — in 2005, and works actively to educate Canadians about threats to the environment.
Harmer will be sharing the stage with big-name acts like Feist, Emmylou Harris, and Gord Downie, but in her view, some of the biggest stars at the festival are the farmers and “food-conscious” folks.
