Property owners, First Nations square off over rice farming in Ontario lake – CBC
Aug 21, 2015
James Whetung harvests the rice and sells it for $12 a pound
There’s a battle brewing between property owners on a lake in Ontario’s Kawartha region and a First Nations group using the lake bed to seed and harvest rice.
At the centre of the dispute is Pigeon Lake, located north of Peterborough near Bobcaygeon.
Larry Wood, whose family has lived on the lake for more than 70 years, told CBC News the problem began about six years ago when a local man began seeding rice in the lake.
Wood, who says he is joined by more than 200 families opposed to the planting of rice on Pigeon Lake, says the rice has now spread from “shore to shore” choking out other plants and hindering recreational uses of the lake.
