Is Melancthon to have Canada's largest single-ownership potato farm or perhaps just the country's biggest open pit aggregate mining and limestone quarry?

That, generally speaking, is the question that brought more than 300 residents of North Dufferin together at Honeywood for a two-hour organizational meeting last Saturday to air views on the purchase of as much as 7,000 acres of prime farmland by The Highland Companies Inc., a group headed by John Lowndes which operates in the area through such brand names as Downey Potato Farms and Wilson Farms.

The question might have remained unanswered, but an 11-member committee of residents and farmers was formed to keep the community abreast of the developments.

What the committee is likely to find is that, yes, there will be both a giant potato farming operation and a gravel mine or quarry of some kind at some point in the future.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Michael Daniher of the Toronto consulting firm of Special Situations Inc. — representing The Highlands Companies Inc. — said the group has never attempted to hide the fact that it will continue farming while looking beyond for other opportunities such as wind and bedrock resources.

Mr. Daniher was identified during the 2007 election by Canoe.com as a Sunday School chum of Progressive Conservative leader John Tory and supporter of his failed candidacy for mayor of Toronto against David Miller.

No one has an accurate count of the attendance last Saturday.

The Nordic room at the arena was jam-packed, as were the stairwell, the kitchen and part of the parking lot. Mulmur Councillor Earl Hawkins says he arrived at 10 and had to stand at the back of the crowd where it was difficult for him to hear the speakers, who included members of the snowmobile club that's been using the county-owned, abandoned Orangeville-Owen Sound rail bed as a trail.

The rail bed, along with activities on the 7,000 or so acres of farmland overlaying limestone that's been bought by the Highlands group, was a major focus of the meeting.

Mr. Lowndes has been negotiating the purchase of the rail bed from Dufferin and Grey counties, and the meeting heard that his group plans to re-lay the tracks north from Orangeville through Shelburne and build a spur line across its land to the Downey Farms distribution centre west of Horning's Mills.

Its land? One member of the committee, who didn't wish to be named for publication, said, "if you draw a line from the third farm south of Honeywood they own property all the way to Highway 10."

Do you purchase a rail bed, re-lay the tracks and build a spurn line just for the transport of potatoes?

Mr. Daniher denied any knowledge of the spur line. He said the map on display at the Honeywood meeting was "purely speculative," and appeared to have been drafted by Gary Hunter. "It was his map." As negotiations on the right of way are continuing, it would be premature to discuss things such as a possible spur line from it, he said. (County meetings on the sale have been behind closed doors.)

Mr. Lowndes, who has not yet become available for a direct interview, has indicated through Trevor Downey, manager of the Lowndes-owned Downey Farms, that his interest was only in potatoes. Downey Farms said in 2007 the intent was merely to have a world-class potato operation.

John Lowndes' brother David is associated with the development of a quarry in Flamborough which was sold to St. Mary's cement just prior to its provincial approval.

Mr. Daniher says neither St. Mary's nor its parent company in Mexico are among the investors in Highlands.

The Lowndes interests have purchased larger potato harvesting equipment, which could serve to explain why they have broadened the fields by removing fence lines and parts of woodlots.

Mr. Daniher would not confirm that the group has already discussed aggregate extraction with the Province, but he did say it had discussed a number of issues with a number of ministries.

In an e-mail yesterday, he advised that the focus of the Highlands research "and any future land uses in addition to agriculture is on our property in Melancthon Township.

"Nothing in Mulmur Township is contemplated beyond our current farming operation. We are looking to harness in a responsible way the natural resources on which Melancthon's economy has long been based. Others have studied or undertaken farming, irrigation, wind power and aggregates in the Township. We are simply doing the same.

"Whatever additional activities we pursue will be approached in an environmentally, socially and economically responsible way."