A Nova Scotia garlic farmer has put the brakes on high-speed internet coming to Victoria Harbour, a rural community on the Bay of Fundy, fearing radiation from microwave towers will affect his crops.

Lenny Levine, who has been planting and harvesting garlic by hand on his Annapolis Valley land since the 1970s, is afraid his organic crop could be irradiated if EastLink builds a microwave tower for wireless high-speed internet access a few hundred metres from his farm.

"I think over a period of time it will change the DNA of the garlic because it shakes up the molecules," he said Tuesday.

EastLink uses microwave transmission to provide high-speed internet access to rural areas outside its wired network.

Levine said he moved to the country to get away from pollution, and he sees the radiation from the towers as another form of pollution.

"I view it with dread, fear and panic," he said. "I don't want to grow food under those conditions."

A petition in support of the high speed internet tower was signed by the majority of householders in the area. Meanwhile, the people of Victoria Harbour are stuck with dial-up internet.