2007 FEATURE TOPIC

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FEATURE TOPIC
“A cornerstone of long-term sustainability is Food, and “Sustainability” must include planning for Food”

Is the reality and importance of maintaining the ability to feed ourselves finally catching on?

Everyone is talking about “local food” and “sustainable food systems”
I‘ve said it so often over the years, I sound like a broken record. Presentations, as a delegate at Council, speeches.... and finally people are starting to understand food security issues here in the Greater Golden Horseshoe - home to over half of Canada’s prime agricultural land. We’re expecting an increase of almost 4 million people by 2031. For a total of 11.8 million people. And some people think it’s just a rural issue?

Help Us Develop a Durham Regional Food Charter
What is a Food Charter?
A Food Charter is a document that articulates a community commitment to a common approach to food security.
It is developed by the community with input from all areas related to food.
Once a Food Charter is adopted by Regional and Municipal Councils, it can act as a guide for developing policy which implements community food security principles.

The delegates of the Durham Region Food Charter Visioning Day envisioned a charter focused toward building a just and sustainable food system that contributes to the economic, ecological and social well-being of our region and its residents well into the future.
As a result of the November 17th, 2006, Durham Region Food Charter Visioning Day, a community-based taskforce was formed to create a Regional Food Charter.
The Taskforce is anxious to gain feedback from the public to complete our Charter so that we may move on to the next step of implementing community food security principles into future plans for our Region.
Your comments are very important to our task.
To comment and for a copy of the brochure, please contact my office or:
Durham Region Food Charter
c/o Durham Lives!
P.O. Box 730, Whitby, ON L1N 0B2
durhamfoodcharter@sympatico.ca
download at: www.durhamlives.org

Places to Grow Food Conference,
University of Guelph,
This spring I attended the “Places to Grow Food” conference hosted by the Ontario Farmland Trust. The conference explored issues focused on building local economies and the marketing of local food in the GTA, new directions in land use planning for agriculture and supporting immigrant, new and young farmers entering the industry. Some practical recommendations included:
- Increasing the societal value of farmland for its agricultural value and not development market value
- Giving the OMB a mandate to protect against development proposals on prime farmland outside urban boundaries
- Establishing programs to support value-added processing or marketing at the farm level, pooling of resources among farmers to increase local food marketing, promotion of the benefits of local food consumption
- Creating internships, mentoring and production-sharing arrangements, training and incubator farms to support entering farmers
- Providing start-up grants and low-interest loans for new, immigrant and next generation farmers, such as are common in the European community.

An Open Letter for the Provincial Election
Food connects us all
To the citizens of Ontario, big city, small town, rural, and in-between.
Once upon a time everyone thought the world was flat. Figuring out that it was round changed how we saw everything. Now the next revolution in perspective has arrived-the world is not just round, it is connected. The Global Village-Marshall McLuhan's phrase for the connected world created by new communications technologies-has arrived, and not just in communications but also with food and foodways. We think this global food village must be connected by conscience and fairness-to the other villagers, to our environment.
The way we grow, market, process, manufacture, and distribute our food here in Ontario reveals the connections across the global village. Ontario's working landscapes, farms, rural communities, and cities are linked in a web of complex exchanges. But our food policies to date have usually ignored that web, dividing rather than connecting. If we are going to build a healthy and sustainable village, we have to make the connections.
This letter is supported by, and represents the initiatives of, a network of organizations working on many aspects of food policy in Ontario. We are working together because we believe that food is connected to every major problem being raised in the current provincial election campaign-rising medical costs, poverty and hunger, declining farm incomes, the paving-over of farmland, wildlife protection, urban sprawl, youth unemployment, and communities at risk.
These problems will only be solved when we connect the dots.
Local farmers markets, community gardens, food co-ops, urban gardens, food access centres-all of these emerging possibilities support healthier, tastier food for all villagers. As this happens, everyone benefits and communities become stronger and more inclusive.
Provincial politics have become increasingly stuck in a frustrating gridlock. We have separate ministries for agriculture, health, economic development, community development, and the environment, as well as a multiplicity of non-governmental organizations, each focused on a single piece of the problem. We are at risk of missing many of the potential connections and the benefits they could generate.
This letter invites you to help us propose elegant solutions to the complicated problems embedded in today's food system. It takes food to raise a better village.
Connect to us at www.alphabet-city.org.
We ask you to engage with these issues, and to work together to find long-lasting solutions to our food policies. Ideas that are financially viable, ecologically responsible, and socially equitable.