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Chicken-Keeper Challenges Charter

Carolyn — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:27:39 +0000

Toronto Chickens Supports Charter Challenge in Upcoming Court Case

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The working group of backyard chicken owners in Toronto, Toronto Chickens, fully endorses the upcoming Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge that has been undertaken by Calgarian Paul Hughes.

Mr. Hughes’ court case is set for March 5, 2012. He is challenging his city’s bylaws that disallow the possession of urban chickens in Calgary. As a group that is working to change Toronto’s bylaw so that urban hens will be allowed again in the city, Toronto Chickens will monitor the course of this upcoming trial very closely.

We call upon Toronto city councilors and city bylaw officers to suspend enforcement of the chicken bylaw until the results of this case are determined. Even though the court case is taking place in Calgary, because it challenges the federal Charter of Human Rights, it will impact all Canadians and override any municipal rulings.

If you are interested in supporting Toronto Chickens or other backyard chicken legalization struggles, please write to Toronto Chickens at torontochickens@gmail.com

It’s Crunch Time!

Ravenna — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:03:43 +0000

Join students across Canada in taking one big synchronized bite towards healthy living and healthy eating. Last year’s 112,352 participants made the loudest coordinated crunch yet!

FoodShare’s annual Great Big Crunch invites students and teachers to learn about healthy eating and local and global food systems while following the journey from the apple seed to the harvest, to the market and to the core.

On Thursday, March 8th, run the Great Big Crunch in your classroom and enhance your students’ understanding of the food system through the journey of an apple from seed to table. Distribute the apples to your students and on your count, have the whole class take a Great Big Crunch together at 2:30pm E.S.T! To take part, simply fill out the registration form and fax it back to 416.363.0474, Attention: Brooke Ziebell, Field to Table Schools.

You can Download FoodShare’s Great Big Crunch classroom activities, available online, or develop your own. To share your apple activities or photos with others, please forward them onto us at thegreatbigcrunch@foodshare.net.

Contribute to the National Student Food Charter

Ravenna — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:59:01 +0000

Help chart the future of food on Canadian campuses – contribute to the National Student Food Charter, this semester!

The National Student Food Charter (NSFC) is gathering student voices, connecting ideas to action, and unifying the Canadian student food movement. Get your student body thinking and talking about food reform on campus through student-led consultation sessions – check out studentfood.ca for info on how to get involved, access supporting materials, facilitate a session, and more!

Next week, the Campus Food Systems Project, a partnership between Meal Exchange and the Sierra Youth Coalition, is hosting strategy and orientation calls, and connecting students across Canada to support student involvement in food issues on campus. Students can register to connect with other facilitators on our strategy call, and collaborate on how Charter consultations – big or small – can work most effectively on their campuses!

Concerned About Supply Management In Ontario

Ravenna — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:48:06 +0000

by Ann Slater

National Farmers Union

This is written in response to the article by Mark Schatzker published in the January 4 edition of The Globe and Mail which takes a critical look at supply management. Unfortunately, along with being a critical critique of supply management in Canada, the arguments put forward by Mr. Schatzker are developed on misleading information.

Although, most farmers raising chickens or eggs in Ontario must hold quota, both the Chicken Farmers of Ontario and the Egg Farmers of Ontario have quota exemptions for farmers raising small flocks of either meat birds or hens. Small farmers in Ontario are able to raise up to 100 hens without holding quota and up to 300 meat chickens without holding quota, therefore, the story of inspectors putting a stop to a farmer raising 100 chickens does not ring true. In addition, Mr. Schatzker suggests that the minimum purchase of chicken quota in Ontario is the equivalent of 90,000 birds a year. Again, this is not accurate information. Across Ontario, there are many small quota holders, raising a few thousand birds a year and selling them direct from their farms, to upscale resturants and/or to small retail outlets. Many of the chickens raised by these small quota holders are pasture-raised, organic and/or heritage breeds.

As to unique dairy operations – several on-farm dairies have opened in recent months, as part of an initiative by the Dairy Farmers of Ontario and Ontario Ministry of Agriculture to help interested dairy farmers become part of the local food scene. Some of these dairy farms are processing and selling their own fluid milk, others are making cheese. Once again, among these dairy farms are organic, breed specific and grass-fed (at least when the grass is growing in Ontario) cows. Ontario butter made from pasture-fed cows, can be found in the organic dairy aisle of Ontario health food stores and supermarkets. Organic dairy farmers in Ontario have successfully found their niche within supply management, and with the organic requirement for cows to be on pasture, whenever pasture is available, organic butter is full of the colour and flavour of green pastures.

Finally, I find it interesting that at the end of his article, Mr. Schatzker suggests Hon. Stephen Harper is a champion of slow food. From my research into the Slow Food movement, the movement is built around the ideals of Good, Clean, Fair food and that ‘fair’ refers, in part, to providing just wages to those of us who grow food. In the 1960′s, farmers came together to push for supply management in dairy, chicken and eggs because they were not receiving a fair price from processors for their milk, eggs or chickens. Through the collective marketing provided by supply management, farmers are able work together to negotiate a fair price for their produce.

According to the Canadian Dairy Information Centre, over 75% of the milk in Canada is processed by one of three processors – Saputo, Agropur or Parmalat. This is produced by over 16,000 dairy farms across the country. Through their collective power, dairy farmers are able to push the small number of processors to pay a fair price for the milk they produce, a price that covers their cost of production. Yes, there are changes that need to be made within supply management but supply management does provide a fair and stable income for dairy, chicken and egg farmers. The price of quota is an issue that needs to be dealt with by farmers, and in Ontario there is a cap on the price of milk quota. However, instead of just looking at the implications of quota costs on small farmers, society should also look at the escalating prices of farm land, especially farmland around urban areas being bought for industrial and residential development . Developers and speculators who drive up the price of land also make it more difficult for small farmers to raise livestock or grow crops.

by Ann Slater, National Farmers Union Ontario Coordinator, aslater@quadro.net 519-349-2448

Funding for Agricultural Sustainability

Ravenna — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:33:26 +0000

As a catalyst for innovation, adaptation, and advancement for a profitable and sustainable agriculture and agri-business industry, the Agricultural Adaptation Council (AAC) is issuing a Call for Proposals (CFP) to encourage projects that address agricultural sustainability in Ontario.

For more information visit http://adaptcouncil.org/pages.php?id=5p9d3l7e9n6i

2012 Farmland Preservation Forum: Balancing Agriculture and Resource Demands of Rural Ontario

Ravenna — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:42:28 +0000

Join us on the 17th for a dialogue about intensifying land use demands in rural Ontario.

How do we support both land conservation and rural economic development?

> Learn from Case Studies > Forge New Partnerships > Set New Policy Directions

Why Attend?

Urban growth, aggregate pits, infrastructure projects, green energy, endangered species habitat – all of these impact agriculture and can result in permanent loss of our best farmland.

We need your voice as part of the discussion about how to improve policy and planning for agriculture within Ontario’s diverse countryside economy.

For More Information:

www.OntarioFarmlandTrust.ca

(519) 824-4120 x 52654

matt@ontariofarmlandtrust.ca

Learnings about Small Mobile Units from the US

Carolyn — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:08:43 +0000

Check out these recorded webinars about mobile abattoirs from 2008 to 2010 to learn more about mobile abattoirs. Click here to access the Extension website.

Mobile Processing Units: What’s the State of the Art?

This webinar offers a detailed look at two mobile units, one for red meat and one for poultry, and explains a useful cost calculator to gauge operational costs. (NMPAN webinar: December 2008)

Mobile Poultry Processing Units in CA, MT, and VT

Coordinators of three new mobile poultry processing units explain how the units work and discuss challenges, strategies, and lessons learned in bringing these units on line. (NMPAN webinar: October 2009)

USDA-FSIS Webinars on Mobile Units

These two webinars, offered by USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service, explain red meat and poultry mobile slaughter units. Presentations cover technical and practical aspects, regulatory compliance, and financial assistance programs (January 2010).

SEEDS–A play about Schmeiser vs. Monsanto Feb. 18th – Mar 10th

Carolyn — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:42:45 +0000

SEEDS
Produced by Crow’s Theatre (Toronto)

February 18 to March 10, 2012Young Centre for the Performing Arts (Distillery District), Toronto, ONTickets $10-$35

Sustain Ontario members can use Promo Code “Organic” to get 25% all regular priced tickets!

Call 416-866-8666 or visit www.crowstheatre.com to order tickets

Think you know what’s on your plate? Think again.

Centering on the four-year legal showdown between biotech giant Monsanto Inc. and Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser, SEEDS leads us through a high-voltage labyrinth of political maneuvering, patent wars, cash-fuelled science and the global domination of the planet’s seed supply. A bold new documentary play by award-winning playwright Annabel Soutar and director Chris Abraham.

ONFC highlights Co-ops at Organic Conference

Carolyn — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:46:40 +0000

“Building Local Organic Value Chains Using Co-operative Structural Models”

12:00 – 4:30pm, January 26^th, 2012 at the Guelph Organic Conference, Room UC103

In light of the U.N.’s recognition of 2012 as the International Year of the Co-operative, this session explores the valuable role of co-operatives as a successful business model for creating resilient local and organic supply chains, drawing upon the expertise of a diversity of food and farming co-operators working at many different scales across Ontario. Highlights of the afternoon including a collaborative discussion of several models of small and midscale values-based supply chains, information sharing from the province’s nascent food co-operative network, and a panel composed of five unique co-ops working at all levels of the food chain. ***

Cost: $55 (students $20) + HST

For additional information about this session, please contact Hannah Renglich at hrenglich@onfc.ca.

A Conservation Authority Leading the Way – and With Land to Lease!

Ravenna — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:07:08 +0000

The Toronto Region Conservation Authority has been showing how conservation authorities can make use of their land, programming, resources, and even offices to help create a more sustainable food system. They have supported several innovative programs by providing them with land, have adopted leading-edge policies, and have even begun to green their own operations.

If you’d like to be a part of what TRCA is doing, now is the time! The TRCA is soliciting proposals from individuals and community organizations that are interested in establishing a sustainable urban agriculture operation at Black Creek Pioneer Village (BCPV), 4929 Jane Street, City of Toronto, Ontario M3N 2K8. Eight acres of TRCA-owned land, farm house and barn are available for lease.

A briefing meeting and site tour of the farm property and buildings will be held to familiarize proponents with available background information on Saturday January 21^st, 10:00 a.m. at 4929 Jane Street. Please confirm your attendance by calling Sonia Dhir at 416-661-6600, ext. 5291.

Proposals should be delivered by Friday, January 27^th, 2012, by no later than 4:00 p.m. Faxed or emailed proposals are not acceptable.

Please review full details of this Request for Proposals in this document.

All inquiries relating to this Request for Proposals must be directed to Gary Wilkins at 416-661-6600, ext. 5211 or gwilkins@trca.on.ca or Sonia Dhir at 416-661-6600, ext. 5291 or sdhir@trca.on.ca.

TRCA has a number of innovative programs. Here, we share some highlights of what they have done.

TRCA has provided land and some infrastrucutre for The Albion Hills Community Farm in Caledon, the Living City Farm in Vaughan, the McVean Farm in Brampton, and the Toronto Urban Farm .

They have also put in place many policies and programs that support local food systems. These include:

an agricultural policy that favours the maintenance of TRCA’s agricultural land inventory instead of converting it to another use.
a local food procurement directive for TRCA’s food services at outdoor field centres…40% local food by 2012.
local food options for weddings, corporate events, etc.
agricultural land rental for conventional farm use.
landowner assistance programs to encourage best management practices for agricultural land such as groundwater protection, nutrient management, riparian zone enhancement, tree cover establishment.
Provision of Environmental Farm Management Plans for TRCA agricultural land.
Sustainable Neighbourhood Retrofit Plan – making provision for local agriculture opportunities in community design/retrofit.
Harvest table dinners and community events to celebrate and promote local food.
Advisor, promoter and advocate on urban agriculture for the Ontario Social Services Corp.
Staff garden plots at office location.
Trials on world crops and the Albion and McVean farm sites in Peel region.

Proposals should be delivered by Friday, January 27^th, 2012, by no later than 4:00 p.m. Faxed or emailed proposals are not acceptable.

Please review full details of this Request for Proposals in this document.

All inquiries relating to this Request for Proposals must be directed to Gary Wilkins at 416-661-6600, ext. 5211 or gwilkins@trca.on.ca or Sonia Dhir at 416-661-6600, ext. 5291 or sdhir@trca.on.ca.

For more information on TRCA’s sustainable near urban agriculture initiatives, please visit: www.trca.on.ca/urbanagriculture