Locavore News by Elbert van Donkersgoed
Posted: October 14, 2009
Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario
Perspectives on good food and farming
Farmland Trust Gets First Huron Endowment
A ceremony south of Goderich has marked the first endowment of farmland in Huron County to the Ontario Farmland Trust. The land is the 141-acre Hindmarsh farm, on Highway 21, just south of Goderich. CKNX Radio AM920 Wingham story.
Locally Grown Cultural Food Guides
TEA has made it easier for Torontonians who are looking for fresh cultural foods ‘from back home’ to find retailers selling locally grown cultural food. How? By developing the first-ever locally-grown cultural food guides that identify the location of farmers, farmers’ markets and food retailers selling cultural food grown in the Greenbelt and surrounding area. We’ve started with four guides that help Torontonians buy locally grown food used for African/Caribbean, Chinese, Middle Eastern and South Asian cuisine. Toronto Environmental Alliance story.
Local Food Systems and Public Policy – A Review of the Literature
This paper reviews the state of knowledge about local food systems (LFS). We identify LFS as an effective mean to achieve food sovereignty, defined as the right of people to local food production, healthy and ecological, realized in equitable conditions that respect the right of every partner to decent working conditions and incomes. Équiterre & The Centre for Trade Policy and Law, Carleton University study.
Savour Industry Update – Fall 2009
Harvest 2009 Issue of SAVOUR, celebrating local food and the dynamic relationships among Ontario farmers, producers, distributors and chefs. Download PDF.
Farmland Trust donation blocks new development
When Deidre Wright gave up the right to sell her land to a developer, she did not view it as a sacrifice, but rather an opportunity to help stop the spread of subdivisions and quarries into Ontario’s dwindling supply of good farmland. Erin Insight blog.
Where they grow our junk food
Our reporter went looking for the farms that produce the raw materials for junk food and found that they take up almost half of the cropland in Ontario. Toronto Star story.
Waterloo Groups Named Finalists for Great Grants Award
The Ontario Trillium Foundation has announced that Foodlink Waterloo and Collaborative for Non Profit Enhancement are two of 19 finalists for its prestigious 2009 Great Grants Awards. The awards recognize Ontario organizations that have demonstrated exceptional results, innovation and a lasting impact on the communities they serve. Trillium Foundation Great Grants Awards 2009 Finalists.
Local Food Going Mobile
Ontario consumers will have the opportunity to taste and discover more about great Ontario food products available to them when the ‘There’s No Taste Like Home’ Mobile Educational Trailer visits their community. The trailer, outfitted with a fully equipped kitchen, will be used to promote “buy local†through cooking demonstrations and tasting opportunities at industry, community and school events across the province. The Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association developed and operates the trailer with support from the Ontario Market Investment Fund program. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs news release.
Food that Builds Community: The Sikh Langar in Canada
The communal meal, or langar, served in Sikh places of worship is central to Sikh religious thought and practice, both in India and in Canada. This paper introduces readers to the characteristics and principles embedded in Sikh langars, and to some distinctive Canadian elements of this food-centered marker of Sikh religious life, including internal community building and outreach activities. The authors incorporate data from their fieldwork, conducted in India and across Canada over the last three years. Michel Desjardins $ Ellen Desjardins writing in Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures.
Turkey wars
If you’re eating organic turkey this weekend, savour it, because by next Thanksgiving it may be easier to buy crack cocaine in Ontario than a drug-free bird. Here’s why: While the turkey industry marketing board tells growers to confine their turkeys indoors to reduce the chance of transmission of viruses from wild birds, new organics standards administered by the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency mandate raising organic birds outdoors. Toronto Star story.
Eat This Recession
It’s been a long time since anyone has given serious thought to building a modern and affluent economy on the basis of agriculture, food and their allied occupations, yet the economic lifecycle of food offers opportunities for just such transformative change due to the number and positioning of green-collar jobs. Wayne Roberts writes in Alternatives.
Study eyes responses to “local,” “organic” claims
Food and business researchers in Ontario plan a new study to measure consumers responses’ to claims of “local,” “sustainable” and “organic” on their food. Researcher Isabelle Lesschaeve, an expert in consumer insights and product innovation at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, will run the study funded in part by a grant of $156,910 from the provincial agriculture, food and rural affairs ministry’s New Directions Research Program. Project partners in the study are to include Local Food Plus, Vineland Growers Co-operative, Ontario Grape and Wine Research Inc., Niagara Peninsula Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association and researchers from the faculty of business at Brock University at St. Catharines. Country Guide story.
Local Food Pioneer in Ottawa Valley Named New Co-Op of Distinction
Matching about 250 consumers with 33 of their local food producers has earned the New Co-operative of Distinction title for the Ottawa Valley Food Co-operative. Ontario co-operators will honour it at their Annual Co-op Conference and Gala at the Burlington, Ont. Royal Botanical Gardens on Oct. 14. Ontario Co-operative Association news release.
Saucy peanut dishes great on barbecue
The Peanut Bureau of Canada has developed a series of saucy dishes. Making homemade barbecue sauces and marinades can add flavour at a fraction of the cost of store-bought versions – and gives grillers an opportunity to cook with healthy, all-natural ingredients such as fresh fruits or vegetables and peanuts. Niagara Falls Review story.
Regional Locavore News Stories
Perfect food close to home
And in that moment, the point of the 100-Mile Diet became eminently clear. And there is a lower-impact option, the concept of a 100-mile Thanksgiving (or for that matter, Christmas, or birthday or whatever occasion presents itself), a kind of ‘one-off’ that recognizes and encourages similar principles on a longer-term basis. Tillsonburg News story.
Ontario kiwis a hit at Brickworks locavore picnic
Ontario-grown kiwis stole the show at this year’s Picnic at the Brick Works. The grape-sized fruit came halved, suspended in a Cave Spring Riesling gelée cube, perched atop a fresh basil leaf and dusted with icing sugar. John Sinopoli, chef-partner of Table 17, created the one-bite fresh flavour explosion with kiwis from Barrie Hills Farm. Toronto Star story.
Chefs extol virtues of buying local produce
One of the biggest trends on the food scene right now is acquiring food directly from its source. That source is usually a farmer, or, better yet, an organic farmer. Restaurants have long had strong ties with farmers, many of whom grow vegetables following the chef’s specifications.
But now consumers, too, are exploring alternatives to supermarket products that have been shipped in from around the globe. Windsor Star story.
City of Waterloo opens new Farmers’ & Crafters’ Market in Public Square
The City of Waterloo has started a weekly farmers’ and crafters’ market in the new Public Square in Uptown Waterloo. It operates Thursdays from 4-8pm, and continues to the end of October. It will open again in the Spring. Waterloo Farmers’ & Crafters’ Market.
Holland Marsh madness
Most of the harvest from the GTA’s backyard goes to the United States, but the locavore movement is changing that. Globe and Mail story.
Celebrate Local Food during Agriculture Week
Buying locally-produced food is the best way to celebrate Ontario Agriculture Week, which runs until Thanksgiving. The week also provides an opportunity for all Ontarians to reflect on the contributions made by farmers throughout the rest of the year. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs news release
Local produce sold here via Ajax
The SunTech Greenhouse is a 15-minute drive from Ottawa. Using hydroponics, the Manotick company has been growing pesticide-free tomatoes — according to some critics, the best-tasting in the province — for 10 years. It’s been a local success story, with a sprawling 10,426-square-metre facility that supplies grocery chains such as the Loblaws group, which includes Real Canadian Superstore and No Frills. But if you picked up a few SunTech beefsteaks in the last week or so at your neighbourhood Loblaws thinking you were buying a 100-mile product, think again. While SunTech tomatoes are still grown locally, they are now being trucked more than 700 kilometres before reaching a Loblaws near you. Ottawa Citizen story.
Food is biggest draw at Norfolk County Fair
Perhaps surprisingly, given a star-studded grandstand entertainment line-up and a glittering, raucous midway, the number 1 reason people attend the Norfolk County Fair is food. Karen Matthews, general manager of the fair, said a recent survey of fairgoers indicated it was food that brought them to the fair. But what makes the Norfolk County Fair unique is its promotion of local agricultural produce and its preparation. Simcoe Reformer story.
Wilkinson announces funding for Farmers Fields
The Ontario government is boosting marketing efforts for Ontario foods and strengthening the farm economy in Perth-Waterloo-Wellington by encouraging more residents and businesses to buy locally grown food, Perth-Wellington MPP John Wilkinson said Saturday at the St. Marys Farmers Market. He announced an Ontario Market Investment fund grant of $43,000 for the Farmers Fields Collective. Stratford Beacon Herald story.
More accolades for Niagara College Teaching Winery
The wines of the Niagara College Teaching Winery continue to wow taste buds. The Winery recently won three medals at the Wine Access Canadian Wine Awards, including silver for its 2008 Dean’s List Cabernet Franc Icewine, and bronze for both the 2007 Dean’s List Chardonnay and 2007 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay. The Wine Access Canadian Wine Awards competition, held Aug. 30 to Sept. 4 in Toronto, is open to all wines that are 100 per cent Canadian grown, and this year drew more than 980 entries. St. Catharines Standard story.
Once you start canning, you just can’t stop
I think I could be newly addicted. This year, more than ever before, I’ve been focused on local foods and making a conscious effort to buy and consume more of them, especially Ontario fruits and vegetables. Not only are they good for me, but I believe it’s important to support our own, in this case Ontario’s farmers. But there’s one problem with my carefully practised efforts to buy Ontario: what do you do with the remainder of a two-litre basket of peaches when all you can really eat within a few short days only uses up half the basket? Guelph Mercury opinion.
Eat Local Sudbury Weekly E-Flyer Blog
What’s in store for you this week at Eat Local Sudbury? Find out here.
AND from the Past
Bacon Was the First Food Eaten on the Moon
The Apollo 11 flight is remembered as a giant leap for mankind, a moment when the world came together to watch Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong hop, skip, and jump across the lunar surface. But the glamour and excitement of the moon landing overshadowed the more menial aspects of the eight-day flight mission surrounded it, days filled with NASA-mandated rest periods, science experiments, and, of course, eating. The Apollo crew even dined on thermo-stabilized cheddar cheese spread and hot dogs during the moon mission, bringing at least a bit of America in July to the sterile flight craft. And yes, there was bacon — foreshadowing the current bacon craze, the first meal eaten by man on the moon was none other than bacon cubes, coated with gelatin to combat crumbs. Eat Me Daily story.