Locavore news – Canada by Elbert van Donkersgoed

Author: Katie Rabinowicz

Posted: January 28, 2010

Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario

January 28, 2010

Get Canucked: Canadian Cuisine from LA to London

What is Canadian Cuisine? Think about a melting pot of British, American, German, Ukrainian, etc. cuisines with a healthy dose of the locavore movement and a love for all things hot and filling. Best eaten on days when the weather outside is frightful, Canadian Cuisine is, like Canadians themselves, hearty, comforting, and underestimated. Here are some examples of Canadian dishes, and where you can find them around the world: poutine, Kraft Dinner, tourtiere pie, nanaimo bars and elk burgers. Tips from the T-List from NileGuide Travel Blog.

NSFA hears Buy Local is working, provincial beef kill line coming

Agriculture Minister John MacDonell believes “Buying Local” will extract more returns from the value chain for Nova Scotia farmers. MacDonell told the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture’s annual, after chairing a recent meeting with major retailers to secure more shelf space for local products, he felt they are feeling more pressure to buy local. “They really listen to their customers and their customers are telling them they want to see more high value local food in their establishments.” The minister hoped to continue meeting with retailers—Sobeys, Loblaws and Co-op Atlantic—to keep the lines of communication open to them. He also saw a need to build capacity for the beef industry and wants to increase access to a federally-inspected kill line for provincial beef. There will be a feasibility study to determine where it might be located and its initial capacity. Atlantic Farm Focus story.

Urban Barns grows green revolution

Mr. Fitzpatrick and his friend, an adept student of hydroponics science, began conducting some edible experiments which, after some time and nourishment, yielded a gold mine of an answer. “Anything that doesn’t grow inside the ground, we can probably grow it. We worked with some strawberries and these strawberries turned out to be the best-tasting, juiciest strawberries I’ve ever eaten in my life,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said. “We tried basil. It was like a weed. It was phenomenal. You couldn’t keep up with it.” In the mind of Mr. Fitzpatrick, a dogged pitchman whose professional life includes stints hawking TV remote controls door-to-door, anti-theft global positioning systems and estate-planning products, the concept for Urban Barns was born. Globe and Mail story.

Study looks at agriculture’s job creation and economic activity

Agricultural production gives government and taxpayers the biggest bang for their buck, suggests a new study on the economic impacts of public spending across Quebec.”The evidence is clear,” says Maurice Doyon, an agro-economics professor at Laval University and co-author of the study, funded by the province’s agriculture producers’ organization. “In terms of job creation and economic activity, farming is the best sector.  Even better, that activity occurs in rural regions that need it most.” Mark Cardwell writing for Farm Credit Canada Express.

Americans light years ahead of us on ‘local first’ economics

In their zeal against so-called “protectionism”, business leaders who have been pushing Stephen Harper to reach a new free trade agreement on local procurement, as a response to “Buy American” laws in the U.S., have missed the point. They don’t realize that municipal authority over local procurement policy actually works because it increases a community’s wealth. Nor do they seem to have noticed that our neighbours to the south have long been setting the bar when it comes to local procurement. In fact, the U.S. has had so-called “Buy America” federal laws in some form since 1933. But after 76 years with nary a complaint from Canada, Mr. Harper and his supporters suddenly see it as a problem. B.C. Cupe commentary.

The other side of Vancouver Island

The Island’s oft-neglected east coast offers locavore cooking, calm winter fishing and close encounters with sea life. Visitors roaring off the boat for a fast look at Victoria and a $60 cuppa tea at the Fairmont Empress have missed the boat. The pauses include a modest aquarium that delivers immodest results, Canada’s most dedicated locavore restaurant, the casual acquisition of 80-million-year-old souvenirs and a magnificent and calm archipelago for winter fishing. Globe and Mail story.

Food council setting its groundwork

Volunteers helping with the formation of a food policy council are asking interested Nova Scotians to get involved. Linda Best of the Friends of N.S. Agriculture says they are seeking nominations before Feb. 22 for interim members of a Nova Scotia Food Policy Council. “Many of the solutions have been identified yet, at the Food Summit, we heard over and over that ‘new alliances’ were needed across the food spectrum to increase awareness and inspire action,” she says. The interim council is expected to come together at the end of March and will start working on a structure, based on information about existing councils. Nova News Now story.

N.S. backs agribusiness incubator centre

A new centre aimed at developing businesses in Atlantic Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sectors has picked up phased-in funding from the Nova Scotia and federal governments. The planned Atlantic Centre for Agricultural Innovation will get $500,000 from the province and $2 million from Ottawa toward the first two phases of its 20,000-square-foot facility. The province on Sunday also pledged $4.5 million for the third phase of the project, being developed at AgriTech Park at Bible Hill, near Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) at Truro. Country Guide story.

Economic Action Plan to Help Quebec Livestock Sector

While in Terrebonne, the Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister of State (Agriculture), was pleased to announce that as part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan, the Government of Canada will be investing in Canada’s red meat sector through a loan of up to $2.7 million to assist Écolait, a Quebec firm specialized in the slaughter and processing of milk-fed veal calves. The federal support will help Écolait improve its storage capacity and upgrade its slaughterhouse plant technology. Écolait processes more than 100,000 head of veal in its facilities annually, raised by over 150 of its producer partners. With 50 per cent of its products exported, the company plays a major role in expanding market access for Canada’s producers. This federal investment will help the company achieve major savings which will help to increase the profitability of its plant and that of its partners. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada news release.

Top 10 stories to chew on from the food world

Our week-long recap of stories from 2009: From locavore myth-busting to backyard chicken boosting, food politics arrived on the national table. Globe and Mail story.