Locavore News – Ontario by Elbert van Donkersgoed
Posted: April 15, 2010
Categories: News from Sustain Ontario
- New Institute for Food Processing coming to Waterloo Region
- Edible Cities event a Success
- Making the Urban Eatable
- SAVOUR – Industry update on local food
- Norfolk eyes hazelnut potential
- Dreamers and Doers: Trying to save the family farm ‘Eating local’ can help make farming
- Windsor vendor fined for misrepresenting produce
- Greenhouses band together for local flower power
- Groups push for greenbelt expansion
- Markham’s food fight
Perspectives on good food and farming
April 14, 2010
New Institute for Food Processing coming to Waterloo Region
Conestoga College is building a new Institute for Food Processing Technologies to train people to work in the food processing sector. The College intends to build the new Institute on land across the 401 from its Doon Campus, and will open in September 2011.Cambridge Times story. Presentation (25 slides) by Luis Garcia, the Chair of the new Institute for Food Processing Technologies, made a to the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable.
Edible Cities event a Success
What a terrific KPL session that was on Tuesday night (March 29), on edible cities. With the overflow of people, and lots sitting and standing along the back, it is clear that interest here is strong. Maybe it’s because it’s something everyone can do! I learned a tremendous amount, and what inspired me most is going beyond community gardens (which are obviously great) to edible cities. I guess I’ve heard about these ideas all along in a scattered way, but to hear about the vision that many people have, even to the point where cities should be like “farms with a lot of houses in them”, was for me very inspirational. Ellen Desjardins’ summary of the event on the website of the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable.
Making the Urban Eatable
We practice a sharing backyards/SPIN farming model which means that community members freely lend us their urban space to grow food in return for a small return of the harvest. We offer support to anybody in our area who is looking for land to grow on, even if they want land independently of KWUH. See here to find out who is lending or looking for land in the KW area. KW Urban Harvester website.
SAVOUR – Industry update on local food
Fifth issue of SAVOUR available. It celebrates the growing excitement about the local food movement and how chefs, farmers and producers are joining forces to bring the province’s agricultural jewels to Ontarians. In this issue: Pingue Prosciutto is made in Ontario, Ontario Asparagus gets year-round treatment, Purdy Fisheries has been a family business for 110 years, At The Five pays homage to where food begins and maple syrup is flowing. Newsletter.
Norfolk eyes hazelnut potential
Norfolk County has the potential to be awash in hazelnut orchards one day, but a number of obstacles must be overcome first, an information session was told Wednesday. The right hybrid of the bush, one that can withstand cold, produce high-quality nuts and be resistant to blight, is in development -something that could take 10 years or more, the meeting at the Simcoe Research Station heard. In the meantime, the economic side of the equation must also be worked out: finding markets and making sure price will exceed cost. However, Norfolk County has one main thing going for it: a company in Brantford called Ferrero Canada Ltd.. It makes Ferrero Rocher chocolates and the Nutella spread, and uses 10,000 tonnes of hazelnuts a year, all of which is imported. Brantford Expositor story.
Dreamers and Doers: Trying to save the family farm ‘Eating local’ can help make farming
Karen Hutchinson loves food. She hands over a Caledon-grown head of garlic and describes its virtues, notably its flavourful taste. She loves the countryside and the riches of the land. But she worries about family farms disappearing when it’s hard to make a living and the land is more valuable for development. Toronto Star story.
Windsor vendor fined for misrepresenting produce
A Windsor man who tried to pass off American and Mexican fruits as Ontario product was fined $1,875 in court recently after being convicted of violating an agriculture ministry regulation. John Steven De Rose pleaded guilty in Ontario Court of Justice in Windsor in February to unlawfully misrepresenting the origin of produce while operating a fruit and vegetable market. Justice of the Peace Susan Hoffman fined De Rose $1,500 plus a victim fine surcharge of $375 for violating a regulation under the Farm Products Grades and Sales Act. As part of that Act, vendors and distributors of farm products are responsible for ensuring their products are properly labelled to prevent misrepresentation. Better Farming website.
Greenhouses band together for local flower power
Ontario’s flower producers are heading into their busiest season with a growing sense that consumers should know the origin of their bouquets and pots. That knowledge — call it flower power — is front and centre in a Pick Ontario marketing campaign that got off to a slow start but is finally blossoming. St. Catharines Standard story.
Groups push for greenbelt expansion
A push to get the Dalton McGuinty government to approve a major expansion of the greenbelt westward through Brant County and in other directions in southern Ontario is gaining fresh energy with the entry of new groups and controversial development activities. They want the protective environmental and agricultural zone to grow westward into Brant, northward through Guelph, the Town of Oakville, Markham and Simcoe County, and eastward to Prince Edward County. Brantford Expositor story.
Markham’s food fight
A solitary bur oak, its tangled branches reaching toward a robin’s egg sky, stands within a flimsy band of orange fencing that divides tree from field. The bur oak is an official Markham symbol, and this one has grown at the centre of this lush farming field for two centuries, watching quietly as suburbia arrived along 16th Avenue. But the mesh fence signals change. Soon, this protected tree will be all that remains of the field, a 40-hectare plot containing some of Canada’s richest farmland. The rest will be supplanted by houses. National Post story.
AND IF YOU HAVE TIME
Cookbook for Expectant Mothers Recalled
A cookbook for pregnant women, The Happy Baby Cookbook from Australian Women’s Weekly, is being recalled in New Zealand and Australia due to concerns over its nutritional recommendations. The New Zealand Food Safety Authority takes issue with certain recipes in the book that contain ingredients that “food safety officials believe could harm a woman or her unborn child if eaten during pregnancy.” It’s unclear what these specific ingredients are, although Food Safety News speculates they may be talking about cured meats, soft cheese, and hummus. Eat Me Daily story.