Calling All Leaders! Step up to the plate and support healthy food and farming!
Posted: December 19, 2012
Categories: Food in the News / GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario / Ontario Food Policy / Policy News
photo courtesy of Green Fuse Photos
In October of this year, the government introduced a Local Food Act. This was a landmark piece of legislation, which, for the first time, made local food a government priority.
Many Sustain Ontario members saw this act as an exciting development in supporting healthy food and farming. Many also saw that it missed many opportunities and hoped that, in the revision process, the act would better reflect the values and visions articulated in Sustain Ontario’s Statement of Purpose and Drafting Notes as well as our policy backgrounders.
In October when the Premier resigned and Parliament was prorogued, the Act died (or at least went into a coma). With this change, there is a new opportunity to build on the commitments started by the last government through the Act, and to improve on them.
Sustain Ontario is calling on the Liberal Leadership Candidates to maintain the government’s commitment to healthy food and farming by committing to re-introduce a Local Food Act which builds on the foundation of Bill 130, but also takes advantage of opportunities to:
- Enable the on-going development of innovative solutions
- Reduce future health care costs and build markets for local food through schools
- Increase markets for local, fresh, and ecologically produced food by increasing public procurement
- Increase the capacity of local food and farming enterprises to grow the economy
- Support the growth of the fastest growing segment of the food market, the ecological and organic farming sectors
- Ensure that Locally Grown Food can get to market
- Ensure protection of important forest and fresh water food sources vital to the well-being of northern communities
For more about our most recent recommendations see our most recent Briefing Note on Policies to Support Local Food.
The first leadership candidate to launch their entire policy platform, Kathleen Wynne, has included agriculture and rural Ontario as one of her top priorities. In her platform, she has included re-introduction of the Local Food Act as well as on-going agriculture regulatory reform, a one-window approach to agriculture programs, and she has committed to serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
We will continue to let you know what commitments other leadership candidates make that will support healthy food and farming. We hope that all candidates will commit to re-introducing an improved Local Food Act, and will adopting our other recommendations to take advantage of all of the opportunities offered by healthy food and farming.