Growing Good Food Ideas Spotlight: The Role of Co-ops in Ontario’s Changing Food System
Posted: June 10, 2013
Categories: Digital Media (videos, infographics, digital stories) / Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario
The Role of Co-ops in Ontario’s Changing Food System from Sustain Ontario on Vimeo.
Powerline Films has been traveling across Ontario gathering stories of people and places that are transforming the future of food. Created in partnership with Sustain Ontario and more than a dozen partners, these videos shine light on good food ideas from many regions of our province.
At the beginning of each week, we put one of the videos in the spotlight so you can feast your eyes on the good food ideas developing across the province. This week’s video comes from Halton Region. Watch the rest of the videos on ontariofoodvideos.ca.
With the growing presence of the co-op model in Ontario, there are a plethora of unique co-ops, guided by place- and culture-specific needs, goals, but with shared values, which are ultimately working together to make our food system more democratic. Hannah Renglich, Animator for the Local Organic Food Co-ops Network, describes the variety of initiatives: operating farmers’ markets and student cafes, facilitating online platforms to connect consumers and producers, shipping food directly to remote First Nations communities, collectively running farms, and teaching high school students about sustainable agroecological practices. The co-operative model progressively evaluates itself with a triple bottom line accounting approach, placing an equal focus on concern for community, environmental sustainability, and healthy economics.