Proposed Amendment to Local Food Act Will Help Farmers Help the Hungry
Posted: July 25, 2013
Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Members
Almost 25 million pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables grown annually by farmers in Ontario never makes it to the aisles of supermarkets and thence onto the plates of families. Sometimes the tomatoes aren’t quite the marketable shade of red, sometimes the potatoes have too many eyes, and sometimes the carrots are warped and bent. Nothing is wrong with them per se, but the merchandisers at grocery stores the province over have decided that consumers are too choosy to pay for fruits and vegetables that don’t have that still-life look. Usually farmers just plow these unwanted products back into their fields, but unfortunately sometimes they are thrown out.
One person though, MPP Bob Bailey of Sarnia-Lambton, wants to make this kind of waste history and help out Ontario’s vulnerable citizens at the same time. Mr. Bailey has proposed an amendment to Ontario’s Local Food Act – currently making its way through the legislature – that would allow farmers to donate any unused or unsold produce to registered food banks and receive a non-refundable tax credit worth 25% of the wholesale value of the food. These tax credits could also be carried forward five years, helping to alleviate harvest costs and other budgetary pressures in leaner years. He hopes that through this initiative “we could fight two problems in our province: hunger and waste”.
Obviously not all 25 million pounds will be captured by this scheme, but it will certainly be a boon to food banks across the province who serve almost half a million Ontarians every month and who are often flush with canned goods but have little stock in the way of fresh fruit and vegetables. Helping citizens help each other, and rewarding them for that effort, is just good common sense. And less food wasted? We can get on board with that, too.