Local Food Act Unites Urban and Rural Ontario for a Healthy and Sustainable Future
Posted: November 12, 2013
Categories: GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario
by Ravi Singh
Official release announcing the passage of the Local Food Act can be read here.
Our food choices produce a wide range of consequences, not just to our individual health. The effects of where we spend our dollars on food trickle back to our communities and to our natural environment. When we spend our dollars on food that is produced locally, we are supporting our farmers and local economy. Similarly, when we buy foods that are produced in a sustainable fashion, we support and encourage such practices.
With its incredible diversity in food production and farming and demand for local food among residents, Ontario is in a unique position to enable food related choices that are healthy, sustainable, and beneficial to the local economy by bringing together the demand for healthy foods in urban Ontario with the wealth of “good things” grown by our farmers.
Last week, the Province of Ontario took a major leap forward in creating that positive relationship between urban and rural Ontario by passing the Local Food Act (LFA). The first legislation of its kind in Canada, the LFA was passed with unanimous consent in the Ontario Legislature and will work to promote the wide array of foods that are grown and harvested in Ontario as well as increase the demand for homegrown foods among Ontarians.
The LFA marks an important step forward for Ontario’s local food movement and serves as a powerful statement from all parties that Ontario’s agri-food sector has a vital role to play in addressing issues of social inequality, individual health, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability.
Key provisions in the legislation include tax credits for farmers donating foods to community food programs such as food banks, an increased emphasis on food literacy, and a designated Local Food Week to be marked beginning on the first Monday of June each year.
In addition to the aforementioned provisions, the Act includes a commitment from the government to create more economic opportunities for farmers by making more local foods available in markets, schools, cafeterias, grocery stores and restaurants, in turn bringing more of our dollars spent on food back into the local economy and also reducing the costs and environmental impact associated with importing food products from long distances.
It has long been known that Ontario’s agri-food sector is vital to its prosperity, contributing approximately $34 billion to the economy and supporting more than 740,000 jobs across the province. Ontario’s various regions also boast an incredibly diversity not seen anywhere else, with farmers producing more than 200 commodities, including fruits, vegetables, livestock, dairy, poultry, grains, and oilseeds. The LFA has the potential to serve as the means by which these products are enjoyed and purchased on a greater level across Ontario.
The LFA also represents a commitment to ensuring that all Ontarians are able to access healthy, locally grown foods at an affordable rate. Placing an emphasis on food and nutritional literacy, the Act has taken initial steps in ensuring that Ontarians have a greater understanding of the benefits of purchasing and cooking locally grown foods, both to their own health as well as to our local economy and natural environment. In the face of growing rates of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, enabling healthier diets among Ontarians is imperative to reducing not only the rates of these conditions, but the health care costs they entail.
While we must humbly acknowledge that it is only the first step in a mission that is complex and long-term and that work toward a brighter food future in Ontario is ongoing, the passage of the LFA is nonetheless a cause for celebration among those who have advocated for an equitable, ecological, prosperous and sustainable food system.
As a starting point and guide for action, the LFA represents cross-party agreement that all Ontarians should be able to access healthy, locally grown foods at an affordable rate and that consumers and producers within the province can work together in nourishing the people of Ontario.