Fair Finance Fund announced for Local Food and Farm Sector

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Author: Josie Di Felice

Posted: May 15, 2018

Categories: Funding Opportunities / GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario

The Local Food and Farm Co-ops (LFFC) has announced a new initiative, the Fair Finance Fund for the local food and farm sector, through a partnership with the Rural Agri-Innovation Network/ SSMIC and others.

The Fair Finance Fund has been established as a social finance investment fund that will support local food and farm social enterprises that have explicit social and/or environmental values and goals that support local food systems, local economies and the planet.

The Fund will build on seed capital to implement an ongoing investment opportunity for community-minded investors to support food that is grown, raised and processed in their own backyards.

“Without a strong local food system, we are at the mercy of volatile pricing and climate-related disaster in other countries,” said Sally Miller, LFFC Project Manager. “The majority of Canada’s farmers will reach retirement age in the next ten years, and it is unclear how the next generation can afford to take their place, with property values sky-high and infrastructure like marketing and distribution all lagging behind demand. This project is about food sovereignty—mobilizing our financial power to build food systems scaled appropriately and designed efficiently to meet the needs of Canadians north and south.”

Read the full news release here.