Locavore News from Elbert van Donkersgoed

Author: Katie Rabinowicz

Posted: July 17, 2009

Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario

Plumbline by Elbert van Donkersgoed

Perspectives on good food and farming

Buy-local push prompts Ontario grocers to go independent

Dale Kropf calls it Independence Day: On July 3, his five grocery stores in southwestern Ontario ceased to be Sobeys franchises. Corporate policies prevented him from buying local products, he says, so he joined forces with four other former Sobeys franchisees and formed the independent Hometown Grocers Co-Op. “We feel that local food, local presence is huge in our market and we wanted to take advantage of that,” Kropf says. Story on CBCNews.ca.

Local fare gets top billing in ‘locavore’ food trend

A new generation of North Americans are turning “locavore” – eating only seasonal, locally-sourced fare rather than industrially-farmed meat and produce, which sometimes can be shipped from thousands of miles away. Expatica Germany story.

Taking action–a locavore is born

For all the talk at City Hall, we’re a long way behind on the road to building sustainable cities. But after a day on the farm, you can also see that something is afoot in Edmonton that could change the way we feed ourselves. It takes commitment, but there are a lot of people out there determined to make a difference. Edmonton Journal story.

Cut the hype, Sainsbury’s chief wants some smarter shopping

If there’s one thing that infuriates Justin King, the Sainsbury’s chief executive, it’s green hype. “The environmental agenda has been hijacked by vested interests,” he complains. King, who has run the supermarket chain for five years, is known for passionate tirades but plastic bags, food miles and carbon labels are his pet subject. Counting food miles is a waste of time in the grand scheme of the environment, according to King. “Food miles have become iconic but, if you focus on them, you completely miss the point. The much bigger sustainability issue for supermarkets is how much food is wasted.” Times Online (UK) story.

Sara Lee speaks on three-pronged green goals

In an interview, Sara Lee Corporation’s director of packaging innovation and development shares the company’s strategy surrounding sustainability. Lonf interview, mopstly about packaging including: “By going to this format, we were able to increase the weight we put on each truck by about 14%. This eliminated 800 truckload shipments, resulting in a reduction of about 532,000 food miles and around 2.3 million pounds of CO2.” Packaging World, Chicago story.

Safeway Jumps on Locavore Bandwagon

Safeway was well ahead of the curve as far as the country-of-origin food labeling that went into effect on March 16. Recently, the company instituted new produce signage that both informs and entices the locavores among us. A local produce guy reported that more produce actually appeared to be moving since the signs were instituted a couple of weeks ago. SFoodie blog on SF Weekly.

Who Are You Calling a Locavore?

The power to feed oneself, one’s family and one’s neighbors is a power so guttural, so primal, that it germinates the seeds of fear within the heart of tyranny. Growing your own food and encouraging local food production is good self-reliance and a sure sign of wisdom. Libertarian columnist Ken D. Berry provides several common sense reasons for supporting Locavore activity. A better future starts from the local level.

New hearings into pork marketing in Ontario

The Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal has ordered new hearings into pork marketing in Ontario, setting aside a Farm Products Marketing Commission ruling last fall that stripped Ontario Pork of its monopoly marketing powers. Southwestern Ontario pork producer Rein Minnema had sought the de novo hearing. “The Tribunal’s approach is exactly as we thought it should be,” says Minnema’s agent, Elbert van Donkersgoed. Bette Farming story. Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal interim decision. Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal notice of hearing.

Frenemy on staycation is a locavore into reggaeton – new words enter the dictionary

Years of environmental discourse has pushed terms such as carbon footprint (the negative impact that something (as a person or business) has on the environment), green-collar (of, relating to, or involving actions for protecting the natural environment; jobs) and locavore (one who eats foods grown locally whenever possible) into the word list of more than 100 words they’ve just added to theMerriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Examiner.com story. Similar story in The National, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and a commentary in Forbes magazine.

The Urban Dome Farm

The Plantagon Greenhouse is an innovative geodesic dome farm design to produce food in urban areas. The Greenhouse, from Swedish Plantagon Non-Profit Association, is designed to produce organic food with clean air and water in urban environments, cutting costs and environmental damage by eliminating transportation or food miles (distance traveled from farm to plate). The Greenhouse in images.