Locavore News by Elbert van Donkersgoed
Posted: August 7, 2009
Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario
Perspectives on good food and farming
Set the table for home ec
Guelph food industry promoter Lilian Schaer suggested this week that the time has come for the return of mandatory home economics classes in the province’s public school curriculum. Guelph Mercury story.
Event promotes local produce
Flavourfest at the Norfolk County Fair is getting its own spotlight. The attraction has gained in popularity over its five years in the Simcoe Recreation Centre, with its local food vendors, celebrity chefs and cooking demonstrations. Now, it’s expanding to its own show that will take over The Aud in the spring called Eat and Drink Norfolk Festival. Brantford Expositor story.
A feast of local food in Stratford
A charming town and country experience awaits visitors to Perth County. Here, all roads lead to Stratford. Yes, the town is famous for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada. But once you’ve have had your fill of drama, you’ll discover Stratford is a good food town, too. There are quaint shops, from candy-makers to a tea-tasting bar, and restaurants serious about local food. This is also the home of the Stratford Chefs School, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Toronto Star story.
Community garden an urban agricultural oasis
Jane Hanlon handed out garden tools Saturday like a poker dealer hands out cards. The executive director of Climate Action Niagara moved from one corner of the Centennial Park community garden to the other doling out spades and claw-like weed removers to more than 50 volunteers recruited to help gussy up the new growing space. It’s an urban agricultural oasis, with plots rented for $2 each to people living in the neighbourhood, community groups and churches. A few beds have been left for harvests destined for Community Care of St. Catharines-Thorold. Niagara Falls Review story.
Urban park sprouts a city farm
Sunny Lam walks down his farm row pointing out the epazote here – “it’s a Mexican herb” – and the flowering kale there, which is “growing like crazy” as another TTC bus roars by. A few months into the season, it seems the soil at Keele and Sheppard Aves. is good for growing many things besides strip malls and bus shelters: purple-stalked Cairo cabbage, fluffy dill and a packed row of Bambino and Rosemore lettuce. Toronto Star story.
North Texas foodies never forgot Julia Child
Food enthusiasts everywhere remain enchanted by Child’s fearless, ardent approach, as evidenced by the film Julie & Julia, debuting in theaters Friday. Forty years after Child’s masterpiece cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was released, a frustrated writer in New York named Julie Powell tackled all 500-plus recipes in MAFC in one year, blogging daily about her project (see accompanying interview with Powell). The task so captured the attention of the cooking world that the project became a book and now a movie, starring Meryl Streep as Child. Fort Worth Star Telegram story.
A new, citywide initiative may increase resident’s access to locally grown foods
Homegrown Minneapolis, an initiative started this summer at the behest of Mayor R.T. Rybak and his wife, Megan O’Hara, seeks to increase the amount of locally produced and available foods in Minneapolis via policy changes, promotion, education and partnering with more than 100 stakeholders throughout the area. Minnesota Daily story.
Celebrity gardener has given his backing to a National Trust (UK) report on gardening
The National Trust’s report Space to Grow: Why People Need Gardens shows that more than 70% of people believe spending time in the garden is important for quality of life. A total of 80% of people believe children should learn about gardening at school. One in three members of the public considers gardens romantic places that can give their love life a boost, according to the survey. Horticulture Week Daily story.
Wal-Mart Unveils Sustainability Index
The Bentonville, Ark., retailer on July 16 announced plans to develop — in cooperation with suppliers, universities and other sustainability leaders — a worldwide sustainable product index that it will use to rank suppliers, much as it has been doing with its Packaging Scorecard. The final step in developing the index will be to translate the product information into a simple rating for consumers about the sustainability of products – apparently a label on the product. This will provide customers with the transparency into the quality and history of products that they don’t have today, Wal-Mart officials said. Details on FoodProcessing.com.
Trends Shaping the New Consumer
The New Consumer has re-evaluated individual and societal roles and has decided to ‘reboot’ and start over. No longer content to leave it to institutions to repair what they see as the system’s shortcomings or failures, they are leading the way and taking charge in projects of personal environmentalism and spiritualism, and are seeking value for their hard earned dollar in imaginative ways. They are taking this opportunity to do away with artificial and manufactured needs, rediscover the true value of things and live new experiences. They are conspicuously green, consuming in different ways – looking for tangible ways to indulge on a dime instead of a dollar, to share and swap as opposed to buy, to reuse and exchange instead of dispose – and are not shy about letting people know they are doing it. They choose to do their business with suppliers who authentically share their values of social and environmental responsibility, and they understand that the internet has empowered them with an unprecedented voice, reach and potential for participation in product or service development. They expect their suppliers to listen to their voice. Ipsos Ideas report.