Locavore News by Elbert van Donkersgoed
Posted: August 24, 2009
Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario
Perspectives on good food and farming
August 21, 2009
What’s to Eat?: Entrees in Canadian Food History by Nathalie Cooke
What do and did we eat? What do our food stories tell us about who we are or were? What’s to Eat? serves up twelve preliminary answers to initiate and nourish the discussion of food in Canada. Nathalie Cooke is associate dean of arts at McGill University and editor of CuiZine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures. Discount paperback price 23.96. Discount code COOKE 09 at McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Homegrown hops
After a global hops shortage left microbrewers scrambling, brewmaster Matt Phillips had to get creative. Instead of calling a hops dealer to secure one of the crucial ingredients he needs to make his beers, he hooked up with a local farmer, lent him $5,000 to start farming the plant last spring, and sat back to wait for the first crop. Globe and Mail story. Comments from some hops growers follow the story.
Norfolk County recipe book launching at CNE
At the Canadian National Exhibition on Saturday, August 22, at 2 p.m., Norfolk County’s Official Food Ambassadors will launch the new Norfolk County FlavourFest Recipe Book, featuring many great dishes using local food sources. The Two Fairly Fat Guys — Norfolk County’s Official Food Ambassadors — will perform a cooking demonstration at the “Food, Fun and Nutrition Stage” at 2 p.m. After the show, copies of the recipe book will be available at the Norfolk County Fair & Horse Show booth in the agriculture exhibit building. From a Norfolk County news release.
Toronto Food Policy Council- An Example for the World
The City of Toronto created the Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC) in 1991 in the absence of federal and provincial leadership on food security. TFPC partners with business and community groups (including City Councillors and volunteer representatives from consumer, business, farm, labour, multicultural, anti-hunger advocacy, faith, and community development groups) to develop policies and programs promoting food security – the TFPC has been instrumental in putting Food Security and Food Policy development squarely on the municipal agenda in Toronto. Sustainable cities Net website.
Illinois bill promotes locally grown food
At the Illinois State Fair this week, Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation that he says will increase demand for locally-grown food. The bill sets a goal that by 2020, state agencies buy 20 percent of their food locally and state-funded institutions, such as schools, buy 10 percent of their food locally. Brownfield Ag News for America story.
The renegade lunch lady
Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio (California) hosts author, chef and Renegade Lunch Lady Ann Cooper for a conversation about the great American school lunch. Fish sticks, tater tots, and sloppy joes… If we are what we eat, then what have school lunches allowed us to become? And looking to our future… Can schools serve good food in hard times? Topics include the economic and political ingredients of the typical school lunch; how some schools are bringing fresh, local foods into the cafeteria; and why some believe the school lunch to be the social justice issue of our time. Listen here.
Beyond Organic and Natural
We have been saying for several years now that in the minds of consumers, quality, when applied to foods and beverages, is being redefined as “fresh.” From this perspective of quality distinctions, this would apply to organics and naturals while processed foods would not. There is also the strong difference, logistically and psychologically, between consumers being asked in conversation, say in their kitchens or in a grocery aisle with actual products nearby, what they think “natural†displayed on packaging means (“not muchâ€) compared to a traditional survey format where the term is listed with other food distinctions. Compared to other product descriptions appearing in such a survey list, the long-term familiarity of this time worn term still just seems “more natural†to many consumers. Hartman Group reports on the question: How important would you say each of the following descriptions is to your household when shopping for health foods?
The link to putting a stamp on fresh foods
Danny Burke sees the relationship between Twinkies and social justice, and it’s not a pretty picture. The recent graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University spent the past year working with Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market setting up a program to accept the Illinois Link card used for food stamp benefits. Food, Burke says, is as much about power, money and control as it is about nutrition. He’s out to equalize access to fresh, local produce. Peoria Journal Star story.
Industrialized Farming and Its Relationship to Community Well-Being
Based on the evidence generated by social science research, we conclude that public concern about the detrimental community impacts of industrialized farming is warranted. In brief, this conclusion rests on five decades of government and academic concern with this topic, a concern that has not abetted but that has grown more intense in recent years, as the social and environmental problems associated with large animal confinement operations have become widely recognized. It rests on the consistency of five decades of social science research which has found detrimental effects of industrialized farming on many indicators of community quality of life, particularly those involving the social fabric of communities. And it rests on the new round of risks posed by industrialized farming to Heartland agriculture, communities, the environment, and regional development as a whole. Report by Curtis W. Stofferahn, Professor, Rural Sociology, Department of Sociology, the University of North Dakota for the State of North Dakota, Office of the Attorney General.
Designing rules as if community matters
Agriculture may be the sector most closely associated with the idea of community, of mutual aid, and self-reliance. Throughout history, healthy and enduring democracies often emerged from nations of independent farmers. The New Rules website offers information on agricultural policies and a library of local, state, national and international rules that nurture vibrant and diversified rural communities. The rules are sorted so the most recently updated rules are at the top. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) proposes a set of new rules that builds community by supporting humanly scaled politics and economics.
You know you’re a farmer when … last laugh from Agriculture Online ExpressÂ
•                   Your dog rides in your truck more than your wife.
•                   You wear specific hats to farm sales, livestock auctions, customer appreciation suppers, and vacations (also known as farm shows).
•                   You have been told to wash off in the backyard with a garden hose before coming into the house.
•                   You’ve never thrown away a five-gallon bucket.
•                   You can remember the fertilizer rate, seed population, herbicide rate and yields on a farm you rented 10 years ago, but you can’t recall what you had for breakfast.