Locavore News by Elbert van Donkersgoed

Author: Katie Rabinowicz

Posted: August 24, 2009

Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario

Perspectives on good food and farming

Agri-foodies push Canada’s berries and flax

Move over Mediterranean diet. The Canucks are coming for you. Many health-conscious foodies have been following the Mediterranean diet for years. And why not? There’s plenty of research to suggest sun-soaked fruits, vegetables, olive oil and a bit of red wine are a good way to keep a heart healthy. But a recent report suggests that fresh, nutritious foods grown in northern climes could also be good for you — and help the struggling agriculture sector to boot. CTV.ca story. Building Convergence: Toward an Integrated Health and Agri-Food Strategy for Canada, makes the case for linking agriculture and health policy in Canada. The homegrown concept is being raised by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute that studies ways to bring together agriculture and health. The report was prepared for CAPI by The McGill World Platform for Health and Economic Convergence, authored by Dr. Laurette Dubé, Paul Thomassin and Janet Beauvais.

Kitchener couple strive to be “light on the earth”

This is Little City Farm, described by its owners as an “urban homestead” and an “eco bed and breakfast.” In the middle of the city on Duke Street West, not far from Mount Hope Cemetery, Karin Kliewer, Greg Roberts and their one-year-old daughter, Maya, are living a life as sustainable, as environmentally sound, as ecologically ethical, as they can. “Urban homesteading” is a term describing a fairly new movement that incorporates simple living, sustainable gardening, home food production and environmental responsibility into city living. Kitchener-Waterloo Record story.

South Niagara gets a taste of the Good Food Box

The boxes are in and the produce is fresh. The Good Food Box program officially kicked off yesterday with 47 boxes of fresh produce delivered to host sites for clients along Lake Erie. The box contains three fruits and eight different vegetables which changes with the season. Funded through the region’s Niagara Prosperity Initiatives, the Good Food Box is a nonprofit fresh food distribution system which provides monthly produce at wholesale cost. Welland Tribune story.

New opportunity to support local produce

At least a dozen vendors have signed on for the weekly Thursday downtown farmers’ market set to begin this week. Woodstock Downtown BIA general manager Kelly Morrison said everyone is excited about the start of the Thursday market, which kicks off at 3 p.m. today at Museum Square and Market Street. She had 12 confirmed vendors by Tuesday morning, with several others to finalize before this afternoon’s opening. Woodstock Sentinel Review story.

Local Food Events, Canada

I thought I would just reprint the list of events so people could get an idea of some of the things happening in just one Canadian region. Elizajade blogs on La Vida Locavore.

Obama Talks Up Local Food

At President Obama’s interactive health care strategy meeting on Thursday, the President was asked about healthy eating and how he and his family keeps so fit. Obama went on to praise the idea of getting local foods in schools, and even said he wanted a farmers market right outside the White House. Excerpts from his answer on the Huffington Post.

Farmers could get a boost from new state law

Thanks to legislation signed into law last week by Gov. Pat Quinn and supported by the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force, finding homegrown food will be easier. The legislation establishes a council to develop a fresh farm and food system in the state, and it creates a system that allows buyers for state agencies to pay up to 10 percent above the lowest bid when purchasing locally grown foods. It also sets a goal for state-owned agencies to increase their purchase of locally grown foods each year so that 20 percent of their food purchase is spent on Illinois-grown foods by 2020. Chicago Tribune story.

The Indispensible Guide To Food Self-Sufficiency

Mini farms are sprouting up in front yards, back yards, on rooftops, and sunny windowsills. Formerly squeamish suburbanites are learning what every little kid knows instinctively–dirt and worms are cool. If you’re on the cutting edge, you’ve already stopped trimming your lawn and started clipping your nails, ’cause the era of manicured hands and manicured lawns is officially over. It’s time to tear up your turf, grow ‘clean’ food, and get some dirt under your nails, because nothing says “sustainable” like particles of soil clinging to your fingers–or your fingerlings. Book review of Carleen Madigan’s The Backyard Homestead on the Green Fork, the official blog of the Eat Well Guide.

Andy Rooney Goes Fruit Shopping (VIDEO)

Andy Rooney, the infamous curmudgeon, leaves his 60 Minutes desk to go fruit shopping at Fairway, in Manhattan. He scoffs at all of the fruit from California, and proclaims that strawberries should come from close by, like New York or New Jersey. Watch video on the Huffington Post.

Road Pricing: Could it promote sustainable food systems?

Road pricing, whereby motorists are charged directly according to their use of roads, is central to the UK government’s transport strategy and a nation-wide system is possible within the next ten years. However, little work has been done on the real life, day-to-day effects of road pricing for individuals and businesses, which should be at the heart of road pricing design. The practical implications of road pricing for food transport and food shopping were put to an expert workshop. Report from the Food Ethics Council (UK) of an expert workshop held in association with the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce).

And for Your Morning Smile

Bomb squad summoned over ….

An Ohio airport summoned a bomb squad to detonate a suspicious item. X-ray equipment used by federal security screeners in Columbus could not detect what was inside a sealed canister in luggage labeled “baby food.” A fire department bomb squad removed the item from the airport and detonated it, discovering mangoes. Associated Press story.