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Sustain Ontario est une alliance provinciale qui couvre de nombreux secteurs et qui promeut la nourriture saine et l’agriculture durable. Sustain Ontario prend une approche collaborative envers la recherche, le développement de la politique publique et l’action en adressant les questions relatives à l’intersection de la nourriture saine et de l’agriculture
durable et locale. Sustain Ontario préconise un système alimentaire qui est sain, écologique, équitable et financièrement viable.

Photo par Laura Berman – Greenfuse Photography

L’histoire de Sustain Ontario

Sustain Ontario est le résultat d’un processus de deux ans, mené par le Fonds Metcalf, qui a solidarisé plusieurs organisations travaillant sur les questions de nourriture et d’agriculture dans le sud de l’Ontario.  Ces groupes et organisations représentaient les secteurs de la santé, des communautés, de l’agriculture et de l’environnement.  Le Fonds Metcalf voulait explorer l’appétit pour le travail coopératif et intégré en vue de transformer le système de production alimentaire.   Au cours du processus facilité par le Fonds Metcalf, les participants ont identifié le besoin d’une politique publique collaborative et d’un travail de promotion au niveau provincial.  Food Connects Us All a été publié; ce rapport explore les opportunités pour un travail de collaboration, couvrant de nombreux secteurs, relatif à la nourriture et l’agriculture.  On y propose que le Fonds Metcalf demande du support pour une alliance provinciale qui rechercherait et développerait des suggestions pour la politique publique reliée à la nourriture saine et l’agriculture locale et durable.  En janvier de 2009, Sustain Ontario a embauché sa première directrice.  Présentement, Sustain Ontario travaille à augmenter sa base de membres et à  développer des priorités pour la recherche, la politique publique et l’action.  Le Fonds Metcalf continue à aviser Sustain Ontario pendant que cette alliance s’établit.

Pourquoi maintenant?

Il fut un temps où tout le monde pensait que la terre était plate.  Apprendre qu’elle était ronde a changé la manière dont on voit notre univers.  C’est maintenant au tour de la prochaine révolution de perspective; la terre n’est pas  juste ronde, elle est connectée.   Le Village Global – la phrase de Marshall McLuhan qui décrit le monde connecté par les technologies de communication nouvelles – est arrivé, et pas juste en communications mais aussi pour la nourriture, tant sa production que sa consomption.  Nous pensons que ce village global alimentaire doit être connecté par la conscience et la justice – envers les autres villageois, et à notre environnement.

La manière dont on produit, vend, traite, fabrique et distribue notre nourriture ici en Ontario démontre des connections à travers le village global.  Les terres productrices, les fermes, les communautés rurales et les villes sont reliées par une toile d’échanges complexes.  Mais, jusqu’à présent, nos politiques publiques alimentaires ignorent généralement cette toile et divisent plutôt que de connecter.  Si nous voulons construire un village sain et durable, nous devons faire des connections.

La nourriture est connectée à chaque problème majeur que nous rencontrons comme société – les revenus agriculturals déclinants, la diminution des terres agricoles, le déclin de la faune sauvage, l’augmentation des coûts des soins de santé, la pauvreté et la faim, l’étalement urbain, le chômage des jeunes et les communautés à risque. Ces problèmes ne seront résolus que quand nous aurons établi des liens entre eux.

Les marchés de producteurs locaux, les jardins communautaires et scolaires, les coopératives alimentaires, les programmes pour la formation des fermiers, le soutien de l’utilisation alternative des sols, de nouveaux régimes de certification sont  des possibilités émergentes qui délivrent une nourriture plus saine et plus délicieuse pour tous les villageois.  Quand ça se produit, tout le monde en profite et les communautés deviennent plus fortes et plus inclusives.

Les politiques provinciales deviennent de plus en plus coincés dans une impasse frustrante.  Nous avons différents ministères pour l’agriculture, la santé, le développement économique, le développement communautaire et l’environnement, aussi bien qu’une multiplicité d’organisations non gouvernementales, chacun concentré sur une seule pièce du problème.  Nous sommes en danger de manquer beaucoup de connections potentielles et des avantages qu’elles pourraient produire.

Partagez vos idées en joignant la conversation de Sustain Ontario.  Nous avons besoin d’idées ralliant les talents, les compétences et les ressources de tout le monde, des idées qui sont financièrement viables, écologiquement responsables et socialement équitables.  Travaillons ensemble pour trouver des solutions à long terme pour notre politique publique alimentaire.

-Ceci a été adapté de «An open letter to the citizens of Ontario, big city, small town, rural and in-between» par John Knechtel. Alphabet City, 2007. http://alphabet-city.org/open_letter

 

SO Governance

Team

Carolyn Webb

Ontario Edible Education Network Coordinator

Carolyn has coordinated Sustain Ontario’s Edible Education Network, a community of practice that is working to connect children and youth with healthy food systems, since 2013. Since 2018 she has supported the coordination of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, a network of over 300 non-profit member organizations from every province and territory advocating for the creation of a universal cost-shared school food program for Canada. Carolyn also plays the role of Research and Knowledge Translation Lead for Farm to Cafeteria Canada, which supports students and school communities to make informed food choices while contributing to vibrant, sustainable, economically viable regional food systems that support the health of people, place and planet. In all of these roles she brings together individuals and groups to share resources, ideas, and experience; coordinates joint projects; and supports efforts across the province to enable children and youth to eat, grow, cook, celebrate, and learn about healthy, local and sustainably produced food.

Carolyn studied Environmental Science at the University of Guelph and received her Masters degree in Adult Education and Community Development from OISE, University of Toronto. She currently spends her free time keeping up with 2 boys and helping them develop a love for good food.

Josie Di Felice

Communications

Josie has been working with Sustain Ontario for several years now on various communications and school food initiatives. Since receiving an honours degree in media studies from the University of Guelph and a diploma in public relations from Humber College, she has been working with a number of environmental/food and farming non-profits across the GTA over the last decade, advocating for sustainable local food systems and food literacy education.

Sarah Keyes

Provincial Lead, Ontario Food Literacy; Ontario Chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food

Sarah is passionate about working with others towards food systems change and brings years of policy and project management experience to her role. She began her career facilitating food literacy programs in BC and Ontario where she got to see the outcomes of experiential, community-connected programming first-hand. Building on what she learned, Sarah led Ontario policy advocacy and Sustain Ontario’s curriculum support project Food is Science that aims to build educators’ capacity to teach the curriculum through food. Sarah is now the Provincial Lead for the Ontario Chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, where she advocates for public investment and policy improvements for strong, well-supported school food programs in Ontario, and supports work at the national level to advance school food in Canada.

Sarah has a Masters of Environmental Studies degree from Dalhousie where she focused on food system sustainability using Life Cycle Assessment. Outside of the office she loves dancing and gardening with her two little people, as well as spending time outdoors and on the east coast where she grew up.

Rosie Kerr

Policy Coordinator

Rosie is the Participatory Policy Coordinator for Sustain and a Research Associate in the Sustainable Food Systems Lab at Lakehead University. She is also a contract instructor at Carleton University currently teaching Global Issues. Her PhD in Education from Queen’s University focused on peer-to-peer learning in building food sovereignty and community self-sufficiency in rural communities in Southern Mexico.

Heather Thoma

Heather has championed community resilience and well-being in her work with non-profit organizations and grassroots groups related to food, farming, health, and the arts at the local and provincial level for over 25 years. She has extensive experience in project coordination, community education and outreach, facilitation and partnership building.

Heather is the Provincial Animator with the Ontario Chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, assisting with member support and provincial advocacy to build strong school food programs, including a vision of increased local procurement and expanded relationships with Ontario food producers. She supports local farms through her work with Farms at Work based in Peterborough, and for several years was a Food Procurement Coordinator in support of Ontario student nutrition programs.

She and her partner operate LoonSong Farm, growing organic grains in Northumberland County.

Board

Phil Mount

Born and raised on a dairy farm in Ottawa, Phil pursued an interdisciplinary education that included law, sociology, silviculture, graphic design, farming, political economy, and web marketing. Since completing doctoral studies at the University of Guelph, focusing on sustainable regional food systems development, Phil served as Research Associate at the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, Associate Editor at Canadian Food Studies, principal investigator of Shared Opportunities on Institutional Lands—exploring the intersections of food production, health and education—and Associate Director of Just Food, Ottawa.
Currently, with Denise, Phil is focused on the development of complementary enterprises: a mixed Katahdin flock at Flat Earth Farm (year 9); and a further processing / food service good food caravan, The Sheepdog Grill (year 4). In his spare time Phil serves as Vice President of Policy for the National Farmers Union.

Sunday Harrison

Sunday Harrison is founder and executive director at Green Thumbs Growing Kids, an educational school garden partner working in downtown east Toronto. She is a Steering Committee member of Sustain Ontario’s Edible Education Network. She has a passion for healthy soil, trees from seed, food forests and urban agriculture.

Rhonda Teitel-Payne

Rhonda Teitel-Payne came to the field of urban agriculture through a background in social work, specifically community development. As Co-Coordinator for Toronto Urban Growers since 2013, Rhonda balances policy work with developing on-the-ground urban agriculture projects in partnership with the City of Toronto and neighbourhood-based agencies. Prior to her role with TUG, Rhonda coordinated and managed urban agriculture and other community food programs for 14 years at The Stop Community Food Centre. She keeps her hands in the dirt in her own front and backyard urban jungles in East York.

Christina Mann

Growing up in rural Southern Germany, Christina developed a deep appreciation for locally produced, sustainably grown food. With a background in hospitality management, Christina has worked in Germany, Spain, and the UK. After immigrating to Canada, she became actively involved with the Guelph Wellington Local Food Programme, playing a key role in expanding the Taste Real brand—one of Ontario’s earliest regional local food and food tourism initiatives. In her current role as Manager of the Economic Development for the County of Wellington, Christina continues to support and promote local farm and food businesses with a goal of building a thriving regional food economy.

Moe Garahan

Moe has been working on food and farming issues since 1995. Focused on community development and community economic development approaches, she has facilitated the establishment of many ongoing community and regional food initiatives, (including Just Food) while supporting provincial and coast-to-coast-to-coast food systems change (presently includes Sustain Ontario, Food Communities Network and Common Ground Network). Since 2004, she has been the Executive Director of Just Food, working with teams to integrate food access and food localism within the mixed urban and rural settings of the Algonquin/Ottawa region.