‘The idea of a national food policy is the best thing to happen to food since slicing your own whole-grain bread.’
— Wayne Roberts
Field notes from this week
We’re in luck. The mood of open government is so buoyant across Canada that we are able to base this field report on my draft correspondence with the new minister-in-waiting of food, Minister Chewonthis. I send weekly food for thought for the minister to chew on – not that I want to make pun of his name, but it did make him a shoo-in for the job!
The minister can’t wait for my report on the November 15 annual meeting of Food Secure Canada in Montreal, where most of the staff of FSC live, and where a successful Canada-wide conference of 450 farm-to-school and healthy school meal enthusiasts had just wound up.
Here is my briefing:
Dear Minister Chewonthis,
I’m excited to send you this briefing note on the Food Secure Canada annual meeting, which happened to immediately follow Prime Minister Trudeau’s directive to the new Minister of Agriculture. Just imagine: we have a chance to be among the first five countries in the world to have a national food policy!
What most impressed me about the packed meeting of about a hundred people was their desire to get down to work on a constructive project. This energy dominated the meeting, thanks in part to what animator Amanda Sheedy called the “fishbowl” style of organizing discussion. I hope this becomes the new normal for how complex food topics can be discussed in a way that allows speakers and audience to mix it up in an open, egalitarian but orderly manner.
A fishbowl gives everyone a brief time at the head table, where opinions are judged by an audience at the same level as the speakers, and where a space is always left open at the table for someone new to join and be on par with other speakers who enjoy the attention of the fishbowl. It’s a great way to keep speeches short and on-point, and to keep the audience fully engaged as producers, not just consumers – just what we want for food, as well as food policy. You can see how the fishbowl works from the picture I include in this briefing note.
A few speakers were asked to kick off a discussion on the instructions Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau gave the new minister of agriculture – to develop a national food policy. As my article for Rabble shows, I think the idea of a national food policy is the best thing to happen to food since slicing your own whole-grain bread:
The first of the big fish was Rod MacRae, who professes food policy at York University in Toronto. In a nutshell, he told people to dump the rhetorical crap and bring hard info and precise ideas to any meetings with government. Others around the table joined in, including a retired government bureaucrat who had lots to say about how governments can’t see the forest of food issues for the trees (they see the issue world vertically, he said, despite the fact that complex issues such as food are cross-cutting and horizontal).
At the head table, you will see Diana Bronson, executive director of Food Secure Canada. She was at the helm of Food Secure Canada’s Eat Think Vote campaign that kept a full head of steam throughout the election and sponsored some 68 all-candidates meetings on food themes throughout the election period. That campaign is one example of how lucky we are in Canada to have a unified national food movement that can educate around, mobilize for, and speak to Canada-wide food issues, including international issues that are the responsibility of the national government.
Not visible in the pictures is a new Liberal member of parliament, Jean-Clause Poissant, a longstanding Quebec farmer and co-op activist (https://jeanclaudepoissant.liberal.ca/en/) who spoke briefly and listened carefully, alongside an assistant who took copious notes.
The idea of an overarching food policy, overseen by a minister of food, has been at the center of intelligent food advocacy for almost 20 years. Within the new cabinet, the respected medical doctor, Carolyn Bennett, has long been a champion. Indeed, I gave the kick-off speech for a national discussion she orchestrated in 2009; you can find it on my blog:
http://wayneroberts.ca/foodpolicy
I will report regularly on this food policy opportunity in my column for Rabble, on my own blog, and my Twitter account @wrobertsfood.
Keep on Chewin!
Wayne