Yellowknife and Hay River “We’re so far behind up here that we’re ahead,” Evellyn Coleman told me, explaining why her Territorial Farmers Association, the first in North America to consider accepting backyard and community gardeners as full members, was inviting me up to speak in the Northwest Territories. Just south of the Arctic tundra, where lichen and moss are the…
Author: Wayne Roberts
Wayne Roberts is a Canadian food policy analyst and writer, widely respected for his role as the manager of the Toronto Food Policy Council, a citizen body of 30 food activists and experts that is widely recognized for its innovative approach to food security, from 2000-2010.
As a leading member of the City of Toronto’s Environmental Task Force, he helped develop a number of official plans for the city, including the Environmental Plan and Food Charter, adopted by Toronto City Council in 2000 and 2001 respectively. Many ideas and projects of the TFPC are featured in Roberts’ book The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food (2008).
Since 1989, Roberts has written a weekly column for Toronto’s NOW Magazine, generally on themes that link social justice, public health and green economics.
In 2002, he received the Canadian Environment Award for his contributions to sustainable living. NOW Magazine named Roberts one of Toronto’s leading visionaries of the past 20 years. In 2008, he received the Canadian Eco-Hero Award presented by Planet in Focus. In 2011, he received the University of Toronto Arbor Award for his role in establishing food studies as a field of study at University of Toronto.
Roberts earned a Ph.D. in social and economic history from the University of Toronto in 1978, and has written seven books, including Get A Life! (1995), a manual on green economics, and Real Food For A Change (1999), which promotes a food system based on the four ingredients of health, joy, justice and nature.
Roberts chaired the influential and Toronto-based Coalition for a Green Economy for 15 years. He has also served on the Board of the U.S.-based Community Food Security Coalition and Food Secure Canada. He is on the board of Green Enterprise Toronto, an organization of local eco-businesses that’s associated with the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies across North America. He has been invited to speak around the world on strategies that combine food security, community empowerment, environmental improvement, social equity and job creation.
Prior to his involvement with environmental issues, Roberts worked for two decades in the fields of community organizing, university teaching, media, labour education, industrial relations and union administration.
Agro-Ecology Is the Oldest and Newest Form of Bio-Mimicry: Count the F Words
Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and the intricate form of food production practiced by peasants through much of Asia and South America still express that flattery in relation to Nature. In the Global North, all food production except hunting and gathering is commonly referred to as agriculture. But in the Global South, the peasant and Indigenous styles of…
Packaging “tax” — or is it fee? — comes to Ontario
Every time I see a shopper at the checkout counter stuff an armful of food into a purse or briefcase, I’m reminded how far Canadians will stretch themselves to save the five cent tax on plastic bags and do the right thing to cust back on packaging waste. Now we’re being asked to stretch some more. Since July 1, Stewardship…
What If Oil Subsidies Were Phased Out by G-20 Leaders?
Every minute of the thousand minutes of meeting time by the G20 muckety mucks costs Canadian taxpaying hosts a million dollars, critics complain. But the Return on Investment could be as high as 557 to 1 if G20 governments gathered in Toronto follow their own pledge from last year’s meet in Pittsburgh, which pledged to cancel billions in global subsidies…
How to Plug the Legal Loophole that Caused the Gushing Hole in the Gulf
British Petroleum and the U.S. government can’t figure out how to cover up an underwater oil leak that’s spewing tens of thousands of gallons of oil day into the formerly rich fishery off the Gulf coast of Louisiana. But between the two of them, they’ve done a masterful job of covering up a hole in public policy that allows risky…
The Stress of Food Bank Food
I was fully prepared for several days of poor eats when I took part in the Stop Community Food Centre’s Do the Math media stunt earlier this April, when ten well-known Torontonians signed on to stretch a three day ration of food bank grub for as long as possible. But I was shocked by how quickly and completely this poverty…
Feast & Famine: Shifting to a Sustainable Food System
The Canadian International Council, Toronto Branch & The Munk School of Global Affairs,University of Toronto present Feast Famine: Shifting to a Sustainable Food System. Featured Panelists:Professor Harriet Friedmann, Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of TorontoRosemary McCarney, President & CEO, Plan CanadaDr. Wayne Roberts, Toronto Food Policy CouncilMargaret Webb, author of Apples to Oysters – A Food Lover’s Tour of Canadian Farms…
First Lady Obama Will Have Weightier Impact on Health Debates than Hubby
President Barack Obama’s efforts at reforming the U.S. approach to medical care won’t win many imitators in other countries. Indeed, he’s likely to be upstaged in global health debates by First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity. Lady Obama launched a Let’s Move anti-obesity campaign on February 9, and is already catching up with the UK’s naked chef, Jamie…
“If Id Known You Were Comin…” The Role of Food and Hospitality in Community Development
Here is a great presentation by Wayne regarding the role of food and hospitality in community development. He talks about the role food policy experts can take in understanding the global tradition of “breaking bread” and how food bolsters connection and community with each other and other species.
Black Is the New Black: The Rise of the Terra Preta Underground
After the failure of world leaders to produce a climate protection plan in Copenhagen, burnt offerings and negative thinking can keep us positive. The burnt offering is a breakthrough that can buy time by getting carbon dioxide from rotting plants out of the air and into the ground. Move over carbon-neutral – yesterday’s watchword, and enter carbon-negative biochar, the great…