If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s instructions to his new Minister of Agriculture are followed, Canada will soon lead the pack of G20 economically powerful countries when it comes to food policy. Among the duties listed in Trudeau’s public mandate letter to Minister Lawrence MacAulay is one to “develop a food policy that promotes healthy living and safe food by putting…
Category: Local Food
VIDEO: Wayne Roberts on Food
Wayne asserts that the potential of food for solving societal problems can only be unlocked if viewed as a Rubik’s cube. You have to view all 6 sides of the cube at the same time, which demands integral thinking and working. Very helpful then is not asking the classical question ‘how do we make food cheaper’, but ‘how do we…
USC Canada VIDEO: Seeds Grow More than Food
Wayne Roberts — a widely respected Toronto food policy analyst and practitioner — visited USC Canada’s Honduras program in August 2012 with Tim Baker — the lead singer of Juno-nominated band, Hey Rosetta! This video features Wayne’s experience with the farmers there, and highlights the lessons he took away from this beautiful but challenging country.
Don’t jump to rasher conclusions. Pigs offer bacon of hope to sustainable food systems
Bacon may not be all it’s sizzled up to be, but it does explain a whole rasher of things about today’s food scene. I got to experience the bacon back story on August 8, as one of four judges at a BaconFest2015 celebration at east-end Toronto’s neighbourhood-based Leslieville Farmers Market. I was the spoilsport, asking questions about the sustainability of…
VIDEO: Sustainable Food Policy
Wayne Roberts, one of Canada’s leading food policy analysts and former manager of the Toronto Food Policy Council discusses sustainable food polices and the role they can play in creating a healthier Greater Sudbury.
Life of Bryan: Working the magic of sustainable food’s sweet spot
Brian Gilvesy is one of Canada’s most-recognized farm innovators, as well as one of the country’s best-known leaders of the food movement. That combination is unusual in any region or country—one of the ways that Gilvesy exemplifies both the hallmarks of the food movement in Canada, as well as the unique components of agro-ecology as it emerges in a temperate-cold…
Students, Activists Tackle Body Size and Equity Issues at New College Panel
Katie LeBesco was the main course at the New College Global Food Equity initiative’s public lecture on obesity politics, but the pièce de résistance was the panel that followed. First to speak was Asam Ahmad, coordinator of It Gets Fatter, a body-positivity project serving people of colour dealing with fat issues, who launched with a zinger: he said he was working to make the…
‘Ugly fruit’ finally breaks through to supermarket shelves
There’s a lot to learn from Loblaws decision to sell less attractively shaped fruit and vegetables for 30 per cent less than their more stylish counterparts on the other side of the produce runway. Loblaws is not only the leading supermarket in Canada. It’s also a retailing pioneer that draws on the marketing knowhow of a multi-billion dollar global empire…
The Bogeyman of Obesity: Katie Lebesco Talks Fat Activism and Body Politics at New College
When I was a kid growing up in the “happy days” era, anyone who was the slightest bit different – I mean slightly, as in having freckles, a cowlick, glasses, a limp, a speech impediment, a twitch or accent, or being shy, skinny (me), fat, or even queasy if someone put a frog put down your sweater – was fair…