As a local food enthusiast, I often wonder: why is it that places most removed in their landscape from farms, most outward-turning in their economy, most cosmopolitan in their culture, most multicultural in their backgrounds, most futuristic in their outlook — North American cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Chicago, Toronto, New York and Boston — are the very…
Corporate Knights’ The Killer Kernel
Wayne was recently interviewed by Toby A. A. Heaps from Corporate Knights Magazine regarding the link between food policy and our health care system. Please read The Killer Kernel.
A Raging Bull in a Tea Party Shop: What Foodies Can Learn from a City Election in Toronto that Foretold U.S. Mid-term Elections
I wrote most of this as an assessment of Toronto’s election during the day of October 25, before the polls were closed and any votes counted in Toronto’s city elections. I didn’t know who won, but I already knew what lost — Toronto’s longstanding consensus around the “radical middle” of city responsibilities for social belonging and environmental leadership. As it…
Foodbooks for Thought: Mark Winne’s New Book an Organizer’s Manual for America’s Food Rebels
Mark Winne has been working in the galleys of the U.S. food movement for 40 years, before there was a food movement of any note. He’s a social movement guy as much as a foodie guy. The title of his new book –Food Rebels, Guerilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin’ Mamas: Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial Agriculture — shows the…
RESPECTING VOLUNTEERS OF THE GAIA CITY
Politics has changed so much since I grew up that I still have trouble coping with modern conservatives who are usually outraged by the way things are going and are very militant and venomous about the need for abrupt changes. I find today’s radicals equally out of character with my memories. Many old-time Toronto activists seem moderately comfortable about the…
The Four Rs: Retooling Schools as Community Hubs
By sheer luck, I got a quick taste of the linked future of food and schooling last week. At the last minute, I was invited to fill an empty seat on a charter plane and come see a meal program in a First Nations Cree community of a thousand people in Fort Albany, near where the Albany River empties into…
It’s An Ill Wind That Shows Local Food Is No Longer Debatable
Driving from Toronto to Halifax last week to help move my daughter Anika into King’s College, I had a lot of quiet time to rehearse a rant against a recent flurry of attacks against local food systems by right-wing extremists across North America. I was pretty happy with some of my vitriolic lines until we got to the university residence…
The new edition of the “No-Nonsense Guide to World Food” has arrived!
Wayne’s new book is here!! Wayne Roberts has been hard at work updating his 2008 publication “The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food” To get your copy of the book please visit this site! “Couldn’t be more timely, especially given the great deal of rubbish being served to a public hungry for answers about their food … a powerful book.” — Raj Patel,…
Canadian Conservatives Scrapping of Long-Form Census Prevents Food Planning
It’s a pretty strong sign that we live in an information economy and society when the Conservative cancellation of the longform census became one of the hot button political issues of the summer season. I was stupefied when the Harper Conservatives dug in their heels, refusing to budge despite a chorus of harsh criticisms from senior planners, civil servants and…
Labor Day Lesson: Coalition of Immokalee Workers Turn Tables For Migrant Workers
With Labor Day just a few weeks away and badly in need of an event to celebrate, an historic agreement was signed on August 24. Written in legalese, the statement commits Sodexo, a gigantic global food service company employing some 500,000 workers to partner with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a tiny organization of some 4000 members, to respond…