Author Archives: Phil

About Phil

Research Associate, Nourishing Ontario

Lakehead University Tier II Canada Research Chair in Food Systems Studies

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Lakehead University invites applications for a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Tier II Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Food Systems Studies at a rank commensurate with experience and qualifications. We seek an innovative, outstanding emerging researcher that has demonstrated interdisciplinary research strengths, grantsmanship and publications in food systems study.  The Chair will work closely with colleagues in the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences and will take a lead role at the Food Security Research Network (FSRN) (www.fsrn.ca ) which has an established track record in community-based research.  There are many opportunities for the Chair to embrace a diversity of interdisciplinary topics critical to the study of building resilient and sustainable food systems.  Ongoing research at FSRN embraces the application of a complex adaptive systems perspective to food systems.  Given the scope and potential impacts of local food systems, it is particularly critical to understand their dynamics as they emerge through innovation and evolve in response to their surroundings within a context geared primarily toward the dominant agri-industrial system.

See the full posting for application details. Persons that are interested may contact Dr. Mirella Stroink  mstroink@lakeheadu.ca or Dr. Connie Nelson cnelson@lakeheadu.ca for further information on this Chair position.  Selection decisions will be made by Lakehead’s CRC Committee.

Fortnightly Feast – vol. 12

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Focus on Urban Agriculture

Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture for Resilient City-Regional Food Systems
Marielle Dubbeling’s post on the Landscape blog, about the role that urban and peri-urban agriculture can play in enhancing the sustainability and resilience of urban food systems. Read more…

The Sustainable Food Cities Network
From its evolution as an event organised by the Soil Association and Cardiff University and hosted by Bristol City Council in 2011, the Sustainable Food Cities Network has become an alliance of public, private and third sector organisations that believe in the power of food as a vehicle for driving positive change. Read more…

New Agriculturalist Focus on… Urban Agriculture
Urban agriculture is being increasingly recognised as an important strategy to respond to a number of key challenges – including poverty, food security and nutrition, unemployment and the management of wastes and wastewater. Read more…

Food Hub Movement Gaining Momentum Across Michigan
While the creation of a food hub in your community may seem like a no-brainer, they require careful planning and an investment from all of the stakeholders in the local food system. Read more…

And in the category of coolest name ever, in Cowpens, SC: Thicketty Mountain Farms!

The No Nonsense Guide to World Food – Wayne Roberts

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No-nonsense GuideIt’s not a worm’s eye view of the food world, but then it’s not a bird’s eye view either. The brand new and totally rewritten edition of the No Nonsense Guide to World Food is written by Wayne Roberts, longtime manager of the Toronto Food Policy Council, who sees the world from between the blades of a grassroots movement, mainly in Ontario, where he’s lived most of his life. Friendly and down-to-earth.

The book is designed as an intro, which means it’s easy to read rather than technical,  and fairly short rather than fairly long. Each of the six chapters asks and answers a different question, so a moment’s glance shows that you’ll get up-to-date info on the meaning of food system, industrial agriculture, junk food, hunger, food security, food sovereignty, industrial agriculture, and sustainable food strategy.  It has the earmarks of having been designed with a university intro course on food in mind.
For copies or more info on The No Nonsense Guide to World Food, go to the website of Between the Lines.

Ontario’s Environmental Farm Plan and Consumer Sustainability Demands

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Guest Blog from Ralph Martin,
Professor and Loblaw Chair, Sustainable Food Production
Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph

Consumers are increasingly asking for more information, not only about location of food production, but also about how food is grown on a given farm. It can be difficult for food processors and retailers to verify that food has been sustainably produced. However, farmers who are busy with current management details are not keen to add more record keeping and verification protocols to their to-do list. Nevertheless, many farmers in Ontario are already engaged in the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) and there are opportunities for the EFP to help them show processors and retailers what they are doing. Although the EFP has not been audited by a third party, there are opportunities for it to be upgraded and audited for farmers that determine it will be cost effective for them to pay for such a service to establish market differentiation of their products. The EFP is well known and voluntarily applied on farms in Ontario, unlike more rigorous verification programs in other countries that have very low adoption rates.

For more details, see Potential Role of the Ontario Environmental Farm Plan in Responding to Sustainability Demands of the Agri-food Supply Chain, by Claudia Schmidt, Janalee Sweetland and Al Mussell of the George Morris Centre.  [1.6 MB pdf]

Sustain Ontario Upcoming Flocking Options Webinar: Supply Management 101

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On Thursday, August 1st at 12 Noon (EDT) Sustain Ontario will be hosting an exciting new webinar in support of their ongoing Flocking Options campaign. Leading this thought-provoking presentation will be Christie Young, the Executive Director of FarmStart and Anne Freeman of the Greenbelt Farmers’ Market Network. Read more…

Fortnightly Feast – vol. 11

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For the faithful reader of this post, and those interested in the creation of sustainable regional food systems, here are two wonderful sources of news, information and events:

Locavore News

The Locavore News Editor, Elbert van Donkersgoed, puts together concise but informative summaries with links to only the most interesting and relevant stories about local food on the internet. These stories are carefully separated into three separate weekly posts, with  Ontario-based, Canadian and international versions. Information about Locavore News is available on the Terra Coeur website. This includes an archive of past issues of Locavore News.  To add your address to the Locavore News distribution list, send an email to: Plumbline-subscribe@terracoeur.com.

Sustain Ontario

Along with a huge amount of information on their policies, policy papers, consultations and campaigns, Sustain Ontario also has three streams of food news: from SO, from their member organizations, and from around the world. You can also subscribe to have Good Food Bites sent to you every Wednesday, or to receive monthly updates about the work of the Alliance and opportunities to support food and farming in Ontario.

 

6 US Regional FOOD HUB models

Seems to be all food hubs, all the time – particularly south of the border, where state and local planning and economic development efforts appear to be following the lead of the USDA in advocating the value of these regional food hubs:

NC   Are Food Hubs the Key to Expanding Regional Food Systems?

WI   Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative and institutional procurement

New fall project for Nourishing Communities researchers – Shared Opportunities on Institutional Land

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Two Ontario ministries (Agriculture and Food, and Rural Affairs) recently announced the results of their New Directions funding competition. We are pleased to tell you that a proposal led by Nourishing Communities researchers Phil Mount and Irena Knezevic was successful. The proposal, titled Feasibility Study of On-Site Institutional Food Production: Leveraging public land to grow shared opportunities, was developed in partnership with My Sustainable Canada, Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, and Nourishing Communities researchers Alison Blay-Palmer and Karen Landman.

SOIL (Shared Opportunities on Institutional Land) is a three-year project, expected to start in September of this year, which will assess the feasibility of growing food on institutional lands through collaborative arrangements with local food producers. SOIL builds on several Ontario research projects investigating the intersection of institutional procurement and sustainable local food. Case studies will be conducted with current food production initiatives on public lands, while administrators of public institutions across the province will participate in surveys and interviews. Pilot food production projects will also be launched at a hospital, a long-term care facility, and a high school. Watch this space for more details, and an update when the SOIL project is officially launched.