Tag Archives: investment cooperatives

Subversions from the Informal and Social Economy of Food – Atlantic Canada and Northwest Territories Webinar

Wednesday March 15 at 12:00 EST

Join us for reports from four unique community-based research cases in Atlantic Canada and the Northwest Territories, where the most prized goals challenge the accepted wisdom of economic primacy.

Seed Saving in Atlantic Canada (Seeds of Diversity and partner organizations)

  • Conserving seed resources and related skills/knowledge
  • Preserving endangered local varieties of seed
  • Strong collaboration among seed savers, seed banks and libraries, and local seed companies
  • Contributions to biodiversity, knowledge conservation, social capital and food security

FarmWorks Investment Co-op

  • Investing in local food economy
  • Provincial policies both make community investments possible and pose barriers to local food business
  • Strengthening economic and social sustainability
  • Mentorship and preserving/sharing food and business skills/knowledge

JustUs! Centre for Small Farms

  • Farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing
  • Preserving and sharing food skills and knowledge
  • Engagement of marginalized groups
  • Urban-rural and global north-south connections

Kakisa, NT

  • Building a community garden
  • Sharing traditional knowledge
  • Fostering Food sharing networks

ACCESSING THE WEBINARS

The webinars are facilitated through Carleton U, using the ‘Big Blue Button’ platform:

(Platform opens at 11:30 am on March 15, webinar starts at 12:00)

Accessing the webinar:

  1. Go to: http://edc.bigbluebutton.org
  2. Enter your full name
  3. Select the room: Big Data and Agriculture
  4. As a Viewer please use the password: participant
  5. To join the voice bridge for this meeting: click the headset icon in the upper-left (please use a headset to prevent noise).

To join this meeting by phone, dial:

(613) 317-3321 (1-855-215-5935 toll free)

Then enter 29302 as the conference pin number.

Facilitator: Irena Knezevic, Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University

For questions of additional info, please contact pmount@wlu.ca

For more details on the project and webinars

Opportunity Development Co-operatives

Unleashing Local Capital (ULC)  has a food system connection.   ULC helps communities establish local RRSP-eligible investment cooperatives to support local economic development opportunities   One of ULC’s first investment cooperatives is described in this video:

Sangudo Opportunity Development Co-operative

Like many rural Albertan communities the hamlet of Sangudo was in a slow state of
economic decline. In this video, some of the community members who were instrumental in developing the Sangudo Opportunity Develoment Coop, discuss how they created the organization that raised the capital to invest in local businesses. Watch YouTube video

The Sangudo investment coop went on to make  additional investments in the abattoir, which has expanded from 1.5 staff at the takeover, to 20 staff at peak and it now has some of the most advanced meat processing technology in the province.  The group in Sangudo also invested in a new restaurant start up, which served a good portion of local food (including from the abbatoir).   We know have 8 communities with ODC with several are focused in investing in various links in the local food system.  Read more at the Alberta Community and Co-operative Association