Ontario’s Regional Food Hub Development

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Co-op Food Hub Discussion in Guelph

Changing the Way We Do Local Food

February 24, 2015
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Chapel, Loyola House, Ignatius Jesuit Centre of Guelph

Public Forum, Panel Discussion and World Café

Facilitated by Sally Miller, LOFC Network Food Hub Project Manager

Come participate in a robust discussion about how co-operative food hubs are offering Ontario communities viable, democratically driven business options for local food aggregation and distribution. Guests from the Local Organic Food Co-ops Network’s Regional Food Hub Expansion project will share their experiences before the audience has a chance to participate in small table discussions on Financing, Marketing, Governance, and Logistics for Distribution.

Special guests include Peggy Baillie, Eat Local Sudbury, Devorah Belinsky, Ottawa Valley Food Co-op, Kelly Skinner, True North Community Co-op, Jeff Pastorius, On the Move Organics, Alison Blay-Palmer, Wilfrid Laurier University, Jodi Koberinski, Canadian Council on Food Sovereignty and Health, Glenford Jameson & James Patterson, West End Food Co-op, Glenn Valliere & Randy Whitteker, Ontario Natural Food Co-op.

Tickets are $20 at the door, or included with registration at the Dan Kittredge farmer training (Feb. 23 & 24) or at Building the Soils of a Co-operative Food System, our 6th Annual Assembly (Feb. 24-6).

Food Policy and Regional Food Systems

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Opportunities for Networking across Jurisdictions

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

1:00 – 2:15 PM EST

REGISTER for the Webinar

Where does your local food policy council fit within the regional food system? Would you like to play a stronger role in both your locality and at a regional level but not sure how? Functioning with limited resources and volunteer members, it can often be easiest for a food policy council to concentrate locally. By understanding the role of local food policy councils within the context of a regional food system, groups can network across geographies to maximize impact and effectiveness of policy changes.

During this webinar, expert panelists will address a number of big picture questions local food policy councils have about regional food systems, including:

  • The role of local food policy councils within a regional network
  • When is it beneficial to connect across a region
  • How to determine your “region” and what to do when definitions vary
  • Best practices and challenges to organizing and building regional networks, including resources and infrastructure needed

These issues will be addressed to show participants how networking across jurisdictions can positively influence food system change. The webinar will also include time for participant Q&A.

Suggested participants: Food policy council coordinators and members, policy-makers, members of the local and regional food system and food system advocates.
This event is sponsored by the Institute for Public Health Innovation and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
Register here…

Food for Health Research Forum

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SAVE THE DATE!

April 9, 2015
Conference Centre, 1 Stone Road, Guelph, ON
8:30 AM — 3:30 PM

OMAFRA — UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH
Food for Health Research Forum

  • Learn about Food for Health research
  • Discuss links between research, industry applications and improving the health of Ontarians
  • Connect with researchers, industry and government
  • View grad student posters in the Food for Health Student Poster Competition

Food for Health is a research theme under the OMAFRA – University of Guelph Partnership. This event will be free. Further details about in-person and webex registration will be sent out soon.

Jen Weston
jen.weston at ontario.ca or
Sara Fisher
sfishe01 at uoguelph.ca

UPDATE: Ontario Regional Food Hub Survey

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(Feb. 9, 2015) Those who visited the Ontario Regional Food Hub survey before today—from a link sent via email or on our food hubs survey page—might have landed on a page containing the message ”Thank you for taking the survey”. This error has been corrected. Please revisit the survey using the links below, and thank you for your patience!

_________________________________________
For Ontario’s local and regional food producers, processors, distributors, and food service procurers: This is your chance to make your needs clear!

OMAFRA-sponsored Ontario Regional Food Hub Survey

This survey will help us to report on the current capacity of food hubs in Ontario, and recommend improvements for farmers, processors, distributors, retailers and restaurants. The ultimate goal is to help funding agencies to understand community and business needs, where funding/resource gaps exist, and how to effectively support operations such as yours. We very much appreciate the time you will take filling out the survey and hope that we can receive your input by Family Day February 17.

For technical issues or questions about filling out the survey please reply to Mike Nagy nagym@uoguelph.ca. For questions about this project, please contact Dr. Alison Blay-Palmer: ablaypalmer@wlu.ca.   Thank you!

Follow this link to the Survey:
New Directions Food Hub Survey

Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:
https://uoguelph.eu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bP1JYQMeBNU8iDH

 

Public Consultation on Chicken Allocation and Northern Ontario

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From Sustain Ontario’s Flocking Options campaign:

All interested parties, farmer, processors and consumer are invited to join a consultation about the chicken quota allocation in Ontario. The purpose of this consultation is to solicit input, feedback and advice on how future growth should be distributed to farmers and processors (farmer-member allotment and processor supply distribution) so as to position the chicken industry for economic growth and success. The Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO) and the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission are hosting a special pan-northern consultation to hear the unique challenges and opportunities that exist in Northern Ontario.

This is your opportunity to give voice to your vision of the future of the chicken industry in Northern Ontario.

10:00 a.m. Tuesday, February 10, 2015

See the list of locations and local contact information across Northern Ontario

 See the background information provided by the CFO 

Building a Wellington-Guelph Food Strategy: Movie Screening and Discussion

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The Guelph-Wellington Food Round Table invites you to the second in a series of events focusing on farming, the regional food system, and a Food Strategy for Wellington County and Guelph. Join us for this free event*, to help determine our regional food policy, investment and development priorities with a diverse group of stakeholders—including public officials, community organizations, farmers, restaurateurs and engaged citizens—as we begin the process of developing a community-led Food Strategy for Wellington County and Guelph.

This event will take place at the Erin Legion, 12 Dundas St E, Erin, ON 

Friday, February 13, 2015 from 6:45 PM to 9:45 PM (EST)

In a rapid-fire format, a handful of presenters will answer the challenge question “Why do we need a regional food strategy?” — including speakers from Everdale Environmental Learning Centre; Friendly Chef Adventures; Ontario Farmland Trust; and Zócalo Organics.

This will be followed by the Erin premiere of the year’s hottest new documentary The Family Farm, in conjunction with Transition Erin’s Environmental Film Series. See the trailer for the documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t60xMswH9n0

Refreshments will be provided.

The next event in the GWFRT Food Strategy Engagement Series will be in Centre Wellington (3rd week of March).

Please visit the link below to register, to read a food strategy description, and for more information about the event.

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/building-a-wellington-guelph-food-strategy-movie-screening-and-discussion-tickets-15623073032

*Thanks to sponsors GWFRT, OPIRG Guelph, and Foodland Ontario

FAO presents plan for eradicating hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean

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FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva presented a new regional Plan for Food Security, Nutrition and Hunger Eradication by 2025 during a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)…

The plan… is based on four broad pillars: strategy coordination at the national and regional levels, with a special focus on gender issues; sustainably ensuring access to safe and nutritious foods; widening school feeding programmes with a priority on addressing all forms of malnutrition, from undernutrition to obesity, and; tackling the challenges posed to food security by climate change. Read more…

Trends in U.S. Local and Regional Food Systems

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The latest (2012) USDA numbers show that almost 8% of all US farmers are selling ‘local food’, with 70% of those selling direct-to-consumer (DTC). ERS census data analysis shows that 85% of these ‘local food farms’ have gross sales below $75,000 (US). The number of farms joining these ranks is slowing, as are the direct sales, which totalled an estimated $6.1 billion in 2012. However, farms with DTC sales are more likely to stay in operation than all farms not using DTC sales.

One cloud on the horizon: new ‘Produce safety’ and ‘Preventive controls’ rules under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) may disproportionately affect these ‘local food’ farms. “DTC farms apply more manure than all non-DTC farms and thus could be disproportionately affected by any FSMA regulations on the application of biological soil amendments”. Read more…

Designing Educational Food Landscapes: Guidelines for schools

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This document outlines a set of guidelines that were developed to aid landscape architects and school garden stakeholders in designing multipurpose, inclusive, community-engaged school food gardens that meet the needs of the primary users as well as the greater community. It is the result of a University of Guelph Master of Landscape Architecture research project by Elizabeth Nowatschin, with the assistance of Drs. Karen Landman and Erin Nelson.

Download here [pdf 6 Mb]

ALUS Honored in Ontario

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From Delta Waterfowl News, January 27, 2015

DELTA WATERFOWL’S Alternative Land Use Services program has earned the Minister’s Award for Environment Excellence in Ontario.

Recipients of the award are celebrated for collaborating with communities and local volunteers to restore wildlife habitat, conserve water and energy, and prevent pollutants and nutrients from entering the Great Lakes.

“We hope the examples we see today inspire others to be innovators in protecting our natural heritage,” said Glen Murray, Ontario’s minister of the environment and climate change. Read more…