Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS)

WATERLOO – Wilfrid Laurier University is launching a world-class research centre linking two of the most pressing issues of our time — sustainability and food.

The Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS) will be led by Alison Blay-Palmer, a widely-published associate professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Laurier and leader of the Nourishing Ontario research and community outreach project. Blay-Palmer brings her international connections with leading authorities to the centre, many of whom will be sitting on the advisory committee.

“We are very excited about the creation of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems,” said Blay-Palmer. “Local and sustainable community food initiatives reflect growing public awareness that food can act as a vehicle for positive change. We plan to be at the forefront of research on these initiatives.”

“The Centre for Sustainable Food Systems will open more opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration in an area that is critical to society as a whole,” said Abby Goodrum, vice-president: research. “The vitality of our newest centre is representative of the thriving research climate at Laurier.”

Jonathan Crush, CIGI Chair in Global Migration and Development at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and leader of the Hungry Cities Initiative, will be the associate director of the new centre. Crush is also the founder and lead researcher of the African Food Security Urban Network, focusing on urbanization, food security and migration. He has a lifetime external funding record of more than $18 million.

“The new centre is very timely and has the potential to contribute greatly to addressing the research and policy challenge of urban and rural food insecurity in Africa and elsewhere,” said Crush. “New and innovative solutions to the problems of over and undernutrition are urgently required and the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems will be in the vanguard of applied research and policy-making with partners across the Global South.”

A core of Canadian and international researchers involved with Nourishing Ontario will continue their collaboration through the CSFS. In addition, the centre will involve the more than 20 Laurier faculty with expertise in a range of food research areas.

“This centre will put Laurier and Kitchener-Waterloo on the map on the issue of sustainability and food,” said Blay-Palmer. “We’re looking forward to bringing in internationally recognized speakers, attracting top graduate students and faculty as visiting scholars, and engaging the entire university and regional community.”

A grand opening for the centre is planned for this fall.

Contact:

Dr. Alison Blay-Palmer, Associate Professor
Geography and Environmental Studies
519-829-0059 or

Kevin Crowley, Director, Communications & Public Affairs
Wilfrid Laurier University
519-884-0710 ext. 3070 or kcrowley@wlu.ca

Upcoming Webinars

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Scaling up Alternative Food Initiatives Embedded in the Social Economy

June 24th, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Pacific Time

Despite the increasing growth and attention to farmers markets, CSAs, local food box programmes, etc., alternative food initiatives geared towards local production and consumption, many of which emerge from the social economy, remain minor players when contrasted with the conventional food system.

Key Challenge: how to scale-up alternative food initiatives so that they have a greater transformational impact in the larger agri-food system and also serve as a catalyst for broader societal change towards a sustainable and strong social economy?

The case studies examined in this webinar highlight the opportunities and challenges in scaling-up food relocalization without sacrificing commitment to social, economic and environmental values and goals.

We suggest the need to focus attention equally on building physical infrastructure and capacity (production, storage, distribution, retail) whilst also investing in social infrastructure and capacity (coalition-building, partnerships, clustering) required for a robust and resilient local food movement. We hope to initiate a discussion about the challenges and tensions between pragmatic and transformational approaches to issues of food security, food sovereignty, food justice and sustainability.

Featured Presenters:

Mary Beckie: Dr. Mary A. Beckie is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta. Her research and teaching focuses on sustainable community development, specifically the role of agri-food systems, community-based resource management and the social economy, and is grounded in the scholarship of engagement. Dr. Beckie holds a doctorate in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development from the University of Saskatchewan and has been involved in related work in western Canada, the mid-west United States, Europe, Cuba and Sri Lanka. Her previous research with BALTA focused on the role of farmers’ markets as catalysts in scaling local food systems.

Sean Connelly: Dr. Sean Connelly is a lecturer in the Department of Geography at the
University of Otago in New Zealand. His research and teaching interests are in human-environment relations, sustainable community development and local food systems. He completed post-doctoral research with BALTA focused on local food movements and sustainability and has a PhD in Geography from Simon Fraser University.

Register here!

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The Community, the University:

Working Together to Improve Regional Food Systems
Interested in learning about Community-University partnerships and their ability to facilitate healthy, sustainable community food systems?

In 2000, the Waterloo Region was recognized nationally and internationally for its innovative and comprehensive approach to creating a healthy community food system. It was through this approach that food was recognized as a key determinant of health. In this webinar, Katherine Pigott, Steffanie Scott, and Wajma Qaderi-Attayi describe two models of community-university partnerships in the Waterloo Region Food System.

Join us for a webinar
Wednesday June 26, 1 – 2 pm EDT
Sign up to receive call-in information.
Hosted by The Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) project of Food Secure Canada and Carleton University

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“The Connected Organization”

Thursday, June 27, 2013 at 1 p.m. ET

Universities, non-profits, governmental agencies, and Extension systems must embrace the principles of the Connected Organization in order to thrive in the future.

Join noted author and speaker Dave Gray to learn how the principles of The Connected Company can be applied to institutions and organizations such as Extension. Gray will talk about why, to keep pace with today’s connected citizens, your University, Extension system, Governmental agency, or non-profit must become a connected organization.

Being connected means being deeply engaged with faculty, staff, partners, and clientele, changing how work is done, how you measure success, and how performance is rewarded. It requires a new way of thinking about your organization: less like a machine to be controlled, and more like a complex, dynamic system that can learn and adapt over time.

Connected organizations have the advantage, because they learn and move faster…While others work in isolation, they link into rich networks of possibility and expand their influence.

Register here!

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eOrganic
eOrganic now has more than 90 webinar recordings -on topics ranging from Brown marmorated Stink bug and late blight to organic farming financial benchmarks and National Organic Program updates- available at: http://www.extension.org/pages/25242/webinars-by-eorganic

New report: Municipal Food Policy Entrepreneurs in Canada

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Guest blog from Lauren Baker, Coordinator of the Toronto Food Policy Council

Over 64 municipal and regional governments across Canada are using a food systems approach to improve health, generate economic development, address environmental sustainability, and engage communities.

The report “Municipal Food Policy Entrepreneurs: A preliminary analysis of how Canadian cities and regional districts are involved in food systems change,” is the first scan of municipal and regional food policy development in Canada. It reveals that a growing number of communities right across the country have launched food charters, food strategies and action plans, and created food policy councils.

“We were surprised by the number of municipal governments involved in food policy work,” states Lauren Baker, food policy coordinator with the Toronto Food Policy Council at Toronto Public Health. “Municipalities are finding creative ways to improve people’s lives through the way they manage a broad array of food priorities.”

While municipal and regional governments have limited jurisdictional authority over the food system, many are springing into action on the food front. They are bringing together diverse sectors to stimulate the local food economy and generate more jobs, but also to address significant food issues such as agricultural land loss, climate change, food poverty, food affordability, and public health problems associated with inadequate or poor quality diets.

“The activity of food policy councils is clearly visible in almost every major city in Canada”, states Vancouver Food Policy Council member Joanne Bays. “Gardens and urban farms are sprouting in backyards, boulevards, rooftops and parking lots. Farmers markets, food vending carts, and food hubs are bustling businesses. And increasingly foods from nearby farms and oceans are found on the retail shelf and on our plates in restaurants, schools and hospitals.”

The research shows that Canada’s municipal food initiatives have varied governance structures. Some are formally linked to municipal departments; others have less formal structures and funding mechanisms, and some are largely volunteer-driven. The rate of growth of this food policy work has increased exponentially since 2005 and the most significant nodes of food policy activity exist in the provinces of British Columbia, and Ontario.

Given the increasing number and diversity of food policy initiatives, and the potential economic, environmental, social and cultural impact of these initiatives, the report recommends that the time is ripe to take a more systematic approach to documenting and evaluating their role and success. Further, it recommends the establishment of a national network to share best practices across municipalities, and to further efforts to clarify how governments at various jurisdictional levels can best support these efforts.

”With some 80% of Canadians living in urban communities, we need to understand how cities are creating change through food initiatives,” notes David McInnes at the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. “Clearly municipalities are embracing food as a catalyst – to spur economic activity across supply chains, to improve the health of its residents and to respond to sustainability objectives, among other priorities.”

The report was prepared by researchers at York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, Rod MacRae and Kendal Donahue, and involved a diverse array of food policy organizations and advisors from across the country.

The information collected through this research will be available on this webpage shortly. You can find more information at our website: http://tfpc.to/canadian-food-policy-initiatives
Cet rapport et le communiqué de presse sont également disponibles en français.

Free Access to Academic Articles on Sustainable Food Systems

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Research from the Nourishing Ontario research group is currently available online, in a special issue of Local Environment, including free access to the introduction:

Sustainable Local Food Spaces: Constructing Communities of Food

This includes 10 papers (details here) from our recent Ontario-wide research project.

Fortnightly Feast – vol. 9

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s decision to radically alter their definition of “local food” has prompted a flurry of responses. The change to a broad definition was supported by large-scale food suppliers and those who felt that the original 50 km limit was overly restrictive. Others suggested that the new rule might be relevant in a province the size of P.E.I., but in larger provinces, the rule would invite market distortion through misleading messages on labels that undermine the efforts of local producers.

In other news…

Farm & Food Care Ontario is presenting Breakfast on the Farm, June 22, 2013, in support of Ontario’s food and farming industry.

Recent national opinion surveys in Australia show that, among other things, “85 per cent want ‘support for local and regional food systems’ to be in the top two priorities of a National Food Plan.”

Rural Land Use Conference

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Guest blog: Joel Fridman, University of Toronto

On May 14, three hundred people packed the Royal City Ballroom at the Delta Hotel in Guelph, Ontario for the Exploring Rural Land Use Conference. The conference, presented by the University of Guelph’s Institute for the Advanced Study of Food and Agricultural Policy based out of their Department of Food, Agriculture, and Resource Economics (FARE), sought to engage “the historic discussion about the role of individuals and hand of government” in enduring issues of rural land use. Members of Ontario’s agriculture, business, planning, civil society, academic and government sectors attended to take part in this discussion. The guiding questions for the day included the price of farmland in Ontario, the dominant trends in farmland use, and farmland ownership.

The day was divided into three sessions. The first morning session explored land prices, and the dominant factors affecting the farmland market. Among three speakers in this session, Marleen Van Ham, a real estate appraiser, gave “the dirt road perspective” on trends in the land market based on sales. Among some insightful conclusions, Van Ham shared what she called “wild cards” in the land market, noting the uncertainties with respect to how wind turbines, solar farms, the greenbelt, urban sprawl, and the growing hunger of urban investment firms for rural land, will affect the land market going forward.

The second morning session focused on rural land governance, concentrating on provincial policy framework for severances, land subdivision and a core planning issue of surplus residences on rural land parcels. Sarah Willhelm, a planner in the development department of the County of Wellington, evocatively put the question to the audience: will new residential lots affect what farmers can do on the land in the future?

The final session focused on property rights. Speakers presented on the history of the Property Rights Movement in Ontario, providing a staunch reminder of the historic tensions associated with balancing private property rights with public interest in land use.

In a keynote address, Chief Robert Louie of the Westbank First Nation and Chairman of the First Nations Land Advisory Committee shared the latest news on the Framework Agreement (FA) on First Nations Land Management. The FA is a government-to-government arrangement committed to in 1996 and passed in the Federal Parliament in 1999. Through the development of Land Codes, the FA recognizes a First Nation as the legitimate Government over their lands and resources, assuming jurisdiction to make, administer, and enforce their laws. Each First Nation is responsible for developing their Land Codes. 39 First Nations are in the operational stages of the FA, while 30 are in the development stage. Daniel Millete, a strategic planner of the First Nation Lands Management Resource Centre also spoke of opportunities to meld western planning methods with indigenous land values for the betterment of planning practices and resource management in First Nation Reserves.

Overall, the conference provided a healthy discussion of pertinent issues demanding attention, and participatory engagement. With this in mind, however, sometimes absent from such discussions of trends and pressures on rural land use is the opportunity to step back and provide important context to the conversation. What kind of food system do we want, and more importantly, what kind of food system do we need? Rural lands are where our farmers grow our food, and the policies surrounding farmland use structure the kind of food system that is possible. This context for decision making will be neglected at our peril.

Presentations and slides from the conference can be accessed here (http://www.uoguelph.ca/fare/institute/presentations.html)

A permanent city council to promote local food production and consumption?!

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Edmonton food council ready to plant roots

The 15-member advisory council, which will be chosen in June, will also have to look at difficult issues like raising chickens and bees in the city, or how to set up a food hub at the local community league, said Hani Quan, principal planner with the city’s new food and urban agriculture strategy. Read more…

Study looking at sustainable food system for Huron

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The first in a series of meetings to discuss the concept of a local sustainable food system in Huron County was held last week in Varna.

Presented by consultants Mary Ferguson and Ryan Turnbull, the goals of the meeting May 8 were to “create a unified understanding of a sustainable food system in Huron, bring learning from other rural areas engaged in sustainable food system efforts and build momentum and leadership for a sustainable food system in Huron County.”

Is CFIA’s local your local?

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Last week, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced its intent to review the term local in relation to food. Calling this undertaking “an initiative to modernize its food labelling approach” the agency promises to soon seek input that will help it better define the meaning of local. Its old definition deemed local food to mean that:

the food originated within a 50 km radius of the place where it was sold, or
the food sold originated within the same local government unit (e.g. municipality) or adjacent government unit

It turns out that somewhere along the way the CFIA decided to do away with that policy and replace it (for now) with

food produced in the province or territory in which it is sold, or
food sold across provincial borders within 50 km of the originating province or territory

That interim policy is apparently considered less “outdated” and better suited to the “current food production practices” and “consumer needs and expectations”.

I am currently living in Nova Scotia, where many of us do indeed consider anything that comes from this province to be local. But this is a province of roughly 55 thousand square kilometers and fewer than one million people. In contrast, Ontario boasts 20 times the area and more than 10 times the population. Some Ontarians who live in the North would not accept that Southern Ontario food is “local”, as was made clear in a recent province-wide report Models and Best Practices for Building Sustainable Food Systems in Ontario and Beyond. Moreover, our report highlights the need to recognize the unique needs and circumstances of each food region and even each community. Many of our research participants were particularly dismayed by one-size-fits-all approaches, and would be concerned that such disparate food regions would even be thought of as one locality. Local can mean different things in different places. The diversity of geography, demography, and scale in Ontario’s food system could not be overstated and to fail to recognize that is to disconnect policy from reality.

The Canadian Association for Food Studies listserv saw a flurry of exchange on the issue this week. Many of the discussion participants see the CFIA’s interim definition as inadequate and really missing the point of the increasingly popular turn to local – a turn that, in most general terms, aims to address multiple ills of the current food system and not just the simple mileage issues. As one post suggested, the attempts to “operationalize” local result in an “artificial geo-political boundary” that, according to another post, ”does not begin to address all that we need to do in rebuilding healthy citizens and foodsheds.”

In my work, I have criticized food labels as shortcuts meant to stand in for informed consumption. They are easily manipulated, and yet they reassure us that we don’t need to know our food beyond the messages on the packaging. Such shortcuts quell our curiosities and lull us further into food oblivion. They make us ask fewer questions and justify our convenient choices. And they also shape our perceptions of the world making us think that there is a definitive authority on such things as local, and that someone, in this case the CFIA, is being accountable for the well-being and honesty of our food system.

Local is diverse. It is at the same time vague and meaningful, and no one geographical definition can quite encompass all the different things that local embodies. A province-based definition can hardly begin to reflect that. The upcoming CFIA’s consultation must include considerations of regional foodsheds, layers of diversity, and the multiple goals that are embedded in local. This may possibly mean no policy at all, and it certainly means that a policy that relies on the “province or territory” as the foundation of its definition completely misses the mark. To that end, I invite you to keep an eye on the CFIA’s website and have a say in the consultation in any way you can. Perhaps the diversity of local can be reflected in the diversity of our submissions.

Irena Knezevic is a Nourishing Ontario research associate and a postdoctoral fellow at FoodARC. The views expressed in this post are her own and do not necessarily represent either of those organizations. Irena can be reached at irena.knezevic@msvu.ca

Nourishing Communities

Sustainable Local Food Systems Research Group

Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS)

New report: Municipal Food Policy Entrepreneurs in Canada

Free Access to Academic Articles on Sustainable Food Systems

Sustainable Local Food Spaces: Constructing Communities of Food

More free articles!

Fortnightly Feast – vol. 9

Rural Land Use Conference

A permanent city council to promote local food production and consumption?!

Edmonton food council ready to plant roots

Study looking at sustainable food system for Huron

Is CFIA’s local your local?