Region of Waterloo Public Health building a healthy food system so people will eat healthier
Michel Desjardins food & religion, food & religion, go together like a horse & ...
Ellen Desjardins Co-chair of the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable
Food Sovereignty
Work towards greater food sovereignty among individuals and communities. Food sovereignty includes food skills, food education, and food democracy.
Food Democracy
Increase democratic control over food system.
Communities should have democratic control over all aspects of their food. In a truly democratic food system, people know where their food comes from and how it is produced and distributed, and have influence over those factors.
Food Skills
Improve people's skills for growing and preparing food.
Food sovereignty requires that all people have the skills to grow, cook, and preserve food.
Food Education
Educate and learn about food system issues.
We need much greater citizen literacy about food issues. We need to put a priority on sharing information with as many people as possible about how our food system works, what are the consequences, and how we can improve things together.
Background/Context
This priority of working towards food sovereignty is consistent with the vision articulated in the Declaration of the 2009 Waterloo Region Food Summit which envisioned “a fundamentally restructured food system in which 1) all stages/ aspects/ sectors of the food system are determined through democratic community participation; and 2) the community possesses the skills and capacity to grow, produce, and prepare food in a way that maximizes ecological sustainability.”
