National Farmers Union - Wellington & Waterloo Local National, provincial and local family farm advocacy
Bailey's Local Foods A wide selection of local food made simple.
The Canadian Coalition For Green Health Care Promotes environmentally friendly and sustainable health care
Waterloo Food Issues Group (WatFIG) A community of students and faculty researching food issues
Highlights of Recent Roundtable Meetings
At each of our meetings, the Roundtable attempts to invite presentations by people working on projects which aim to improve the health of Waterloo Region's food system. These are usually followed by discussion. Here are some of the recent presentations we've had:
November 2011: Meat Inspectors Nick Van Lankveld and Mark Mitchell from the Ontario Ministry of Agricuture and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) made a presentation on provincial meat inspection and answered questions about the viability of small abattoirs inthe province. The Roundtable made a decision to become a formal member of Sustain Ontario and Food Secure Canada, and appointed new Roundtable members for terms beginning in January 2012.
September 2011: The Roundtable heard presentations on food safety from Health Inspectors from Region of Waterloo Public Health and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. We had an engaging conversation about how to balance the need for safe food with reasonable treatment of the people who grow, raise, distribute or retail food for a living.
June 2011: Dennis Wendland of the Evergreen Foundation made a presentation about the challenges and opportunities of establishing food gardens in schools
April 2011: Brittney Martin, Marc Xuereb, and Julia Gunst presented the results of the evaluation of the Roundtable's activities
February 2011: Ellen Curitti made a presentation on the many psychological barriers to healthy eating and what can be done to address them
November 2010: Brendan Wylie-Toal made a presentation on the research he's been doing for the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care on the potential for hospitals and Long-Term Care facilities to serve more local food
November 2010: Kathryn Lennon presented on the Welcoming Community Gardens Initiative
November 2010: Eric Tucs presented on a proposal to develop the Wellesley Mill into a hub for local food enterprises
September 2010: Alison Blay-Palmer presented her work on developing a Food System Sustainability report card, and asked for Roundtable members' input on it
June 2010: The Roundtable reviewed its achievements of the past year
June 2010: Professor Jennifer Clapp made a presentation called "Over One Billion Not Served" about the causes and effects of food price spikes, and the response of international institutions to them
March 2010: Luis Garcia and Gary Hallam of Conestoga College made a presentation on the new Institute for Food Processing Technologies.
January 2010: The Roundtable approved updated Food System Priorities for Waterloo Region.
January 2010: Joan Brady, Women's President of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) made a presentation on the Farm Income Crisis, referring to two NFU briefings: the Farm Income Crisis, and the Farm Crisis and Corporate Profits.
November 2009: Theresa Schumilas gave a presentation on the new Organic Standards for Canada, explaining what logos customers should be looking for on organic products now.
November 2009: Kim Kitagawa of the Region of Waterloo's Waste Management program gave a presentation on food packaging and composting and the Region's efforts to minimize food "waste" in landfills.
September 2009: UW Professor and Roundtable member Steffanie Scott and student Aijuan Chen made a presentation about the Organics Industry in China based on research they conducted there.
September 2009: The Roundtable also reviewed the current "Food System Priorities" for Waterloo Region with a view to updating them based on current realities.
September 2009: The Roundtable endorsed the Save Our Prison Farms campaign.
May 2009: Matthew Bailey-Dick of the Waterloo Hen Association shared his experience of trying to legalize the keeping of hens in the City of Waterloo. His full presentation can be viewed here [3.7MB .pdf file].
Roundtable member Mark Reusser led a discussion of positions held by the Waterloo Federation of Agriculture with regard to land use planning at the provincial and municipal levels. He shared two letters produced by the WFA: one to the province's Agricultural Advisory Team from 2004, and one on the Region of Waterloo's draft of its Official Plan in January 2009. The Roundtable discussed ways to approach farmland preservation, and discussed the perils of mineral aggregate extraction on farmland.
April 2009: the Roundtable reviewed its achievements of the past year in comparison to objectives it set for itself: overall, we met our objectives. See here [920KB .pdf file] to view full presentation.
April 2009: the Roundtable decided to make efforts to host a public consultation on ways to improve food access and food security in the Region given the heightened need in the current economy.
January 2009: the Roundtable approved its official response to the Regional Official Plan (ROP); it also received updates on two upcoming opportunities to give input into national food policy: the People's Food Policy Project of Food Secure Canada and the Liberal Party of Canada's efforts to establish its own policy (see details on our Discussion Forum)
November 2008: John Lubczynski, presentation [1.4MB .pdf file]on the areas of the draft Regional Official Plan related to the food system
September 2008: Wayne Roberts, author of the No-Nonsense Guide to World Food
September 2008: Challenging a Fast Food outlet located near a High School, by Mary Linington
See articles in The Record:
http://news.therecord.com/article/386910
http://news.therecord.com/article/387717
May 2008: Diggable Communities [1.7MB .pdf file], by Carol Popovic
May 2008: Planning 101 [1.7MB .pdf file], by John Lubczynski
March 2008: Food Brokering and Distribution [500KB .pdf file], by Dan Flanagan and Ron Laurie
March 2008: Neighbourhood Markets [330KB .pdf file], by Sanjay Govindaraj
