WRFoodNews March 2, 2011

Below are a number of recent news items concerning the health of Waterloo Region's food system. You can read this issue of Waterloo Region Food News and all previous issues on our website at http://www.wrfoodsystem.ca/wrfoodnews. Upcoming events are listed at the bottom and on the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable's website at www.wrfoodsystem.ca/events.

1. Twenty-one Appeals filed on Regional Official Plan
The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) has received twenty-one appeals of the Region of Waterloo’s Regional Official Plan (ROP), including one by the Region itself. The ROP, which for the first time contains a section on Local and Healthy Foods, was approved by Regional Council in June 2009 but needed approval from the provincial government. The appeals were filed after the province approved the Council-adopted ROP with several modifications on December 22, 2010.  While many of the appeals focus on specific lands excluded from future development areas, some question the Region’s overall approach to directing where growth may occur.  The Region’s own appeal seeks to strengthen protections for environmentally-sensitive lands as they pertain to aggregate extraction (gravel pits).  See full Regional Council report.

2. Grants Announced for Local Food to Institutions Fund
Kitchener’s 100-Mile Market and Guelph’s St Joseph’s Health Centre are among the first grantees of the Ontario government’s Broader Public Sector Investment Fund, which funds projects that aim to supply more Ontario food to public institutions like municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals.  St Joseph’s Food Service Manager Leslie Carson hopes that the project will “help to change food procurement practices throughout the health care system.”  For full list of grantees and details of the program, see www.ontariofresh.ca.

3. Union publishes report on Migrant Workers in Canada
The United Food and Commercial Workers has released its annual report on the state of migrant agricultural workers in Canada.  The 2010-2011 report finds a system “rife with human and labour rights violations,” and makes several recommendations to reform the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program to address migrant workers’ issues. Last year alone, the agriculture worker support centres operated by the Agricultural Workers’ Alliance handled over 35,000 requests for assistance and advocacy.  See the report here.

4. The Colour of Food
The Applied Research Center, an American non-profit with offices in New York, Oakland, and Chicago, recently embarked on a broad survey of the food system, to map out the race, gender and class of workers along the supply chain. Their findings are detailed in a new report titled The Color of Food.  Among its finding are that people of colour are concentrated in low-wage jobs in the food chain and hold very few management positions in food companies.

5. Catholic School Board Approves Strong Food Policy
The Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) recently revised their Elementary School Food & Nutrition Policy so that it meets and exceeds the province-wide School Food and Beverage Policy that takes effect in all Ontario schools in September 2011. The Ontario policy mandates that 80% of foods offered for sale in schools be healthy (specifically defined), and prohibits items that have few or no essential nutrients (e.g. deep-fried french fries, potato chips, chocolate, and high fat/high sodium hot dogs and deli meats). The WCSDB goes beyond just food offered for sale to students and includes fundraising, classroom/school celebrations, use of food as rewards, meetings, and offsite events/activities.

6. Seed Ordering and Garden Planning Time!
Roundtable member Candace Wormsbecker blogs on Foodlink’s website this week about the process she goes through to figure out how many seeds to order at the beginning of a growing season and when to start them in greenhouses.  Read her blog here.  And if you’d like a hands-on demonstration, attend Candace’s talk at the Kitchener Public Library on March 22^nd on Planning Your Backyard Garden.  Read details about this event and future events in the Roundtable’s Healthy Food System series at www.wrfoodsystem.ca/kpl.

7. Canada's Agri-Food Destination
The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI) has produced an agri-food strategy for Canada which proposes that Canada strive for a “destination” of having “the most successful good food systems on the planet.”  Since 2009, CAPI has been engaged in a process to develop new ideas for a strategic shift in the agri-food sector. Their discussion paper is the culmination of that work. This paper describes the reasons for this approach, the initial targets, and five enablers that can help the sector achieve this goal. See Executive Summary here or full report here.

8. New Alternatives Issue on “Just Food”
The latest issue of Alternatives, the national environmental magazine published out of the University of Waterloo, is titled “Just Food”. Articles include Wayne Roberts on why governments need Food Ministries, Lauren Baker on a vision for Ontario’s food system, and editor Nicola Ross on whether we need a slow evolution in our food system or a revolution. See summary of all stories at http://www.alternativesjournal.ca/magazines/just-food-372.

9. Upcoming Food Events
Full details on upcoming food-related events in Waterloo Region can be viewed under Upcoming Events on the Roundtable's website. To share news of your event, email details to the Roundtable's Site Administrator, who will post it to the website. Some upcoming highlights include:

Extending the Growing Season – Saturday, March 5, 1-3pm, Little City Farm, Kitchener
Seed Starting Workshop – Saturday, March 12, 1-4pm, Lancaster St, Kitchener
Our Food, Our Bodies – Friday, March 18, 5:30pm-Sunday, March 20, 1pm, University of Waterloo

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