Food Movement Welcomes Consultations on National Food Policy

Thursday, June 1, 2017 - 10:59am

On May 29, 2017, Minister of Agriculture Lawrence MacAulay announced the launch of consultations for A Food Policy For Canada.

The framing for A Food Policy For Canada is to set a long-term vision for the health, environmental and economic goals related to food, while identifying actions that can be taken in the short-term. Consultation activities include an online survey (open until July 27, 2017) that asks for input on four areas: increasing access to affordable food; improving health and food safety; conserving our soil, water, and air; and growing more high-quality food.

A Food Summit in Ottawa June 22 - 23, 2017 of invited stakeholders, experts and policy-makers has also been announced, creating an opportunity for a diversity of people to dialogue, bring forward innovative ideas and best practices, and set the stage for greater collaboration around food issues. FSC has been invited to the Food Summit and asks that any of our members or supporters who will also be attending to let us know by emailing: admin@foodsecurecanada.org.

FSC is excited to engage with our members and partners in our campaign to help strengthen the voice of the food movement in the relatively compressed period of consultations, and in policy discussions beyond. We want to make food security issues a top priority in national food policy.

Timed with the announcement of consultations, we have launched Five Big Ideas for a Better Food System. Please spread the word with your networks. And if you are not already an organizational or individual member please sign-up in support of the Five Big Ideas:

Also at the recent gathering of the Canadian Association of Food Studies, we have initiated a process to develop a comprehensive series of policy briefings related to the Five Big Ideas starting with our academic partners.

 

Next steps for food policy

We are organizing an FSC Organizational Members Call to discuss strategic next steps for food policy on June 14 at 12:00 noon, EDT.

Stay tuned for more details of how you can take action around contributing to policy briefings and other food policy campaign activities!

Food Environments
Democracy and Movements
Food Systems