FSC Newsletter - 2012-07
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GENERAL NEWSLETTER 27 June 2012
Powering Up! Food for the Future - Call for Workshops and Proposals ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS. It only take a few minutes but space is limited so get your requests in now! Food Secure Canada's 7th National Assembly Deadline for proposals: July 8, 2012 Canada’s food movement will gather in Edmonton from November 1 to 4 this year for its biennial feast of food and ideas. The theme – Powering Up! Food for the Future – reflects the need to place questions of energy, climate and long-term sustainability at the centre of how we think about, produce, and eat our food. It also reflects the growing strength of the food movement and its commitment to creative solutions to the problems of hunger, sustainable livelihoods in the food business, and the protection of our health and the environment. Read the Call for Workshops and Presenters and submit a proposal here. Read the latest food news here.
We are pleased to announce that The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation will be supporting Food Secure Canada in convening a learning and action network of organizations working to strengthen sustainable local and regional food systems. We see this network as a fantastic opportunity to learn from each other and increase our collective impact on the food system. The first in-person meeting of the network will take place at the Food Secure Canada Assembly in Edmonton on November 5. An initial conference call for the Sustainable and Local Food Network will be scheduled for late summer. Stay tuned for details! Catch up on what's going on in Ottawa here or read on for the latest: Children's Nutrition Debated in Ottawa Conservative MP Royal Galipeau has put forward Motion 319 (PDF, 25KB) on Children's Health, which would, among other things, encourage increased access to healthy food for kids. The motion was debated in the House of Commons on May 11 (read transcript here) and June 20 (read transcript here). Mr. Galipeau raised the rapidly rising rates of childhood obesity and of chronic disease. The House voted in favour of the Motion. Private Member's Bill Seeks to Ban Advertising to Children NDP MP Peter Julian has put forward Private Member's Bill C-430 that, if adopted, would ban the advertising of junk food to children under 13. This legislation would amend the Competition Act and the Food and Drugs Act and protect Canadian children against exploitation from commercial advertising. It was developed in collaboration with the Centre for Science in the Public Interest. The bill is based on legislation passed in Quebec in 1980. By the time Canadian children graduate from high school they have seen on average 350,000 television commercials. Parliamentary Committee Report Released on Agricultural Policy Phase Two The Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food has submitted its report on Growing Forward 2, an agricultural policy framework expected to go into effect April 1, 2013. Unfortunately, the report understands its mission to be primarily the development of a business strategy that enhances Canadian competitiveness in the international marketplace, meaning more trade and technology but little on the environment health, hunger, local food procurement, rural livelihoods and the future of farming. Missing from this report is any mention of the creation of a national food policy, which has elicited dissenting opinions from both the NDP and Liberals. Read the NDP and Liberal Minority Reports on a National Food Policy - both refer to Food Secure Canada, which has been actively promoting the People's Food Policy.
Protests have been organized across Nunavut to call attention to the shocking price of food in the Territory and across Canada's North. Frustrated with food costs and high levels of food insecurity in Northern communities, people from across Nunavut have been posting pictures of food prices on a Facebook group called Feeding My Family, which has also been used to organize protests. In the meantime, the Government of Nunavut has made food security a central plank of its anti-poverty strategy and offered a briefing on what was going on to FSC's Northern network at its last teleconference meeting. You can read more about that here. Follow this story in the news:
Jean Crowder, NDP MP for Nanaimo-Cowichan, headed North to look into the food crisis in Nunavut, which has recently seen unprecedented protests around food prices. Her visit substantiated what the UN Special Rapportuer had to say -- many people cannot afford to eat a healthy diet in the North and government programmes are not working. See Jean Crowder's impressions here. Meanwhile, the Liberal Party of Canada underlined the "unacceptable gaps" in "basic rights like adequate food and safe, clean, drinkable water" in its statement on National Aboriginal Day. Sign the Liberal petition to call on the government to recognize that safe, healthy and adequate food is a fundamental human right and to take immediate action to address food insecurity for Aboriginal peoples here. Rio+20 Comes to a Close The first Earth Summit in Brazil addressed international concerns about the state of the world’s environment. Twenty years later, world leaders At the end of the conference, what are the repurcussions for food? See reports from those present at the summit below:
The final report from the Summit, The Future We Want (see in particular paragraphs 108-124), reaffirms the right to food, defining it as "the right of everyone to have access to safe, sufficient and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger" and acknowledges the insufficient progress on this right since the 1992 Earth Summit. It also recognizes "that farmers, including small-scale farmers and fisherfolk, pastoralists and foresters, can make important contributions to sustainable development through production activities that are environmentally sound, enhance food security and the livelihood of the poor, and invigorate production and sustained economic growth."
From August 15 to 18, the 2012 Urban Agriculture Summit in Toronto will bring together a diversity of people that are making growing food in cities possible - design professionals, community groups, social housing advocates, tenants and developers, educators, planners, homeowners, urban growers and others - to share what is working, and to discover what is possible. The first Urban Agriculture Summit in Toronto is presented by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and FoodShare. It will be action-oriented: attendees will learn new tools to advance urban agriculture in their own communities. Together participants will explore urban agriculture's current role and future potential in 21st century city-building. The keynote speaker will be Will Allen of Growing Power, author of the Good Food Revolution and the most inspirational and influential city food production advocate in the United States. Register now!
The Regional Food Hub Resource Guide aims to help small-scale farmers reach a wider market base. The USDA unveiled the "Regional Food Hub Resource Guide" at the end of April to offer support to small-scale and mid-sized farmers and producers looking for additional marketing opportunities. "The new guide is the most comprehensive handbook on food hubs ever available. Now farmers, buyers, researchers, consumers or anyone interested in creating a food hub in their community can tap into a single resource to find the information that they need."
Recently, in Headingley, Manitoba, members of the First Nations Food Nutrition and Environment Study (FNFNES) team shared results of FNFNES Manitoba 2010 with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs' Annual General Assembly at Swan Lake First Nation. The report for Manitoba and BC can be downloaded at www.fnfnes.ca Highlights: On average we found that 38% of First Nation households on reserve are food insecure. This rose to 73% in northern communities. Fibre and many nutrients including vitamins A, D, C and minerals such as calcium and magnesium are at risk of insufficient intake. Participate in the first national Farm to Cafeteria Canada survey! Farm to Cafeteria Canada is conducting the first ever nation wide online survey of activities to bring local, nutritious and sustainably produced foods into schools, health care facilities, and universities/colleges. Your participation in the survey is extremely important as it will help to describe the Farm to Cafeteria landscape across Canada and help inform strategic planning that will enable Farm to Cafeteria Canada to better support and promote these activities nationwide. Your individual responses will remain confidential. Click here to access the survey.
A group of North American organizations led by the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development is conducting a survey of individuals who work on agriculture sustainability and food security issues. The goal is to have a thorough understanding of the training needs of people like you who are supporting farmers and farm workers, working on hunger issues, or working on the conservation of agricultural resources. Request for Proposal for Needs Assessment for Web Platform Development Food Secure Canada is seeking to hire someone to perform an assessment its current information technology tools. For more information, see here. Deadline: July 11, 2012 NFU Seeks Executive Director The National Farmers Union is looking for an Executive Director (ED) will work with the Board and Executive of the National Farmers Union to successfully implement the policy directives of the membership. The ED will take a leadership role in identifying emerging issues, setting priorities and maximizing the effectiveness of the NFU’s resources. The ED will be responsible for the day‐to‐day operations of the National Office of the NFU and will work in a management role with the Director of Finance and Director of Policy and Research. The position is located in Saskatoon, SK at the NFU National Office, and involves occasional travel. 2 Vancouver Food Job Postings Potluck is an award winning Social Enterprise operating in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver. The DTES Kitchen Tables Project, a program of the Potluck Cafe Society, is based on the Right to Food philosophy. Founded in 2009, the Project works in collaboration with DTES Residents and Food Providers along with multiple collaborators to create a sustainable DTES Food System that enables people to access abundant, healthy food in a dignified manner while creating jobs for people with barriers to traditional employment.
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FSC Receives McConnell Funding for a Sustainable and Local Food Network
gathered again in Rio for 
Urban Agriculture Summit
USDA Releases “Food Hub Resource Guide”
First Nations Food Nutrition and Environment Study Manitoba 2010
Agricultural Sustainability and Food Security Survey