FSC Newsletters

There has been lots of work over the last couple of months thinking about how we can develop a public engagement process for the announced national food policy and how we can weave these issues into our upcoming national Assembly. How can we ensure that a diversity of voices will be heard, and that we use all the available policy leavers to ensure that our food system is more equitable, more healthy and more sustainable? Food security levels remain unacceptably high, despite some promising developments on the basic income file, as show by the most recent PROOF report. The question of overuse of antibiotics in our meat supply show very clearly how health issues need to be dealt with in concert with agricultural debates in any food policy discussion. We are looking for a more holistic approach to food and in the coming months you will have many opportunities to be involved. Why not share this newsletter with a friend and get more people involved in the food movement? Stay tuned!

Food Secure Canada Board and staff were in a strategic planning retreat this weekend when we received the very sad news that our founder, volunteer chair for many years and movement mother, Cathleen Kneen, had died at her home in Ottawa. Cathleen began a journey that we are still all on. She empowered new leadership, told people they could do it and made it all so much fun. Food Secure Canada could not exist in its current state without her nurturing our community, the foundation she laid, the relationships she wove among the people and networks who are at the heart of the food movement. While we celebrate her life and share her accomplishments, we recommit ourselves to Resetting the Table - both the values and vision laid out in the People's Food Policy which she spearheaded, and the Assembly next October in Toronto, where we shall put it into practice and work together to revamp national food policy. 

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Food Secure Canada has been advocating a national food policy along the lines of Resetting the Table for four years and so we are very excited that this is now officially on the agenda of the Government of Canada. There is a renewed sense of possibility for food system reform and the new federal government appears to be eager to collaborate with a variety of stakeholders including civil society groups. Most significantly, Prime Minister Trudeau has instructed Minister of Agriculture Lawrence MacAulay to “develop a national food policy that promotes healthy living and safe food by putting more healthy, high quality food, produced by Canadian ranchers and farmers, on the tables of families”. We are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work! More details below.

In this newsletter >> The Eat Think Vote campaign continues to build momentum – we’ve set a goal of 10,000 petition signatures to bring to Ottawa, our key food issues have been in the news, dozens of ETV events are planned across the country, and there are campaign focused webinars upcoming too. Read on for details and please mark the FSC AGM and Food Policy Forum in your calendar, Sunday November 15 in Montreal.