| Earthroots Joins the Local Food Movement! |
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Earthroots is extremely concerned by both the loss of local agricultural land and local farmers in Ontario, and is beginning to address this issue as part of our Southern Ontario Campaign. As part of our work with Ontario's Greenbelt, Earthroots is working to raise awareness and to lobby for stronger Greenbelt protection for local agricultural lands. In particular we are advocating for the inclusion of the Pickering Airport and Seaton Lands in Ontario's Greenbelt (these being the largest parcel of class one agricultural soils from Toronto and Halifax, currently threatened by a new airport and 70,000 homes). As part of our education campaigns, we are also giving presentations in classrooms across the Greater Golden Horseshoe, raising awareness about urban sprawl, smart-growth, Ontario's Greenbelt, and the important role of local food systems. We are also beginning to network with local farmers to brainstorm ideas for promoting local agriculture. Initial plans include a benefit next spring to raise awareness about local food issues and to gain financial support for local farmers. With intentions of creating a full-blown education and advocacy campaign to focus on local food issues in the upcoming year, Earthroots is beginning to network with our advisor, Wayne Roberts of the Toronto Food Policy Council about the role Earthroots should play in affecting food policy and practice in Ontario. We welcome any feedback from you as well! Please contact Josh Kohler, Earthroots Southern Ontario Campaigner, at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it For more information about the current state of Ontario's farm industry and Earthroots concerns regarding local food production, read on!
Ontario's farms are at a point of crisis. In the 1960s our agricultural systems made a shift towards a more industrial style of agriculture, centered on the use of cheap oil. Farmers found that they could become more productive and efficient by growing a single crop on a large scale using industrial machinery and off farm inputs like chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Smaller farms who cannot compete with this efficiency have been steadily disappearing. Today, large-scale industrial farms find themselves producing for international glutted markets and large food processing companies who are paying them less and less for the food they produce. At the same time, rising oil costs have led to steady increases in the costs of transporting food, and the cost of oil-based farm inputs like machinery, fertilizer, and pesticide. As profit margins shrink, farmers must produce more and more to stay in business, further glutting markets and reducing prices. As if this vicious cycle was not enough, most of Ontario's best farmland is located in the Greater Golden Horseshoe where it is being threatened by ongoing urban sprawl. While farming becomes less and less lucrative, agricultural lands become more and more valuable to developers as a home for new strip malls, subdivisions, and suburbs. These processes are resulting in not only the loss of Ontario's farmers, but also the loss of Ontario's best farmland. Furthermore, as Ontario's farmers generally produce for international markets, Ontario is relying more and more on imported food.
Juxtaposed against the phenomenon of our shrinking and aging farm population and ongoing loss of agricultural land, the environmental benefits of near-urban agriculture, as compared to imported food, are becoming more and more clear. Industrial farmers are selling their produce into longer and longer supply chains, which means that food must travel long distances from farm to table. Issues of spoilage and contamination create a need for large amounts of packaging, the use of preservatives, and the use of massive amounts of fuel for refrigeration and transport. All of these factors generate massive amounts of waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution. Waterloo Public Health calculated that 58 foods commonly consumed in the Waterloo region travel an average of 4,497 km from farm to table. The Toronto Food Policy Council roughly applied these numbers to the Toronto region, revealing that if foods like these were grown locally, Toronto could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 500,000 tons a year, the equivalent of taking 162,000 cars off the road. The biggest culprits for burning massive amounts of fuel in transit are foods with high water content (fruits and vegetables), which are also the foods that should be grown closer to home. For example, a head of iceberg lettuce being shipped from Southern California to Toronto requires roughly 35 times as much fossil fuel for transport as it supplies in food energy. If the true health and environmental costs of this practice were considered, this head of lettuce would never be shipped. Local food production does not only have the benefit of cutting back on the environmental damage caused by shipping foods long distances, it can also provide a wide array of ecological services to surrounding communities. Smaller scale organic practices can actually help to improve soil fertility, filter groundwater, absorb greenhouse gases, and improve air quality. Local food systems also foster vibrant local economies: the Greenbelt Foundation has found that every dollar spent on local food generates more than twice that in other local businesses. A perfect example is Ontario wine: every litre of Ontario wine purchased generates an added value of $3.88 to the local economy, whereas imported wine only generates $0.46. Similarly, a groundbreaking study in California compared a community surrounded by small scale farms producing for local consumption to a community surrounded by large industrial farms. This comparison revealed that the smaller scale farms played in integral role in generating increased employment opportunities, and cycling income between local businesses to create a vibrant local economy.
One of the key features of Ontario's Greenbelt is to protect near-urban agricultural land from urban development. While the Greenbelt is a great first step, most of the Province's prime farmland does not even fall within the Greenbelt: it is located between our current urban centers and where the Greenbelt begins, on land that is slated as a 50 year land supply for future development. Considering how quickly Ontario's best farmland is disappearing, we need to do much more to keep this land open for farming. We need a stronger commitment from the Province to truly move towards higher density development and intensification in favor of truly protecting adequate green space and agricultural land. Protecting local agricultural land is only the first step. Large scale industrial farms have destroyed the fabric of local food systems that existed in the past, but these industrial farms are now finding themselves unable to cope with the realities of glutted international markets. As both types of farmers find themselves being squeezed out of business, the strategies being employed by our governments are generally aimed at subsidizing Canadian exports to make industrial food more competitive internationally. Considering the realities of increasing fuel costs and global climate change, it is becoming more and more clear that our current international food systems are completely unsustainable. Instead of pouring dollars into a dying industry, our governments must begin to look towards the future of food security in Canada. Specifically, this means rebuilding local systems that can provide us with a secure local food supply, relying on imports only for foods that cannot be grown locally. Instead of export subsidies, governments need to be focusing on financial incentives for local farmers. Farmers producing food for local markets in socially and environmentally responsible ways must be rewarded for the full range of economic and environmental goods and services they supply, making it possible and worth their while to remain in the farming industry. Similarly, programs must be put in place to address the realities of our aging farm population. Young and New Canadians are both expressing a strong interest in entering the farm industry. However, growth and development in Ontario has put the cost of farmland out of reach of these respective groups. This highlights a need for the government to create incentives for the transfer of farmland and expertise from one generation to the next, and to ease the entrance of New Canadians into the farm industry. In particular regards to New Canadians, very little ethno-cultural local produce exists in Southern Ontario where the majority of New Canadians settle. This means that the ethno-cultural foods that are making their way into mainstream Canadian diets are almost entirely imported, while the talents of many experience growers are being wasted in other sectors of employment. Providing incentives and tools to allow new Canadians to enter the agricultural sector not only reduces the need for a significant portion of Ontario's imports, it also paves the way for the transfer of skills and knowledge from experienced growers from other cultures to be transferred to traditional Canadian farmers who are interested in learning new practices and growing new crops. Finally, we need to be creating markets for local food. When asked in surveys, consumers indicate a preference for local food, and a desire to support local farmers. When entering a supermarket these consumers are presented with a very different reality: supermarket chains do not supply much information regarding the origins of our food. Information as to where exactly food comes from beyond naming a province or country is not forthcoming: Ontario is a large province, and the US is a large country. When you buy a US apple in Toronto, it could be traveling all the way from southern California or it could be a local apple from the Niagara region just south of the boarder. Similarly, information regarding what sort of conditions food is produced in, how far it actually travels from farm to table, and what proportion of the dollars a consumer spends make their way back to farmers is strangely nowhere to be found. Instead, consumers must make choices based on the information available: prices, branding, and aesthetic appeal, meaning that consumers typically purchase the best looking, cheapest, recognizable brands of food. Through labeling, standards should be used much like the 'organic' or 'fair trade' labels that give more information to consumers about their food choices. This would allow consumers to make choices that will support environmentally friendly food, local farmers, and local economies instead of supermarket chains and large food processing companies. Similarly, municipalities must work to make space for farmers markets and other such venues for the sale of local food. In particular, public institutions with cafeterias should be setting an example by serving a high percentage of local foods.
Vote with your dollar! Do the research and find out where exactly your food is coming from, how far it is traveling, how it was produced, and what percentage of your dollars spent go back to the farmer. Spread the word by educating your family, children, and friends. Support environmentally friendly and local food whenever possible. Visit your local farmers market, network with local farmers, and join summer community supported agriculture projects (CSAs) like local food baskets. And most important, use your political voice to pressure your representation into supporting the future of our local food systems and food security in Canada! We need:
Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs: Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal: Premier Dalton McGuinty
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