Urban Ag in Vancouver

Posted on May 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

Well, I am writing for the Vancouver Sun for the summer. I have many reflections on food in this city that I will share later but I wanted to post a story I did on SOLEFood, an urban farming organization that will be running 5 farm sites this summer. The group hires and trains residents from the Downtown Eastside, providing skills and a living wage as well as access to healthy, organic food that would normally be out of their price range. (It’s almost out of mine.)

There are a variety of reasons this program is really interesting. It’s run by Seann Dory and Michael Ableman, who is renowned organic farmer and founded the Centre for Urban Agriculture in California in the 1980s. The farm – 2 acres – is also on shipping skids. That makes it a) portable and b) a workaround for the heavily contaminated soil underneath the parking lot.

Because land use and property values and the role of development in dense populated areas makes urban agriculture a tricky – and expensive – venture, there was of course a follow-up story that touched on those topics. It was tough trying to parse these issues out, while still supporting the SOLEFood program and the people behind it.

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Dinner series

Posted on March 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

Don’t you just want to live inside a Kinfolk video? I am heartbroken I will miss their dinner event in Toronto in June. I wonder what it would take to organize my friends into a dinner series. Jennifer Bain at the Toronto Star (@thesaucylady) writes about food in Toronto and does a “What’s For Dinner?” series. Her latest was about a group of friends who do family dinners once a week. My friends and I most often stay at home, too, just not on the regular. And certainly not as elaborate as Kinfolk.

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Foodie Drinks with Toronto Youth Food Policy Council

Posted on March 6, 2012 | Leave a comment

Last night I was invited to speak at a downtown cafe about my (inexpert) thoughts on a national food policy.

Hosting the night, called #FoodieDrinks, was Food Forward, a Toronto non-profit group founded by Darcy Higgins. Coincidentally, I interviewed Darcy when I was a student reporter at the University of Waterloo many moons ago, otherwise I would not likely have agreed to do any public speaking. It’s really not my forte, but I cobbled together some notes and quickly drank a pint of Black Oak Nut Brown beer (which is delicious) and it went pretty well.

I was asked by a number of people after the event if there was a way to share online what I wrote about. Not just yet, but I thought I’d share here what I talked about. Since I’m a (rookie) reporter, it has to do with media as well.

Basically, I wanted to say that some food issues are sexier than others – consider the Mega-Quarry and Foodstock with celebrity chefs and musicians. Media love trend stories, like when every Toronto restaurant started serving charcuterie. They also love catch-phrases (“locavore”) and off-kilter experiments (100-mile diet) and controversy (food safety, diets, obesity rates). But rare is the story that situates this within a broader context of food security and even the national food system. Consider the story of the 11 migrant farm workers from Peru who were working on chicken farms in Southwestern Ontario when they were killed in a van accident. There was some discussion about the necessity of these workers on Canadian farms but little mention of the state of Canadian farms generally, or why cheap labour is the norm, and how necessary this type of casual labour is to many small, especially organic, farms. (You can read about why the Sosnicki Organic farm in Norfolk, Ont., is committed to hiring men from Mexico year after year on their blog here.)

Not a single story questioned why chickens were being vaccinated by the hundreds, which could have linked to the food system in general.

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Is it time for a national food policy in Canada?

Posted on February 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

Yes it is.

Of course, I am biased. I just finished about 4 months of journalism research into this topic and I came up with an emphatic yes. There are differing views on what a food policy should look like, and what the priorities should be. (Another post on that later.)

But why? It’s really not complicated. A national food policy could address a trifecta of future problems: energy, food and environment. Our current food system depends on the availability of cheap oil, which is dwindling in supply. Though food prices in Canada are at historic lows, the low prices are only at the farm gate and the grocery store. External cost of cheap food production to water, air and soil is enormous and rising. And the costs of eating cheap food, which is often bad food, is taking a huge toll on the health of Canadians and the pocketbooks of taxpayers. Plus, swinging commodity prices mean some farmers are making lots of money while others find it tough to put gas in the tractor, meaning local, Canadian grown food will only become more elusive.

One of the best things about a national food policy is that it could reach across policy “silos” and connect ministers of agriculture, transport, industry, health and environment, from different jurisdictions including provinces and cities.

There are dozens of cities with food policy councils, including Toronto, which was the first in the country. A federal food policy could take the best practices from these local experts and take them national. There are people working on this from their homes, farms, universities, schools, food banks, thinktanks and corporate offices. I think a national food policy is required to tie the best parts together into a comprehensive food system that benefits most Canadians.

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Hello

Posted on February 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

Clearly I have been lazy delinquent in maintaining this blog. There are reasons – I had to finish my graduate research and withstand an editing process I wouldn’t wish on anyone – but mostly I’ve been taking a break from writing anything not school or work-related. But I still follow food-related stuff, and since I’m moving to Vancouver for the summer, I will be able to compare what’s going on here with the west coast. (Although I will truly miss my garden and plan on forcing my subletter to take care of it. I just ordered a seedling heating mat online and have been reading up on yougrowgirl.com.)

My new years’ resolution was twofold: no more out-of-season Mexico tomatoes (sometimes you really have to look carefully as the signs don’t match the produce) and to make better use of my camera. So far this winter, my roommate and I have been getting Fresh City foods delivered. They try to make most of their fruits and vegetables local and organic, though there’s quite a bit from California, which I am undecided about. And my camera is a 35 mm Pentax K1000, so I need to get motivated to develop the film. Perhaps blogging will help.

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Luck and local food in my hood

Posted on November 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

It's cute. I have never seen it in a grocery store.

I biked down to Linux Caffe at Grace and Harbord streets this afternoon to get my weekly CSA box of local produce distributed by Kawartha Ecological Growers and came home with, among other things, this perky, locally-grown and sustainably produced kabocha squash. I’ve never seen one before in my life, and it got me thinking.

The CSA costs fifteen bucks a week (for a small), which I split with my roommate, and it takes 5 minutes to get to their pick up locations, most of which are in the annex area. I am interested to see if, in the winter, it will be 90% potatoes, as many claim.

Or, once it’s finished for the fall season, I could always bike to FoodShare (5 minutes) and get a weekly Good Food Box with almost no hassle at all, or if I was too lazy to plan, I could walk to Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers’ Market any Thursday, even in winter, two blocks from my house (2 minutes).

Or, if I wanted something on a whim or was missing a key ingredient (how do you cook kabocha squash, anyway?) I would simply walk half a block to the nearest corner grocery, and load up on spices, dairy, canned stuff, vegetarian items, and more Ontario produce than I thought little shops would have (1 minute). For the really adventurous: you could walk 6 blocks to Fiesta Farms, which has a ridiculous variety of local, organic, specialty and international foods at reasonable (not Whole Foods) prices (20 minutes max). Or you could get a community garden plot next door at Christie Pits park, but…

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Some thoughts on national food policy – a lofty goal

Posted on November 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

So the focus of my research has changed considerably since I began. First I wanted to basically find out who was food insecure in Toronto using a definition I found in a Planning journal article. That was too broad for a journalistic piece, and in some ways, too obvious. Then I decided to reorient myself and just focus on one commodity – I found there was a prof at U of T teaching the anthropology of corn, which I still find fascinating – how one small kernel can influence health, macroeconomics, global aid and trade, corporate profits and what you serve your kids for lunch.

Then I re-read the first half of the Omnivore’s Dilemma and realized I would be doing what Michael Pollan did, but Canadianizing it. So not original.

Now I’ve settled on Canada’s (non-existent) national food policy, and our current, de facto, cheap food policy. I’m finding that although the costs of a national food policy are extremely high, the social, environmental and health costs are even higher. Obesity and related health concerns cost billions per year and yet we don’t talk about nutrition in school. Industrial agriculture continues to degrade the water and soil on which it relies. And still, local, organic food is more costly that many families can afford (my supervisor called it the case of the $5 heirloom tomato).

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Farm visit!

Posted on October 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

I rented a car last week and made the drive to Sosnicki Organics, a farm near Waterford, Ontario, in Norfolk County.

Jessie and Ben were kind enough to give me a couple of hours of their time (and a much-needed coffee) to talk about organic farming vs. conventional farming, and what makes their farm successful.

It strikes me that most people agree that farming organically is the best for health and the environment, but not so good for the economy and profit margins, at least not at this moment. Jessie told me customers sometimes question her $1-an-ear cobs of sweet corn, and there are lots of conversations at the farmers’ markets about what goes into making that corn and why it seems so expensive when you $1 gets you a half a dozen at the grocery store.

But a whole lots of behind the scenes stuff goes into organic corn (their is labeled “Obviously no GMO!”) and small producers can’t sell at bulk prices and take advantage of economies of scale. And as Ben pointed out, no one bats an eye at the price of candy bars or bags of chips, and which one is better for your body?

Leeks harvest

On a completely unrelated note, I also caught up with Dr. Forsberg at the University of Guelph for an update on EnviroPig. They are still carrying on with the research and not much has really changed since the spring, though they’re now on their 9th generation of piglets. He pointed me to this link, which is a talk given by two American scientists about the future need to link organic farming’s best practices with genetically-enhanced seeds that could mitigate some of the risks and challenges faced by farms that don’t use pesticides and fertilizers. Food for thought anyway.

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Foodstock!

Posted on October 17, 2011 | Leave a comment
Image via Toronto Star

Chef Michael Stadtlander cooking in the woods at Foodstock - photo via Toronto Star

I made it up to Melancthon Township this past Sunday, and despite the rain, mud, wind and lack of rubber boots, I am so happy I did. I had also worked the graveyard shift the night before in the radio room at the Toronto Star, and was operating on about 3 hours of sleep. Thankfully, my friend Gustavo drove.

The food was terrific, even for someone who doesn’t eat meat (no waiting in the hour-long line-up at the Caplansky’s truck!) and the rain could be avoided for the most part by taking short-cuts through the forest.

On the way back to Hwy. 124, where we had parked the car, I spoke to an organizer who said they had been hoping for 20,000 and at last count, 27,000 had showed up. My friend and I had certainly paid, but no one was taking tickets by the time we arrived, so actual numbers may have been even higher than official estimates.

100 chefs, musical celebrities Jim Cuddy and Sarah Harmer, among others, and thousands of concerned citizens created a day that had all the markings of a community response to a worrisome project. As I tweeted last night when I got home, I wonder what will come of what seems like a groundswell of citizen engagement – the #OccupyTO sit-ins and protests downtown and the picnic protest north of the city?

There is lots of information on the mega-quarry here on the Northern Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce website, and a really great piece as told by Adrienne Arsenault that aired on CBC’s The National newscast. Of course, I couldn’t help but wonder if all the uncertainty surrounding the mega-quarry and it’s environmental assessment, and the outcome of the protest, and the legality of the land’s development by its rightful owners, would have been more painlessly resolved if we did have a food policy that simply said Canada must prioritize land for growing food over land for digging rocks.

Taters over craters, as the saying goes. I don’t know. I hope to find out.

photo via Toronto Star

One of a few fleeting moments of sunshine during the day - Photo via Toronto Star

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Back at it

Posted on September 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

After taking a really long hiatus while I worked at the Toronto Star all summer (view some of my work here), I am back at this research, and hoping to get it finished by December, or risk paying yet another semester of tuition.

My new advisor had some great insight, and rightly pointed out that with the layers of bureaucracy and the breadth of groups advocating for food security and  a national food policy, sometimes there is a failure to adequately explain what that policy is, why we need it, and what will happen if we don’t have one.

If we assume food security is good, and I think we do, then how does a national food policy address current limitations? And if it doesn’t, then what?

Anyway, hopefully now is a good time for this project. I am trying to tell this story through the lens of just one commodity so, if you know a chatty corn farmer who wants to invite me over to muck around on the farm and talk about modern production, email me! zmcknight@thestar.ca

 

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