Welcome to another edition of Making Food Matters and an update of the activities of a wide range of food related initiatives in the Capital Region and beyond. It has been a beautiful fall with a full range of fun gardening and feasting events. For most of us the coming winter is a time to hunker down with some comfort food. It is also the time of year when we find it easier to get together at some interesting and important food meetings and events where we get to learn, plan, and celebrate together.
Good luck to many of you trying out “year round” gardening this year. How did you fare with the seeds you got at the “Food Matters!” forum? No doubt your yields outdid this humble bunch of parsnips grown this year in a backyard in Central Saanich! Let’s hope those winter veggies grow well. It seems Seedy Saturday is just around the corner (February!) and we will soon be planning our spring gardens!
The Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable continues to work as a vehicle for information sharing, raising awareness as well as for supporting policy and planning and joint initiatives around regional food issues. Please find below an update on what we have been working on and what is planned for the winter season.
The purpose of this newsletter is to inform and connect people in BC's Capital Region who are working on, or have an interest in local food security issues.
Please forward the newsletter through your networks, encourage others to subscribe, and send information you would like to share to info@communitycouncil.ca.
Planning for food security in BC's Capital Region
CR-FAIR-Fall Activities Report
Monthly Food Roundtables
Want to meet other folks working on food issues in your area? Come check out the Monthly Food Roundtables!
Rotating around the region are monthly roundtable meetings that are bringing people together to discuss issues and share about their work around food security. Since January roundtables have been held in Colwood, Saanich, the City of Victoria, and North Saanich. Two of those meetings were held on-farm at Haliburton Community Farm and Glamorgan Farm. If you would like to host a Roundtable in your area or for the Roundtable schedule, please contact Christina Peacock at christina@communitycouncil.ca.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Food Matters Forum and Regional Food Security Heroes
Our yearly Food Matters! Forum will be held in early March 2010. It is a great opportunity to hear about food issues and solutions being explored in the region. A working group is busy planning for the forum this year, so if you have any ideas or suggestions please let us know. Also if you have nominations for the Regional Food Security Champions a call will go out in January, so please watch for that or contact Linda at lgeggie@telus.net.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Regional Food Policy and Planning in the CRD
Much work has been done to sow the seeds for a Food Policy Council in this region. Looking down the road at an increasing population, peak oil, and uncertainties in a global economic system, it is more important than ever to be thinking long term about our food supply. To increase our focus on food policy and planning is critical, and to this end we are establishing a Food Policy Working Group. If you are interested in being part of this, or would like more information contact Linda at lgeggie@telus.net.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Food Access and Recovery
A group of local agencies who deliver a wide range of food access programs in this region met to review the Food Resources Directory and explore greater interagency collaboration both in terms of recovering food as well as redistribution chains. Currently a project is underway to better understand the capacities and the needs of the agencies and how greater cooperation could increase the food flow. Teron Moore, a student with Royal Roads University is continuing the fine work that Heather Hrach from UVic initiated in surveying local agencies to further the agenda of increasing collaboration and the flow of food. For more info contact Janelle Hatch who is leading the Food Access Working Group at Janelle.Hatch@viha.ca.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ad Hoc Farmlands Working Group
It has been almost a year since the Our Farmlands Our Future Conference….what is happening? One good piece of news is that Central Saanich is embarking on an Agriculture Area Plan….another is that the Our Farmlands Our Foodlands Project has finished the Call to Action/Toolkit from the conference findings and it has been distributed. We would like to now “take it on the road”. Gaps in funding to do this are slowing the process, however we hope to get a group together to finish off a PowerPoint, lead an orientation session, and then get a presentation for each municipality underway. The goal is to recognize the work that municipalities are doing to support farmland preservation and accessibility to farmers and discuss how they may be able to further these efforts. If you would like to get involved on the committee, contact Linda at lgeggie@telus.net. To access the toolkit click here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Working with Island Campuses to increase research and education about sustainable food systems
Over the past year, CR-FAIR has been working alongside the Office of Community Based Research (OCBR) at UVic and other community organizations on a project to build capacity for community/university partnerships to address food and sustainability issues on Vancouver Island. During the project an inventory was conducted of campus faculty, student researchers, organizations, and projects related to food. In addition a survey was undertaken of community groups to better understand what types of community based research they are conducting and what they see as the priorities for an Island Research Agenda around food. To read more about this and to access the searchable database about food research and education initiatives see www.uvic.ca/ocbr.
This coming winter UVic OCBR will host a Food Researcher and Educator Roundtable as well as the third annual Sharing Food and Knowledge event, bringing community groups and campus community together to talk about community based research to examine and address food, health and sustainability issues on Vancouver Island. On November 21, there will also be another meeting of the newly established Vancouver Island Community Research Alliance, (VICRA) in Campbell River. All are invited to attend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CR-FAIR Annual Planning Meeting
In December each year, CR-FAIR Steering Committee members and food system stakeholders get together to have a look forward and identify emerging food related issues and opportunities to being the planning process for the coming year’s activities. If you are interested in being part of this discussion in early January, please contact Linda at lgeggie@telus.net.
‘Tapped’ Documentary Pulls Plug on Bottled Water Craze "Tapped", a new documentary about the bottled water industry is a pretty damning look at how consumers have been tricked into spending too much money on water packaged in plastic and quite often not as clean as what’s available from the faucet.
To Cut Global Warming, Swedes Study Their Plates In a groundbreaking move, Sweden has become the first country to label carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production and processing of food. Click here to read article. Click here for info on an upcoming Canadian webinar on carbon pricing of food.
The City That Ended Hunger A Brazilian city made food - local,
fresh food - a right of citizenship, recruiting local farmers to help do
something other cities have
yet to do: end hunger.
by Frances Moore Lappe
from YES! Magazine
Meeting of Minds
Once fringe, now mainstream,
mentoring may
transform Canada's farms, just as it does the
corporate world
by Gord Gilmour
from Country Guide
Food Security Gateway
brought to you by the Provincial Health Services Authority and the Public Health Association of BC
The Living Planet Community
WWF-Canada has created The Living Planet Community to help connect Canadians, and show how our actions add up when we work together. Visit this website to commit to personal actions to reduce emissions and invite or challenge others to join you.
It has been amazing to see the growth of the food movement over the past couple of years in the region, and on Vancouver Island. Despite the challenges facing both our local and global food systems, there are a few indicators that speak volumes to the fact we are really gaining some momentum when it comes to shaping a healthier future.
Read more...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Produce Availability Plan Supports Remote Communities
B.C.’s new Produce Availability Initiative will provide British Columbians living in remote communities with improved access to fresh vegetables and fruits through a $915,000 investment from government, announced Steve Thomson, Minister of Agriculture and Lands.
“All British Columbians should have healthy, local foods available, no matter where they live in the province,” said Thomson. “B.C.’s new Produce Availability Initiative will help to improve the availability of B.C. grown produce, vegetables and fruit to remote communities, while promoting healthy food choices for people living throughout the province.”
The Produce Availability Initiative follows through on a commitment made by Premier Gordon Campbell at the 2008 Union of BC Municipalities annual general meeting to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for remote areas in B.C. It also supports the healthy eating principles of ActNow BC. Read more...
WestShore Teaching Garden Update – October 2009
One YEAR in the Garden! Click here to read about the first year of the WestShore Teaching Garden in Colwood.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update from the Saanich Peninsula
LEAD- Local Environment Action Divas will be hosting a facilitated event, "What We Can Do for the Earth!" in Brentwood Bay on Sunday, November 22nd 1:00pm-3:00pm. Click here for details.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update from Sooke by the Sooke Region Food CHI (Community Health Initiative) Society
Submitted by Linda Geggie
Feasting For Change Update!
The initial inspiration for Feasting for Change grew out of a feast that T'Sou-ke First Nation hosted in May of 2007. What emerged was the innovative idea to continue supporting feasts in different First Nation communities providing a venue for cultural exchange and empowerment where all community members were invited for the purpose of strengthening Indigenous food sovereignty, and economic networking and development.
Read more...
LifeCycles launched an exciting new venture, a mobile greenhouse, at the Feast of Fields event held at Providence Farm in Duncan on Sunday, September 20, 2009.
Funded by the Epicure Foundation, the mobile greenhouse enables LifeCycles to deliver its food education programs directly to elementary and secondary schools. Read more...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
International Scene, Report on the committee on world Food Security of the FAO: Food Security Agenda moving forward!
Written by Nora McKeon - nora.mckeon@fastwebnet.it
Rome, 19 October 2009 In an Italian city last Saturday a room full of people rose to their feet and applauded for five long minutes. No, it wasn’t the opening of the “La Scala” operatic season. It was the closing session of the heretofore unremarkable Committee on World Food Security (CFS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). Read more...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do Your Food Programs Make a Difference?
Call for Food Security Evaluation Resources
Do you know if the people in your programs and networks are gaining or losing access to more or better food -- if their food security has changed? Food Secure Canada wants to hear from you! Read more...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VIHA Food Security Hub Summary
The Food Security HUBS have engaged the broader community, increased awareness and access to information and began to connect with local government around food security. VIHA and the HUBS will continue to partner and work innovatively towards increasing community food security on the Islands. Read more...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Debunking Sustainable Food Myths
Food. It's one of just three basic human needs, yet we're spending a smaller and smaller portion of our income on what we eat.
Forty years ago, Americans spent 18 per cent of their income on food and only five to six per cent of their income on health care, according to David Suzuki's Green Guide. Now Americans spend nine per cent of their income on food (the lowest proportion in the world) and 16 to 18 per cent of their income on health care. Canadian stats portray a similar trend in food spending. Read more in this Calgary Herald article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Report: The Economy Of Local Food In Vancouver
The food system within Metro Vancouver is responsible for feeding more than two million people on a daily basis. The region’s population is expected to grow substantially over the next thirty years, which means the system will need to keep pace. However, the region’s seasonal production limitations, coupled with demand for its horticultural products from around the globe, have created a system reliant on a predominantly imported food supply. Industrial conglomerates from California and Mexico enjoy significant cost, economies of scale and efficiency advantages over local producers. Further, they demand local buyers to accept supply on a year-round basis, which shifts power into the hands of imported producers. As a result, the food system’s dependency on imported food has made the local Read more...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
British Columbia Agriculture Minister Proclaimation: November 4th BC 4H Day
Submitted by: Erin Campbell
4H President, South Malahat District
On Wednesday, November 4th, 2009, ten members and leaders from the South Malahat 4H District were invited to meet British Columbia’s Agriculture Minister, Honorable Steve Thomson. They had the opportunity to be in attendance during the question and answer period at the Legislature, where the Minister officially proclaimed that November 4th will be BC 4-H Day in British Columbia. This provincial day of recognition coincides with 4H clubs celebrating 95 years of 4H in Canada and the month of November being National 4H Month.
The South Malahat District has 140 registered members, ranging in age from 6 to 21. They carry projects such as rabbits, cavy, horse, beef, swine, small engines, cloverbuds, poultry, woolcraft and sheep. The 4H program combines leadership, citizenship and agriculture. The 4-H name stands for Head, Heart, Health and Hands and members follow the motto of “Learn to do by doing”.
We are currently looking for new members to join us. If you would like more information about the 4H program in the South Malahat District, please visit our website www.southmalahat4h.ca.
Photo L to R: Amber Robinson, Asha Robinson, Amy Anderson, Alex Irwin, Caily, Campbell, Marissa Campbell, Ester Myers and Agriculture Minister, Steven Thompson in back.
Victoria Downtown Market Working Group: call for sub-committee members
When a group of community members and food sovereigntists met earlier this year to discuss the City of Victoria’s need for a permanent central farmer’s market, we were unaware of just how quickly the discussion would turn into a feasible endeavour. Promising talks between a downtown property owner and two very interested, community-minded business owners have launched conversations beyond ‘what if’ to ‘how’ in a very short time. Read more...
Community Announcements and Submissions
Two food-related organizations seek new Board members
LifeCycles
Since 1994, LifeCycles has been one of Victoria's best-loved community organizations, attracting many creative, dedicated and inspired individuals.
We are looking for innovative, energetic, committed people who care about local food and its significance to the health of our community. If you are interested, please contact us, particularly if you have experience in the areas of fundraising, law, business/social enterprise or event management. Read more...
Sooke Region Food CHI Society
The Sooke Region Food CHI Society is looking to add more people to its board. If you are energetic and interested in increasing the region's food security (a measure of the region's availability and affordability of nutritious, culturally-appropriate food), you are invited to apply for this volunteer position. Read more...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Job Posting: Foxglove Farm - Field Foreman
Foxglove Farm and Centre for Arts, Ecology & Agriculture on Salt Spring Island is seeking a field foreman for the 2009-2010 production season.
The field foreman will work under the direction of the farm manager supervising
the day-to day management of farm operations.
Click here for details
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Give a Gift, Grow a Community Submitted by David Coney
LifeCycles this week launched its “Give a Gift, Grow a Community” membership campaign.
Give the gift of food security to a colleague, friend or loved one this Holiday Season, by buying them a membership to LifeCycles, the region’s premiere food security and urban agriculture organisation. To buy a membership, go to www.lifecyclesproject.ca or telephone the LifeCycles office at 250 383 5800.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Feeding Ourselves in a Fuel-Scarce World Submitted by Tamara Schwartzentruber
Join Transition Victoria, Monday November 30th, for a public discussion on food in our region. Click here for the event flyer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Holiday Box from FoodRoots Submitted by Lee Fuge
Stock up your pantry for the holiday season with the best of BC and the Island organic fruit and vegetables for only $50, or donate a box to a worthwhile organization. Click here for dates and details.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Journal on Agriculture and Food Systems Development-online!
The Journal of Agriculture and Food Systems Development is a NEW online, international, peer-reviewed journal focused on applied research and best practices in the development of thriving farming communities and sustainable food systems. Peer reviewers include development practitioners, organization and agency staff, faculty, graduate students, consultants, and farmers from around the world with expertise in a wide range of agriculture and food systems issues as they relate to community, ecological sustainability, and economic development.
Special topic - Call for Papers on Growing Farmers:
Evaluations of, Recent Innovations in,
and Best Practices for Young Farmer,
New Farmer, Small Farmer, Farm Transfer Programs,
Incubators, Networks, and Alliances
Special Topic Call Submissions will be accepted between November 15, 2009, and February 15, 2010.
The Nanaimo Poultry Collective (NPC) is slated to go before City Council on November 23rd, 2009 at 7pm in the Shaw Auditorium at the Conference Centre. The presentation will be about the importance of food security and how raising poultry in the City of Nanaimo is important and represents one way the city can meet its sustainability goals, as stated in the Official Community Plan. The current bylaw restricts poultry to parcels of land over an acre in size, which excludes most lots within the city. The NPC is hoping that the presentation to City Council will lead to a change in the bylaw, similar to those recently adopted by Vancouver and Victoria, to allow poultry to be kept by those living within city limits. Click here for details
Click here to see CR-FAIR's calendar of food-related events, courses, workshops, farmers' and pocket markets going on throughout BC's Capital Region. This calendar is now also accessible from CR-FAIR's webpage, so check back often and be sure to submit your food event information.
CR-FAIR welcomes submissions to the calendar for all food related event, courses, workshop and market information happening in BC's Capital Region. Email info@communitycouncil.ca to submit.
Local Foods Recipes: Fried Green Tomatoes and Moroccan Turkey Wraps
Classic Fried Green Tomatoes Submitted by Linda Geggie
4 large, firm green tomatoes, cut into ½ inch slices
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 cup ground cornmeal (cornflakes work too!)
1 teaspoon paprika
2 eggs
Vegetable oil
Sprinkle the tomato slices with the salt and pepper; set aside. Combine the cornmeal and paprika in a shallow bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs. Cover the bottom of a heavy skillet with ½ inch of oil, then place it over medium-high heat. Coat the tomato slices in the egg, then dredge them in the cornmeal mix. Fry as many tomatoes as fit comfortable in the pan until nicely browned, about 2 minutes a side. Transfer them to a paper towel-lined platter.
I want to add this variation for cheese lovers, just before you remove the tomatoes from the pan sprinkle with grated cheese (like the addictive smoked cheese they have at the Red Barn Market). Happy Eating!
olive oil
ground turkey
1 chopped red onion
1 chopped clove garlic
½ cup dried apricots or ½ cup dried cranberries
1 tbsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. of both salt & pepper
¼ tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. cumin
chili flakes or chili powder
fresh chopped cilantro
rice
canned beans
coconut milk (optional)
salad makings such as: lettuce, spinach, cucumber, shredded carrots; yellow, green or red pepper.
In olive oil, fry the ground turkey, with red onion, and garlic. When cooked, add chopped dried apricots or dried cranberries, cinnamon, salt & pepper, ground cloves, coriander, cumin, and enough chili flakes or powder to your preference. Take off the stove. Add fresh chopped cilantro.
Make equal amount of rice, and add to the turkey mixture, along with your choice of canned beans. If the filling is too dry, add enough coconut milk to moisten and bind to fill the wrap of your choice.
Lay wrap flat on counter, add enough filling to be able to wrap the ‘wrap’ around it securely. You can also add other healthy fresh ingredients, such as: lettuce, spinach, cucumber, shredded carrots; yellow, green or red pepper slices.
Classic Fried Green Tomatoes