2011 Waterloo Region Food Summit, Sat April 30

In 2009 a Waterloo Region Food Summit was held here in our city.  Summit participants heard about and discussed the reality of hunger and poverty in Waterloo Region, the farmers' struggles to make a living growing food, and of the unhealthy diets of most of our population as a result of our out-of-balance food system.  From this summit, 6 priorities for the building of a strong, viable regional food system were declared: 1) food sovereignity; 2) food policy; 3) urban agriculture; 4) local food infrastructure; 5) farm viability; 6) access to healthy food.  Come out to participate in the upcoming Food Summit to follow up on these priorities for our region - more info and registration details here.

Fork in the Road - CBC special on local food in Waterloo Region

This recent CBC short story focusses on the costs of importing food to Waterloo Region, and this region's efforts to go local. It showcases some of our local food producers and community gardens - the community garden is The Good Earth Garden located at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in uptown Waterloo, the produce auction is the Elmira Produce Auction, the CSA is at Ignatius Farm in Guelph, the farmers market is Waterloo/St. Jacobs, and comments are from Katherine Pigott of Waterloo Region Public Health department.

You can view the entire story on the CBC website at: http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/running_on_empty/fork_in_the_road_1.html. Note the links CBC put up in the latter website address: it includes our Food Miles and Food Flow analysis studies, a recent StatsCan report on food imports and the local food trend, and links to local farmers' markets.