Bring Food Home conference, March 4-6, 2010 in Kitchener connects sustainable food and farming

Bring Food Home 2010

Bring Food Home – Connecting Ontario Farm and Food Networks
Provincial Conference, March 4-6 at the Kitchener Delta Hotel.

“Bring food home” is a seemingly simple directive, one that immediately brings to mind a shopping cart and a family dinner table. But in the case of the upcoming conference sponsored by Sustain Ontario, FoodNet Ontario and other partners it means so much more.

To a low-income earner bringing food home necessitates sometimes difficult choices. It may be the choice between nutrition and empty, hunger-abating calories or the choice between food and some of the other necessities of life. To someone who works in their community promoting healthy choices, bringing food home encompasses the areas of nutrition, health, education and community engagement. Farmers, challenged by a global trading system that places control and profits in the hands of a few multinationals, are re-examining the opportunities to bring food home to local consumers. Others, conscious of the challenges of climate change, peak energy and environmental degradation, see the decision-making power that brings food home as a universal right. To a community, bringing food home is part of the discussion and planning to develop a local sustainable food system.

The conference will bring together a broad range of participants from diverse regions and sectors, including farmers, food enterprises, health promoters, community groups and government organizations. The purpose of this gathering is to facilitate our learning and working together to create food systems that are healthy, just, accessible, culturally appropriate, financially viable and sustainable.

The Conference has been organized into the following streams:
· Training for Emerging Farmers
· Community Food Security
· Strengthening Regional Economies
· Sustaining Food Production – Farm, City and Countryside

To date we have confirmed Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm and of Food, Inc. fame as one of several keynote speakers, as well as Martin Gooch from the George Morris Centre who will lead a workshop in value chain management. The FarmOn Alliance is planning a whole day of events related to new farmer training.

CBC Radio - Dispatches Vignettes on Local Food Sovereignity Yemen, Uganda, India, Zanzibar, Italy

Great radio show tonight on Dispatches (CBC), featuring vignettes about local food movements, food security and food sovereignity around the globe. Includes a segment on the fight to save seeds by small farmers in India, a country whose government is considering implementing a law that would not allow farmers to save their own seeds and instead force them to purchase from large corporations such as Monsanto and Cargill. Vandana Shiva is especially eloquent (as always) in her words, as she passionately speaks about using the "two planks" that Ghandi left them - self-organizing and non-violent resistance to unjust laws. She speaks of her work at the Navdanya Centre (www.navdanya.org) in India, which is a research centre for technology, science and ecology and has a mission to "protect nature and people's rights to knowledge, biodiversity, water and food". The urban agriculture movement in sub-Saharan Africa is also incredibly inspiring. It is estimated there are more than 800,000 million urban farmers globally! More and more people are turning to urban agriculture as food is scarce or food prices are on the rise in cities. Urban agriculture becomes both a way to feed themselves and their families, as well as earn income from selling at local markets.

To hear complete podcast go to: www.cbc.ca/dispatches (search Dec 22/28)

CBC Radio - Dispatches

December 22/28, 2008

The trouble with qat: Yemen's favorite afternoon narcotic is costing the country its water supply as Yemenis literally chew their way into drought.

Why roadside gardens may be sub-Saharan Africa's first line of defense against food shortages.

In India, angry farmers prepare to defy a government proposal to throw away their seeds.

The women of the surf in Zanzibar, where a bold attempt to build an economy out of seaweed is starting to wilt.

And the cesarinas strike back: a home-cooking movement tries to right the culinary wrongs masquerading as Italian cuisine.