Local Food Plus - Latest Comments

Re: Supply Management: Battle Fronts Part 2

mark tree — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:54:22 -0000

I am one of those "young farmers looking for a future
in farming", as mentioned in Battle Fronts Part 1. And I have had experiences with both the
Chicken Farmers of Ontario, and the Egg Farmers of Ontario for several years
now, on and off. There are a few things
I'd like to add to this discussion, without going into too much depth on each (if
anyone wants more details, let me know, and I'd be happy to expand)...

1) On the surface, quota systems are very easy to defend - I
mean, who would think it's a bad idea for local Ontario farms to achieve
financial independence through guaranteed market access and guaranteed
prices? But in practice, over decades,
a system has developed which favours some farmers, and excludes others due
primarily to their financial situations (how many young farming families can
come up with $1,000,000 + ?), and does not take into account one's abilities,
desire, work ethics, originality, entrepreneurial spirit, etc., to produce these
commodities. As our older farmers
retire, this type of system encourages big corporations to control our food
chain and hire in farm-hands, not allow for new family farms to enter the
business.

2) The present system encourages stagnation. Why would a farmer who has invested
$1,000,000+ take any chances, other than to copy the model presented to him/her
and produce the same old boring chicken that everyone else is producing - enter
the modern White Rock chicken.

3) The present system encourages lack of genetic
diversity. The present quota system for
chickens is broken up into 8 week blocks (meaning a batch of 1000's of
market-ready chickens are produced every 6-7 weeks). There are extremely few breeds of chickens will reach market-size
in that time (ie the modern White Rock chicken).

4) The rules and regulations around meat chickens &
chicken eggs are established by the Chicken Farmers of Ontario and the Egg
Farmers of Ontario, but are being enforced by local public health units, under
the guise of public health (did you know that a farmer, without quota, can sell
duck, goose or quail eggs at market, but not chicken eggs?). In reality, there is no more, or no less,
risk to public health with any of these eggs.
If you are going to use public health as an argument, all eggs should be
treated the same. And in my opinion, if
the CFO/EFO are going to set the rules, they should enforce them using their
own funds produced from the industry.

Re: U of T Researchers Seeks Female Foodies for Sociology Study

Maria Kasstan — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:51:45 -0000

It is nice to see an interest in this. Feel free to contact me about an interview. As a foodie in her sixties, I feel like I was waiting for decades for this awareness to take hold.

Re: U of T Researchers Seeks Female Foodies for Sociology Study

Heather Jewell — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:43:34 -0000

Hi Pamela,

It's actually people from the University of Toronto who are doing the research, not LFP. You can contact Kate Cairns at kate.cairns@utoronto.ca for more information.

Thanks,
Heather

Re: U of T Researchers Seeks Female Foodies for Sociology Study

Pamela Polley — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:17:24 -0000

I am interested in helping you with your study. I love cooking, sourcing local foods and organic foods. Please let me know how to get in touch with you.
Sincerely,
Pamela Polley

Re: Putting the "Plus" in Local Food Plus: Certified Local Sustainable livestock, Part 1: Chicken

Heather Jewell — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:59:55 -0000

Hi Lie,

Our staff is currently working on certifying some farmers and processors, but it still in the paperwork stage. When they are Certified, I will reply again.

Thanks for your interest!
Heather

Re: Wayne’s Word: Food Industry Named World’s Worst

Local Food Plus — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:43:20 -0000

Good point, David; you get the way the system works -- riches created without adding any value in the real world.
Cheers,Wayne

Re: Putting the "Plus" in Local Food Plus: Certified Local Sustainable livestock, Part 1: Chicken

Lie — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:48:01 -0000

Hi,
I am from Quebec and wondering where I could buy chicken that is certified CLS? Thank you and thank you for this initiative giving some respect back to life.

Re: Wayne’s Word: Food Industry Named World’s Worst

David Burman — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:59:04 -0000

Add to this scenario the speculation of t dangerous shortageshe food futures traders who are betting on the very calamity KPMG predict, the result of which artificially raises the cost of food further for those who can afford it least, thus increasing the likelihood of dangerous shortages and riots .

Re: Connecting with your local food community

Heather Jewell — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:23:08 -0000

Thanks for letting us know, Michelle. We try to keep in touch with all our partners, but sometimes a few months can go by.

As for what it takes for speciality retailers to make it, I'm not sure what the secret formula is. I had never been to Wills & Co., but perhaps trying different business models or making sure to do a lot of research prior to opening? Many smaller businesses here don't just do retail but have classes, such as Culinarium, or have their own products they sell outside the store, such as Stasis.

Re: Connecting with your local food community

Michelle — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 09:43:44 -0000

Unfortunately Wills & Co in Burlington have gone out of business. Need to update your listing.

What does it take to make these speciality retail businesses flourish? They had a good thing going, but obviously the traffic didn't come soon enough. Not everywhere can have the market density of Toronto or Mississauga, yet we want these in other urban centres. Should enough budget to build dedicated clients need to sustain for 5 years? It seems a 1 yr. model didn't work. Too bad.

Re: Connecting with your local food community

Heather Jewell — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:18:34 -0000

Hi Lindaarstad - have you ever visited the Harvest Hastings site? They have a searchable local food listing (http://www.harvesthastings.ca/... where you can search by area as well as keyword. If you don't find what you're looking for, or have more questions about local organic food, there's also some contact information in the "About Us" section.Hope that helps!

Re: Connecting with your local food community

Lindaarstad — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 08:51:05 -0000

We live in Tweed, Ontario and it is next to impossible to find organic anything within a reasonable driving distance. Any suggestions?

Re: Supply Management: Battle Fronts Part 1

Katie — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:25:53 -0000

I think this is great information. Lots of people aren't very aware of how our food system is organized. Thanks!

Re: Putting the Plus in Local Food Plus: Protecting and enhancing wildlife habitat

Heather Jewell — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:22:25 -0000

Local Food Plus is currently only in Canada.

You might want to check out Food Alliance in the US (http://foodalliance.org/). They have a third party certification system that has a number of similarities to ours, but they do not have a local component.

Re: Putting the Plus in Local Food Plus: Protecting and enhancing wildlife habitat

Mike Lieberman — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:58:19 -0000

Is this a seal that is only used in Canada or is it used in the States too?

Re: Supply Management and Quota 101

garlic — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:22:43 -0000

Here in NL, supply management has allowed many producers to stay in business. Its true that there has been a lot of consolidation so that we now have some of the largest dairy and broiler farms in the country, but I would prefer to work on tweaking this system rather than get to rid of it. It provides stability for farmers and consumers.

Re: Supply Management and Quota 101

Joel Aitken — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:38:11 -0000

We will admit that the Supply Management system has some flaws but in terms of promoting "Big Ag" I would argue that removing supply management would actually promote Big Ag more then vice versa.

There are some issues with small producers in the supply management system but many small family owned farms in Canada still exist today because of supply management.

Re: Local food is more than a trend

Heather Jewell — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:19:34 -0000

I think in Canada we'll always be importing food. People have gotten used to tropical fruits, coffee, etc. But I hope that imports of out of season foods will start to decrease as local sustainable eating increases. Tomatoes just don't taste good in January, let's eat other food!

Re: Local food is more than a trend

Mike Lieberman — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:48:08 -0000

I find it funny when people say that local eating is a trend too. It's the import way of eating that is new and the trend. When will that die out?

Re: Supply Management and Quota 101

Guest — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:44:57 -0000

Except that it promotes big ag, not small fry

Re: Supply Management and Quota 101

Dave in Dundas — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:24:43 -0000

Some hold that supply management leads to higher prices. I think that it leads to fair prices and keeps Canadian farmers in business. If supply management is removed we open up the floodgates to American (? and Chinese?) produce which will likely erode our farming producer base. And controlling the quality, pesticide, drug additions by remote producers is much harder. This would be a bad thing. We need a sustainable local farming economy in as many communities as possible in Canada.

Re: LFP in your neighbourhood

Michelle Bennett — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:31:10 -0000

Great to hear. Please let me know if you come to Burlington, I'll help promote through the BurlingtonGreen Go Local Food Network www.burlingtongreen.org .

Re: Recipe Wednesday: Certified Local Sustainable Cider Cocktail

Karen Morrison — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:25:22 -0000

cinnamon and cardamon are not local

Re: NOW Magazine Best of Toronto 2011

key logger — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 06:04:24 -0000

Congratulations to the winners. Good experience.

Re: New 30 Year Study Concludes that Sustainable Farming Outperforms Conventional | Local Food Plus

Anne Brierley — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:34:07 -0000

Great info! Thank you for reporting on this. I'm tweeting this out to all followers of LocalFoody