It May be Time to Rethink Where Your Food Comes From

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Published on Monday, 27 May 2013 12:45

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It may be time to rethink where you get your food.On May 16, Beaches-East York MP Matthew Kellway hosted a “Food Insecurity” event. With an impressive lineup of panelists, it was a full-house event with many aspects of food security discussed. To name two panelists: Carl Cosack, one of my favourite speakers(who has the natural ability to relate to any audience and make them laugh); and Wayne Roberts, a food policy pioneer in Toronto retired from the Toronto Food Policy Council in 2010. This was my first time hearing Roberts speak. He spoke of the incredible variety of citizens groups in Toronto, who work hard and smart with almost no resources. They are filling the gaps that the various levels of government are not. Roberts said that to his knowledge there is no food strategy plan in Ontario or in Canada. That means that there’s no emergency plan to deal with a situation that would affect food imports, for example, if 2003’s outbreak of SARS had been more severe.Something that many in the audience knew, but which will be news to most readers, is that we only have a three-days food supply in Toronto. I imagine that the same can be said for most cities —and even rural communities, because the majority of people buy all their food and usually from food stores instead of from farmers directly. Given the nature of supermarkets’ “just in time delivery” business model, roadways are being used as warehouses for our food.

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By Liz Rice

Liz is an Eco Re-Source and Speaker

Posted in www.eastyorker.ca

May 24, 2013

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