The local Christian Farmers’ Federation of Ontario (CFFO) held a seminar, entitled “Controlling our food supply,” back on Feb. 26 at the Christian Reformed Church in Emo.
Secretary/treasurer Jan Van Rozen introduced CFFO vice-president Henry Stevens, who led discussions with the group of about 20 farmers seated around tables in the meeting room of the church.
Stevens is a chicken farmer from Palmerston, Ont. (in Perth County), producing 20,000 two-kg broilers at a time. He was able to come to Rainy River District last week because his barns currently are empty for three weeks between the all-in and all-out cycle.
The objective of the seminar was to examine what food sovereignty means and what values should be associated with it, then to discuss what farmers and government should be doing to establish control over the local food supply.
“I want us to interact and learn from each other,” Stevens remarked.
A definition of food sovereignty from the slide presentation was: “Food sovereignty exists when all people at all times have physical and economic access to food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy lifestyle.”
“To me, it means that Canada has the right to determine what kind of food system we have,” said Stevens. “To others, it means that we have safe food and yet to others it means having enough food.”
Agriculture Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and the agri-food industry itself are silent about food sovereignty.
They concern themselves, instead, with food security and food safety.
“Food sovereignty is not a priority for our governments. Their hands are tied by trade deals,” noted Stevens. “Globalization has an effect on what we can and can’t do.”
Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations say that as long as 51 percent of the total cost of a product is spent in Canada, it is allowed to be labelled “Product of Canada.”
The classic example cited is 50-cent garlic from China in a 51-cent jar qualifying as a product of Canada.
On the other end of the spectrum, a product cannot be labelled “local” if it is being offered for sale more than 50 km from where it was produced.
“If something meets the standards in its county of origin, we cannot keep it out of Canada,” Stevens said.
People at the Feb. 26 workshop generally agreed with the principle that it is in the interests of everyone that a population is able to feed itself.
“In Canada, an average meal has 4,000 km into it,” noted Stevens.
He told the group about a non-profit organization, called Local Food Plus (LFP), “that brings farmers and consumers to the table to share in the benefits of environmentally- and socially-responsible food production.”
The LFP website describes itself as being “committed to building and fostering local sustainable food systems by certifying farmers and processors and linking them with local purchasers.”
LFP is growing rapidly in the greenbelt around the Greater Toronto Area.
Each of the three tables at the seminar had a discussion about the challenges and goals they see around food sovereignty. Stevens was surprised at how similar the concerns raised here were to those elsewhere in the province.
The information coming from similar seminars all over Ontario will be used to develop a CFFO domestic food supply policy.
Stevens thanked everyone for their input while local CFFO president Peter Boon thanked him for conducting the seminar.
There are 28 CFFO members in Rainy River District.
Fort Frances Times
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