Brockville Climate Action Group

Toronto Star / Cameron Smith / 16 August 2008

Wendy Banks has come back from a place of pain and shadows – and she's doing what she can to make sure no one else has to go there.

About 10 years ago, she developed environmental sensitivity, triggered by working in a greenhouse where insecticides and herbicides were present.

Ottawa Citizen / Laura Robin / 14 August 2008

Where can I get a meal that celebrates local products?

The Branch restaurant in Kemptville isn't your only choice, but it's one of the newest and best.

How So?

Bruce Enloe, the chef, says 95 per cent of the foods on his menus are local or organic. "My first choice is local and organic, and if I can't get that, I go with local, and if I can't get local, I buy organic." Ross Batstone, a Metcalfe-area organic farmer who sells to Enloe, says "he's doing for Kemptville-area organic growers what the Green Door did in Ottawa 20 years ago."

Peak Moment / 03 July 2008

Ryan Nassichuk builds food gardens for people. His bicycle and trailer are the sole transport for himself, tools, and materials - including soil and plants! This horticulturist also builds container gardens and composters. Tour a backyard garden in which a 6-week class of students filled raised beds with soil, compost and fertilizer, did succession planting, and built a low-cost composter. Recently Ryan has added free seed-sharing to his wisdom-sharing, while continuing to propagate food gardens throughout Vancouver. This man has a low ecological footprint -- or should we say bike tire tread?

The Villager / Erin Hatfield / 07 July 2008

Farm fresh markets are sprouting up all around Toronto's west end like the vegetables they sell.

The movement of buying local and buying fresh seems to be on the rise, but organizers of two of the area's newest farmers markets say it may be more than just a trend.

Buying local has become a bit of a buzz phrase of late, but Patrick Simmon said he believes the sands of time will show it's buying kiwi from a grocery store in February that proves to be the fad.

MSNBC / AP / 06 July 2008

ALBANY, N.Y. - For years, Mel Williams rarely ate fruit and vegetables — unless it came out of a can.

Fresh produce was too expensive or too far away until the state-funded “Veggie Mobile” started bringing the fruits and vegetables to him at a lower price.

“I’m a diabetic and I have problems with my heart,” the 66-year-old said. “The canned stuff has so much sodium in it. So now with the fresh fruit, it’s less sugar and carbohydrates and stuff.”

Williams is one of millions of Americans living in a “food desert,” urban or rural areas unserved by a big grocery chain that can serve up fresh foods at lower costs. He’s in Troy, a former industrial city about 10 miles from New York’s capital.

With the rapidly climbing cost of food and fuel, states and nonprofit groups are finding ways to get healthy food to these underserved areas [...]

Ottawa Citizen / Laura Robin / 03 July 2008

What's new: It isn't new, exactly -- a swing back to local eating has been simmering and gaining steam for a couple of years -- but it seems to have hit a critical mass and is bursting with fresh enthusiasm and fresh produce. "It's boiling," says Andy Terauds, president of Ottawa's Farmers Market at Lansdowne Park. "There's no question that over the last year it's gone from a simmer to a boil."