Local foods
CSA Farm Directory
This Canadian CSA farm directory lists Ontario Community Supported Agriculture farms (also known as Community Shared Agriculture farms), their locations, contact information and websites. All CSA farmers in Ontario can post their information on this directory, free of charge.
What are CSA farms? CSA farmers receive a set fee (from you - the consumer) prior to the start of the growing season. In return, you receive shares (produce) in the farm's bounty and you also share the risks due to weather and other factors beyond the control of the farmer.
Food Matters "Get Growing" Gardening Workshop
Food gardening made easy - with free workshops by experts Maria Breton, Dave Alguire, and Janette Haase.
No yard space for gardens? No problem! Come and see how!
WHERE: Community Room, 1000 Islands Mall
WHEN: Saturday, March 24, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Space is limited for these free workshops. Advance registration recommended.
Farming everywhere is being linked to economic recovery
Guelph Mercury / Owen Roberts / 30 January 2012
Globally, farm subsidy cutbacks were all the rage before the financial crisis hit. Now, though, don’t expect to see them attacked with the same gusto — especially not this year, the 50th anniversary of the Common Agricultural Policy. Europe even has created a campaign to celebrate the policy, called CAP@50. Dacian Ciolos, Europe’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, says back in 1962, Europeans were mainly worried about food shortages. Food security is still important, he says, but so are new concerns such as climate change and sustainability.
Those additional concerns are reflected in policy reforms that bolster support for European farmers who take eco-measures on their land, such as setting aside part of their land for nature preserves and hedgerows. Waite says the commission wants farmers to dedicate seven per cent of their land for “ecological focus,” and will support them for doing so. He says Europe is also prepared to invest in research that saves the environment from creeping or chronic problems such as greenhouse gas emissions and water scarcity.
Individually, European countries are taking a similar tact. Troubled Hungary, for example, has declared itself primarily an agricultural country. Such a proclamation would have once been considered archaic. But Prime Minister Viktor Orban says an economic model based on agricultural production rather than on industry should not be dismissed. Future wars will be waged over soil and water, he predicts, adding that Hungarians should rely on their own farmers’ production rather than on imported “junk.”
Cut Cost, Not Quality: How to Afford Better Food
Mother Earth News / Tabitha Alterman / December 2011/January 2012
There’s growing evidence that industrial food just ain’t what it oughta be. Lucky for us, the path to super-nutritious food at affordable prices offers many entry points. We’ll pilot you through the diverse options in this guide to shopping smart and eating better food.
Town Aims For Total Food Self-Sufficiency Within 7 Years
Daily Mail (UK) / Vincent Graff / 10 December 2012
Outside the police station in the small Victorian mill town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, there are three large raised flower beds.
If you’d visited a few months ago, you’d have found them overflowing with curly kale, carrot plants, lettuces, spring onions — all manner of vegetables and salad leaves.
Today the beds are bare. Why? Because people have been wandering up to the police station forecourt in broad daylight and digging up the vegetables. And what are the cops doing about this brazen theft from right under their noses? Nothing.
Well, that’s not quite correct.
‘I watch ’em on camera as they come up and pick them,’ says desk officer Janet Scott, with a huge grin. It’s the smile that explains everything.
For the vegetable-swipers are not thieves. The police station carrots — and thousands of vegetables in 70 large beds around the town — are there for the taking. Locals are encouraged to help themselves. A few tomatoes here, a handful of broccoli there. If they’re in season, they’re yours. Free.
So there are (or were) raspberries, apricots and apples on the canal towpath; blackcurrants, redcurrants and strawberries beside the doctor’s surgery; beans and peas outside the college; cherries in the supermarket car park; and mint, rosemary, thyme and fennel by the health centre.
Announcing The Stop's New Learning Network Site
The Stop Community Food Centre / Elizabeth Fraser / 20 January 2012
I’m excited to announce a new online community food resource, providing through The Stop Community Food Centre.
This new section of our website, entitled the Learning Network, is a dynamic, online space for sharing resources and fostering dialogue about programming associated with The Stop’s Community Food Centre model.
The Declining Nutrient Value of Food
Mother Earth News / Editorial / December 2011/January 2012
Evidence continues to accumulate that our industrial food system is not serving us well when it comes to the nutrient value of food. True, American agribusiness has given us one of the cheapest food supplies in the world, but science reveals this food is “cheap” in more ways than one. Here are some of the things we know at this point:
. Over the last 50 years, the amounts of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin and vitamin C in conventionally grown fresh fruits and vegetables have declined significantly. We know this thanks to rigorous analysis of USDA nutrient data by biochemist Donald Davis of the University of Texas. Similar trends have been discovered in the United Kingdom.
. Wheat grown 100 years ago had twice as much protein as modern varieties.
. Major declines in protein and several other nutrients have been documented in modern corn varieties (see the chart).
