The sign heralding Blue Lagoon Organics.

On Friday the staff of Food Matters Manitoba (www.foodmattersmanitoba.ca) and MAFRA headed out to the Blue Lagoon Organics (www.bluelagoonorganics.com) to learn more about the work that is being done there.  Blue Lagoon is just outside of Winnipeg and is a family run 27 acre farm.  We learned about the organic CSA (community supported agriculture) that Blue Lagoon provides, we learned about the greenhouses at Blue Lagoon and the different studies that have been done to help improve their efficiencies.  We met their new chickens for their chicken tractor and heard about the thousands of pounds of tomatoes that they sell to Tall Grass Prairie (www.tallgrassbakery.ca)to be made into tomato sauce and salsa.  We also heard about Manitoba’s mystery fruit: the zapple.

The new chicken tractor at Blue Lagoon.

After our lovely tour and we sat down for a delicious vegetarian and local lunch, with zapple pie for dessert.   Zapple Pie.  Have you ever heard of Zapples?  Well, neither had I.  Zapples are a Manitoba heritage crop that are easy to grow, versatile, healthful and delicious.  The pie looked amazing, so I cut a large piece and dug in.  The crust was flaky, the crumble on top was sweet and spicy and the zapples were cooked so that they were tender and still a little crisp.  It tasted exactly like an apple pie, but it was made from Zapples.  Zuchini that is cooked and made to taste like apples!!  That’s right people, we had apple pie made out of zucchini.  That is what zapples are.  You can make zapple sauce and zapple pie.  Zapple crumble and zapple loaf.  When preparing zapples, cook the zuchini with lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice and then add it to your recipe instead apples.

Zapple Pie

So why zapples? Why is there a need to create a fictional fruit out of zucchini?  Well folks, how do you know that a Manitoban has no friends?  She has to buy zucchini at the store.  Why should you always lock your car doors in the summer?  If you don’t, someone might dump zucchini in it.  Zuchini’s are available in large quantities at this time of year in Manitoba and trust a local farmer to make something delicious and mysterious out of what is considered a pest vegetable. Thanks to Blue Lagoon for the wonderful tour, the hospitality and the lesson in how to make your garden bounty into even more that you could have imagined.

Anna Weier is a research associate at the University of Manitoba and plans to be a life long zapple lover.

Click here to download a low-res version of the guide.

Click here to download a high-res (printable) version of the guide.

The guide was designed by Dayna Kroeker and written by Stefan Epp, based on a similar guide produced by Sustain Ontario.

For more information on why Winnipeg should have a food policy council, check out:  A Food Policy Council for Winnipeg.

This fact is demonstrated when food is traded as a commodity, like any other piece of stock – when you can draw the line between how those futures and affect the real cost of our daily bread. No clearer was this fact was demonstrated than during the food crisis of 2008.

An article recently published in Harpers Magazine, entitled “The Food Bubble: How Wall Street Starved Millions and Got Away with It” by Frederick Kaufman, provided the inspiration for what you’re reading today. The article chronicles Kaufman’s attempt to get to the bottom of the 2008 food crisis, and the real reason behind why millions of people were shoved into food insecurity and starvation in 2008.

Headlines spoke of the “food crisis”, shortages, famine, and riots. The blame for this apparent shortage fell on biofuel production, drought, and climate change despite the fact that there was never a shortage in food. In fact, today there actually is enough food produced to feed double the world’s inhabitants. It’s when the price of food rises, that’s when people starve. But if there was always enough food, then how does the cost of food rise so dramatically?

Let’s rewind a few years. In 1991, Goldman Sachs decided to start trading food products – a brand new idea which completely transformed the market. They selected eighteen food products (such as coffee, corn, hogs, etc.), which were then passed through the black box of estimation, elixirs, sums, and mathematical formulas that is financial instrument development. It was dubbed the Goldman Sachs Commodities Index. This brand new food index attracted buyers, whose shares rose in value, which then proved that food was a fabulous investment. Investors poured into food commodity index funds. And so the food bubble began to grow.

But farmers and brokers have hedged the price of wheat and other commodities for centuries, right? Yes, farmers have, for centuries, made agreements to sell their wheat at a given price in the near future, and this guaranteed future sale protected them from falling prices, and so on. These contracts allow both producers and consumers to hedge their risks. So then, what’s the difference between what Goldman Sachs starting doing, and the trading of wheat that’s been going on for centuries? What was so special leading up to the 2008 food crisis?

The difference lies in the fact that the managers of these new commodities indexes, instead of buying and selling as everyone else did, were only buying. And kept buying, rolling over, and buying more of these historically unprecedented wheat futures. The investment banks introduced a completely unnatural and artificial demand for wheat, and sent the price skywards.

In early 2008, everything boiled to the surface. The banks were fueling this artificial demand, and speculation drove wheat prices out of control. This spurred riots in more than thirty countries and drove the world’s food insecure to over one billion people. Somehow, this so-called fabulous investment was causing some serious trouble.

Hard red wheat, the world’s most commonly produced wheat variety, generally trades between $3 and $6 per bushel. On February 25th, 2008, hard red spring futures settled at $25 per bushel. Media coverage kept speaking of food shortages. The real irony here is that 2008 was the greatest wheat-producing year in world history.

This far away world of high finance and commodities trading impacted the price of bread, cooking oil, butter, and other items all over the world. This is when the price of food gets scary – it’s as if the masters of high finance have the ability to reach down and take the food right off of the tables of the poor. For most of the readers of this blog, you are maybe spending 15 or 20% of your income on food. But most people on this planet are spending upwards of 50% of their daily earnings on food. For many, the food bubble pushed that up to 80%, and right into the arms of food insecurity, malnutrition, and starvation.

The maddening part is the banks made a killing trading food indexes this way. Should the price of food be gambled, thrown about on a trading floor in pursuit of profit as prices rise and the rest of us suffer? I mean, we’re not talking derivatives, currency, or bonds – this is food.

Most people’s eyes tend to glaze over the moment the discussion turns to commodities, corn futures, wheat futures – and understandably so. These terms sound confusing because they are.  It’s precisely the fact that most people don’t understand, which is why the banks have been able to exploit these markets to the extent to which they have. But we can try to understand the way these markets work, and I think we must. Because if the food crisis and financial crisis and their victims have taught us nothing, that would just be another tragedy.

- – -

A quail eggs being opened.

But of course I have largely skipped over the best part and that is that the quail are laying beautiful and tiny eggs for our consumption.  It is pretty exciting to go out in the backyard in the morning and collect three little eggs at the same time as harvesting tomatoes, peppers, greens, herbs, cucumbers, peas and beans from the garden.  The eggs are just bigger than a quarter.  They are brown and usually have spots and dots on them that are a darker brown.  They are difficult to crack because they are so tiny, but if you crack them down the middle with a sharp knife before opening them it works really well.  The thing that I noticed immediately when we cracked the eggs for the first time was how bright and spherical the yokes were.  They really look like a golden orb.

Quail eggs getting fried.

At first I thought that it was because of the fact that they are quail eggs, but a number of people have told me that the fresher the egg the brighter and more spherical the yolk.  Although the eggs are small, I think that when cooking it would be fine to replace one chicken egg with two quail eggs.  The quail eggs taste very similar to chicken eggs.  So far at my house we have made fried eggs and omelettes, and hardboiled and pickled eggs are on the menu for later this month. If you have any suggestions for great ways to eat quail eggs please feel free to post recipes or suggestions. Likewise if you are interested in raising quails yourselves don’t hesitate to post your questions.  If someone posts a really great quail egg recipe I will arrange a quail visit and quail egg feast for the person with the best suggestion.

Anna Weier is an urban homesteader and a Research Associate at the University of Manitoba.

Ice Cream in the Jungle

Photo Credit: Marie Hippenmeyer, Macleans Magazine

Imagine living in a remote community along the bank of the Amazon River.  Far from any major centre, you have likely had very limited access to commercial food products.  Likely you obtain much of your own food.  Occasionally a ship comes in to stock the local store with essentials that you can’t grow or find yourself.  Now imagine that a new barge comes in.  A ship decorated with images of new processed foodstuffs from the city.  On board you can get the latest cookies, ice cream, chocolate and beverages. One thousand square feet of refrigerated shopping room.  How exciting!

All this is now possible thanks to a barge recently purchased by Nestle.  The ship will sail up and down the Amazon, reaching previously remote communities, to give Nestle access to an untapped market of approximately 800,000 people.  Think of the growth potential!  Nestle clearly believes that there is money to be made by establishing such a route.  And supporters are trumpeting the move as a great moment for people living in remote communities – now they will have access to the same foods as those in the cities.  You can now eat ice cream in a remote village, munch on a pre-packaged cookie a thousand miles up the Amazon.  Why deny people the choice to buy such foods, goes the argument.

But the problem is that the ‘freedom of choice’ is not the right question to be asking.  Probably there should be opportunities for people in remote communities to access more food products from outside their community.  Indeed, this would likely increase the quality of life of residents in these communities.  While I know next to nothing about the diet of remote Amazonian communities, I would suggest that it would be a little naive to idealize whatever system currently exists.  Yet, Nestle is not thinking about quality of life, it is thinking about producing a profit for shareholders.  They are selling junk food, not healthy foods.  They are introducing products with high sugar and fat levels, a tremendous combination that has, in many parts of the world led to sharp spikes in diabetes.  There is the potential for disrupting long-standing traditions of local food production or trade.  And, at the end of the day, the beneficiary will not be those living along the Amazon.  It will be the shareholders in Nestle Brazil.  This is not some sort of social venture to improve lives, it is merely an attempt to improve the bottom line.

Cocoa Futures

An aerial view of the City of London, home of Britain's financial district.

Across the Atlantic, another example of how profit takes precedence over people.  Recently, London-based hedge fund Armajaro purchased over 240,000 tonnes of cocoa, roughly 7% of the world’s annual output and equivalent to 5 billion chocolate bars.  This pushes the price of cocoa to a 32 year high.  Speculation on food commodity prices is nothing new, it happens with pretty much every crop on the market.  Usually, the benefits of this speculation support the investment firms purchasing the commodities, while consumers pay high prices and producers reap little benefit.  Therefore such speculation hits the poorest the hardest, by artificially driving up the price of much-needed food items.  The price of important staple crops such as wheat and maize, for example, has risen dramatically in recent years.

While cocoa isn’t a crop essential to a healthy diet, it is a crop of fundamental importance for the livelihoods of farmers and communities in west Africa and elsewhere.  For example, the agricultural system of Cote d’Ivoire is almost entirely dependent on the production and sale of cocoa beans.  Over the last eighteen months, the price of cocoa has risen by 150%, largely as a result of commodity speculation, such as that done by Armajaro.  One would think that a 150% increase in product price would be a good thing for farmers, but the farmers are the last to see the benefits – auctioneers, brokers, traders, manufacturers, and processors all get their cut first.  European countries have benefited at Cote d’Ivoire’s expense and, in fact, have seriously undermined one of the country’s key industries.  The result of the high prices has been that fewer people are buying cocoa beans because of the cost, meaning that while farmers are not seeing additional prices for the crop that they sell they also have fewer markets to sell to.

Buying and selling food commodities has become an attractive investment option in uncertain economic times.  There is a fairly steady market for food, and with demand outstripping supply little concern of sudden price drops.  In fact, the head of Armajaro said that food and water are good investments because with growing populations both of these will be in short supply.  Excellent!  Always good to find a means to profit off the suffering of others.  As investment groups, hedge funds, and financial institutions enter the commodity market in a larger way, they distort prices.  Food becomes little more than a financial transaction, a decision made for the greatest possible economic gain.  Most of the time (the Armajaro case being the odd exception) the purchasers of these futures have no intention of ever taking possession of a single bean of cocoa or kernel of wheat.  The result is higher food prices and increased volatility in pricing.  Never mind that by doing so, essential food could be priced out of reach for many people.  Never mind that farmers depend on those crops for their livelihood.

Food is unlike metals or gasoline.  Unlike copper or zinc, food is needed to live.  Perhaps food should be protected from these speculative interests that funnel wealth to the world’s elite while denying access to food for the world’s poorest.  A system is needed that recognizes the importance of producers and in which producers, not bankers, see the fruits of farming.  A system where the health of people is more important than stock portfolios.  In short, a system that puts people before profit.

For more on commodity trading and the food crisis, check out Sarah Carson’s blog.

Stefan Epp is a Research Associate at the University of Manitoba.

In the end we reached our target exactly of 25 completed questionnaires. All names were put into Stefan’s only hat, a cowboy hat:

The names are fully shuffled…..

Pulling out the winning name….

And the winner is…. Organic Food Council of Manitoba!!

Congratulations to OFCM, and thank you again to everyone else who diligently filled out the questionnaire. Results of the survey will be compiled, analyzed and a final document should be ready this fall.

Thanks again!

-Dayna Kroeker

Not only am I Albertan, but I come from the most conservative region of Alberta.  I grew up in the city of Camrose, a community of approximately 15,000, about an hours drive southeast of Edmonton.  Only Kim Jong Il polls higher numbers than our local Conservative candidate come election time.  Indeed, the riding that I grew up in, Crowfoot, has frequently had the highest percentage of Conservative votes anywhere in Canada – somewhere in the range of 85%.  The Liberals and New Democrats flip back and forth for second place, although the prize is hardly worth it at a mediocre six or seven percent.

Yet exciting things can come from the most surprising places.  It is in this region, which from an urban, far away glance, might seem like little more than a conservative backwater, that there are some exciting things happening in rural communities and in agriculture.  And so, to make sure that I don’t have to be quite so sheepish next time that my provincial origins are discussed, here are some good news stories from Alberta.

The Rise of Local Food

Many years ago, long before it was the cool thing to do, I worked at a small farm that produced fruits and vegetables for the local farmers’ market.  I don’t remember being particularly cognizant of being a part of a broader alternative food movement, although I was certainly happy to be working on a small family farm, and selling produce locally.  I enjoyed the sun, the sweat, the dirt, the ‘real work’; less so the backbreaking days of removing quack grass and thistle by pitchfork or listening to the countless stories that my sole coworker had of his near death experiences.  And on Saturday mornings, I got to wake up bright and early and set up for the farmers’ market, where we were usually besieged by customers a good hour before we were technically open.

It has been many years since my summers on the farm, but it would appear that the local food economy of the Camrose region has blossomed.  Standing in the Co-op grocery store there are local vegetables alongside their California counterparts.  Nearby Hutterite colonies have established greenhouses selling fresh, local tomatoes and cucumbers in a regular retail grocery store.  Indeed, Hutterites have really grasped the potential of local food near Camrose.  New this year to the Camrose Colony is a small roadside stand offering fresh vegetables and eggs.  As I drove post Saturday afternoon, colony children were playing in a swing nearby as a young man from the colony sold their veggies to passing motorists.

This would not be the only roadside sign I would see.  It seems that wherever one goes, there are now signs pointing out places to pick up farm fresh eggs, or the current vegetable crop.  There must be a significant demand for the product as a lot of people seem to be selling to these markets.  And interestingly, this is marketing products within what is largely a rural region.  This is happening far outside Alberta’s major metropoles.  Local food seems to be offering opportunities, both to those buying and selling, in a predominantly rural area.

Institutionalizing Local Food

The story of local food in Camrose would not be complete without telling the story of the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta.  Augustana is a university serving approximately 1,000 students.  And over the past couple of years Augustana has realized that as a university in a rural region, and with many students from rural communities, it has an obligation to these communities.  So its cafeteria now hosts an annual local food meal featuring an entirely local menu.  And now, to guide its actions on a day to day basis, it has developed a sustainable food policy:

To the extent that it is practical, Augustana’s preference is (1) to purchase food that is produced within our home region (approximately a 200-km radius), before looking to provincial, national and global sources; and (2) to purchase from farmers and processors who are taking steps towards sustainability in the methods they employ. In general, farmers and processors will

• utilize best practices in the application of fertilizers, natural or synthetic, and pesticides;
• engage in water and soil conservation;
• protect and enhance wildlife habitat and biodiversity;
• provide safe and fair working conditions for on-farm labour;
• provide healthy and humane care for livestock; and,
• reduce energy consumption through recycling and minimum packaging.

So now, it has sourced many of its products locally:  meat, eggs, potatoes, carrots, onions, cucumbers, mushrooms, flour, rolled oats, saskatoon berries, bean sprouts, barley, and cabbage.
Again, not bad for the supposed backwater.

Revitalizing Rural Communities

One last story.  I went with my parents to visit a farm family just outside the community of Daysland.  This family has been involved in many local initiatives.  Such as getting local residents together to revitalize and reopen the local movie theatre as a community run operation – and then adding a stage and beginning the Daysland Concert Series, bringing a variety of talented musical acts to a town that you would probably miss if you blinked at the wrong time.

Or their most recent effort, organizing farmers to buy an abandoned CN rail line to enable farmers to ship their grain closer to where they live, rather than trucking it or paying exorbitant fees.  Shares were sold to local folks and farmers and the project remains community owned and driven.  It didn’t require outside assistance or pressure or advice.  This was done by locals for locals.  The cooperative spirit that drove so much that was accomplished by prairie farmers apparently hasn’t been completely forgotten, even if we are urged to think otherwise.

So even in Alberta, good things are happening.  Pretty soon, maybe I’ll be even able to hold my head up high and say, “I’m an Albertan, and we are leaders in the local food movement.”

Stefan Epp grew up in Camrose, Alberta and is a Research Associate at the University of Manitoba.

Fruit Share founder Getty Stewart with a harvest of rhubarb.

Fruit Share connects fruit owners that sign up as such online, with fruit pickers and community organizations. Fruit owners contact the organization to let them know what fruit they have for picking, volunteers pick the fruit, then it is shared 1/3 to the homeowner, 1/3 to the volunteers, and 1/3 to community organizations that can use the fruit (eg. Winnipeg Harvest, Agape Table). This sharing system fosters community with homeowners, volunteers and community organizations all getting to know each other and promoting, local food production and knowledge of food preparation and preservation, as well as minimizing food waste.

My personal experience with Fruit Share has been a very positive one. The first time I went picking I was shocked to find a backyard with rhubarb stalks the width of my arm! I really have only been participating since May, but everyone I’ve met has been so wonderful, from the other fruit pickers, to the man who somehow managed to grow 4 foot high rhubarb plants, to the seniors at Fred Tipping Place that were so happy to have fresh rhubarb dropped off for them.

Fresh rhubarb for Siloam Mission.

The Fruit Share website is the place to be if you want to find out more about volunteering as a homeowner, picker, or community organization that might be interested in getting some locally grown and picked fruit. Make sure to also check out the website for blog postings, recipes, tips for preserving and much more. I strongly recommend checking this organization out, whether you live in the area and you want to participate, or if you live in a different community and want to start a Fruit Share of your own. Also, don’t hesitate to sign up if you are planning to do so, the nanking cherries are ripe, the rhubarb will keep growing, and the apples are well on their way, soon you too could be sharing in this exciting new local food initiative.

Dayna Kroeker is a research assistant at the University of Manitoba’s Environmental Conservation Lab and a Fruit Share fruit picker!

Export agriculture makes up only 2.5 percent of Slovenia’s economy, however half of the population (just 2 million people) live in rural areas. Urbanization has brought more Slovenians to cities and towns but strong urban-rural ties remain. Slovenia’s integration into the European Union has further decreased the importance of the agriculture sector due to the importing of food.

Vegetable People at the Parade

Backyard gardens, vineyards and orchards are a common feature across the country. In the town where I lived there was a farmer’s market every morning and all day on Saturdays. All types of fresh produce were available as well as teas, flowers, homemade olive oil and fruit syrups. Not speaking Slovene made determining prices difficult and likely resulted in being charged inflated prices but I still found it worth it to be able to enjoy fresh local produce. I was just as confused with labels in the grocery store so why not enjoy the fun of meeting local food producers! Homemade wine and blueberry schnapps called borovnica are also popular treats found in the market!

In Slovenia, the government subsidizes food for university students. How this works is that students purchase a limited number of coupons per month for a variety of restaurants. At the restaurant, students order soup, salad, a main course, and dessert from a student menu for under $4. After the meal, instead of paying, students just hand over a coupon!

Subsidized Meal (or rather, feast!) for $4 each! Note the fried cheese!

While traditional Slovenian cuisine, consisting mainly of breads and meat dishes, are still common in rural kitchens, they were difficult for us foreigners to get our forks on. Italian, Turkish and even Chinese foods were easier to come by. Perhaps our presence in Slovenia does something to explain this. I had only one negative experience with Slovenian food – polenta.

Polenta with Yogurt

It is ground corn meal that is usually prepared into, well, mush, by boiling it with milk. I was served cold polenta prepared with water and covered in yogurt. I guess they were out of milk that day! I ate about half before I was unable to continue. We did, however, have the lovely surprise of a traditional cakes made with fruit and walnuts dropped off several times by an elderly neighbour lady! Delicious!

The only inedible meal of the exchange

Living in a different country for six months definitely leaves you with some cravings of the comfort foods of home. Maintaining a healthy diet is definitely a challenge when you are not in a familiar area or using a familiar language, but it also provides the chance to see how foods are produced and prepared in a different culture. The importance and logic of local food in Slovenia is stemmed in historical rural traditions and it is interesting to see how these traditions – which the North American local food movement is trying to revive – are changing and adapting to globalization and urbanization in Slovenia. Hopefully if I ever get a chance to return to my little town on the coast I will be able to look into the local food system in greater detail – but until then, I will be mastering the art of frying cheese!

Written by Laura Husak. Laura is a research assistant working on a research project exploring local food, food sovereignty and rural adaptation.

Fortunately, many other Winnipeggers are as well!  And they are encouraging the city to establish a food policy council for Winnipeg; a council that could address all these questions and more.  Vancouver, Toronto, and many American cities already have food policy councils.  So, what is a food policy council?  Who is part of it?  What would be the benefits of having one in Winnipeg?  And how can you get involved?

Well, first, a food policy council is made up of citizens and municipal officials to provide advice and feedback to governments on food and food security issues.  Sometimes the government goes to the food policy council with a specific question for investigation, at other times food policy councils put forward key policies.  Beyond this, the council also acts as a hub.  It brings together citizens and government in a collaborative forum, and it brings together reps from different parts of government to get them talking about how they can work together to address food questions.  In addition to all this, a food policy council often plays an education role, educating citizens about the benefits of addressing food systems.

To give you a sense of what food policy councils are up to here are the missions of a couple of Canadian councils:

The Vancouver Food Policy Council supports the development of a just and sustainable food system for the city of Vancouver that fosters:  sustainable and equitable food production, distribution, and consumption; nutrition; community development; and environmental health.

The Toronto Food Policy Council partners with business and community groups to develop policies and programs promoting food security.  Our aim is a food system that fosters equitable food access, nutrition, community development, and environmental health.

These councils are raising key questions that we face here in Winnipeg too.  Questions of access to food, important since Winnipeg has one of the highest rates of food bank use in Canada.  Support for community development, which would provide economic opportunities in the food economy.  Issues of food production and distribution, important in Winnipeg given the growing interest in buying local food products but limited capacity in our region to process or distribute these products.  And an emphasis on the environment, an issue that all communities have to deal with increasingly.  So a food policy council addresses many of the key questions that we deal with in Winnipeg.

Who is part of a food policy council?  This differs from community to community, but the goal is to have a wide spectrum of experiences and backgrounds to best address food security issues.  So council members could include reps from community organizations, businesses, farmers, healthcare workers, academics, and concerned citizens along with government employees from interested departments or municipal politicians.  This brings together citizens, the community, business, and government to tackle food issues.

From the experience in other cities, there are many potential benefits for Winnipeg from having a food policy council.  Food is a significant issue for our governments:  1 in 8 jobs in Winnipeg are directly related to food and agriculture, not including any spin-off jobs; nearly 50,000 people use Manitoban food banks each month; two-thirds of Manitobans are overweight or obese, leading to significant health challenges.  A food policy council could focus energy on challenging these concerns and position Winnipeg to take advantage of new opportunities.  It could foster cooperation between government and community partners on food issues.  It would, for the first time, bring a policy focus to food and food security, especially important since food is related to the work of so many government departments.  Additionally, it could harness the expertise of people involved in food to create change in our city.  A food policy council could encourage citizen involvement in our food system.  And it would position Winnipeg as a leader in the growing local food economy and help address issues of poverty and hunger.

So, how can you get involved in making a food policy council a reality for Winnipeg?  Well, first of all, check out the Winnipeg Food Policy Working Group.  Over the last year, this group has been meeting with city staff, politicians, and participating in the Speak Up Winnipeg process.  It is made up of a diverse spectrum of organizations and individuals including neighbourhood development corporations, environmental, anti-poverty, community development, and Aboriginal organizations, farmers, businesses, and public health workers.The Food Policy Working Group is currently seeking support in principle for the idea of a food policy council, so if you like the idea of a food policy council for Winnipeg, contact Paul Chorney at paul@foodmattersmanitoba.ca or 943-0822.  You can also learn more about what a food policy council for Winnipeg might look like.

Or, if you’d like, come and join the Food Policy Working Group on August 5 at 2:00pm at St Matthews Church, to learn what they’ve been up to lately. If you are planning on going, please RSVP to Paul.

If you are interested in learning about other food policy councils across North America, check out this index.  Many cities, including Baltimore, Detroit, Hartford, Oakland, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Santa Fe, have food policy councils.  Many American states also have food policy councils, including Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Ohio.

Stefan Epp is a Research Associate at the University of Manitoba and a member of the Winnipeg Food Policy Working Group.