Local And Just

Dean Rennie of the University of Manitoba along with Gerald McKay, a fisherman from Grand Rapids, Yvonne Ballantyne, president of the Grand Rapids Fisherman’s Co-op, and David Northcott of Winnipeg Harvest, are working on a project that would see freshwater fish feeding the hungry without jeopardizing the revenue of fishermen. Currently, fishers work in a [...]

Thanks to the travel grant awarded by MAFRA, I was able to attend and contribute to the Models of Indigenous Development conference that took place in Chiapas, Mexico in 2011. The conference was an amazing opportunity to take a critical look at colonial approaches to indigenous planning and development. We also shared information regarding indigenous [...]

Whether it is food security programs in BC, farmers’ market infrastructure in Ontario, or northern community gardens in Manitoba, Canada’s provincial governments have developed a wide range of innovative programs and policies to address food security.  These are documented in the 2011 edition of Provincial Approaches to Food Security.    This annotated collection provides information about [...]

Many busineses or organizations would be excited to see their clientele grow by over 20% in a single year.  The same, however, cannot be said for food banks and, unfortunately, Manitoba food banks can say exactly that.  Between 2009 and 2010, food bank used in Manitoba increased by 21.0% – an increase of just over [...]

If you don’t have time to read through all of the project proposals that were submitted to MAFRA, here is a quick look at the kinds of projects that we are considering funding. In the city, the focus tends to be towards education and research around teaching people about healthy eating (Healthier Food, Healthier Communities; [...]

Until recently, one possible argument that a dismissive critic of food policy for a city like Winnipeg could bring up was that food policy was a ‘big city’ phenomenon – something for centres like Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.  Far away, cosmopolitan, large budgeted and, heck, even nicer climates. This argument, if it ever was valid, [...]