A catalyst for adaptation, advancement and innovation within the agriculture and agri-food community.
NEWS RELEASES - 2007
Kingston consumers to get more
access to local food
“Local food is good for consumers and farmers too,” says organizer David Hahn.
(Guelph, ON – October 2, 2007) - Within an hour’s drive of Kingston, farmers
grow a cornucopia of nutritious foods that can provide the area’s 150,000
population with everything from beef and potatoes to apples and pears. What’s
lacking is a way for consumers to choose these foods as part of their everyday
shopping and dining.
“That’s going to change,” says local-food supporter David Hahn, area board
member of the National Farmers Union who produces certified organic garlic and
maple syrup in South Frontenac Township just north of the city.
With the help of funding through the Agricultural Management Institute (AMI),
NFU Local 316 (Frontenac Lennox and Addington) has launched a program to connect
consumers with local foods. The end result, says Hahn, is that opting for local
food will get a lot more convenient and practical for consumers, without forcing
them to go to specialty shops or drive into the countryside.
With its Food Down the Road logo, the program held a series of four seminars
last winter, attracting an initial group of about 35 interested farmers.
Commitment grew over the summer, and a local-food conference is scheduled for
November.
At the same time, supporters are drafting a Kingston Area Food Charter to bring
farmers and consumers together around a shared vision of how their food should
be grown, processed and sold.
The short-term objective is to get more consumers talking to more farmers, Hahn
says. Between them, they’ll begin to develop local networks. Progress will be
made on longer term objectives too, he says, including bringing all the players
together to create new networks for local growing, processing, distribution and
retailing.
“It’s good for the environment, it’s good for rural communities, and it’s good
for consumers,” Hahn says. “Local food is an idea whose time has clearly come.”
It’s part of a trend in many countries of the world, says AMI chairman Peter
VanderZaag, who worked in agriculture around the globe before starting his own
potato farm in Alliston, Ont. “It’s healthy for farmers, consumers and other
stakeholders in the food value chain to work together,” VanderZaag says.
“Ontario’s cities are surrounded by some of the best land and the best food
producers in the world.”
Recent Queen’s University research says that an area’s farms become more
sustainable when the distance that foods get shipped is reduced, partly because
of lower transportation costs, but also because the number of distributors and
processors in between is reduced as well.
Among local-food supporters, it’s called the ‘economies of small scale’.
According to Hahn and local food advocates, shortening the supply chain lets
farmers keep more of the food dollar so they can prosper even though consumers
don’t have to pay higher food prices.
Local chefs have been promoting local foods too, including through participation
in the NFU- sponsored Feast of Fields for the last three years. Also on-side is
Kingston’s St. Lawrence College, a particularly influential ally because its
cafeterias make it one of the largest food buyers in the region.
In the Kingston area, the “next big leap,” Hahn says, is to build the networks
to let farmers and Kingstonians put their local-food beliefs into practice.
Kingston consumers aren’t buying imported foods today because they prefer them,
Hahn says. They’re buying them because their grocery stores and restaurants are
plugged into networks that make buying them simple.
“We need channels that go from the farmer to the buyer,” Hahn says. “That’s the
weak point of where we are now, but there’s a lot of determination to turn it
around.”
For more information about AMI or to discuss AMI project ideas, please contact
the AAC at (519) 822-7445 or visit www.adaptcouncil.org.
The AMI program is funded through the Renewal chapter of the Agricultural Policy
Framework, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative designed to position
Canada’s agri-food sector as a world leader. The AAC administers the AMI program
on behalf of the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario.
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For more information contact:
Nadine Armstrong
Communications Manager
Agricultural Adaptation Council
Phone: (519) 822-7554
Fax: (519) 822-6248
E-mail: narmstrong@adaptcouncil.org
Website: www.adaptcouncil.org
