People Must Control Food System, Meeting Told

For Racquel Koenig, it’s homegrown vegetables in northern Manitoba, where a bag of potatoes costs three to four times as much as it does in Winnipeg. For Terence Sibanda, it’s seed for farmers in Zimbabwe to grow their own crops instead of relying on food aid. Food justice means different things to different people, as

Baked Goodness

As harvest nears completion and small windows of time open up at home, more of us are inclined to spend time making family favourite sweets and desserts. Many of us bake as a means of creative expression. Baking for our family and friends is a way of showing generosity. It is a way we remind


MP Proposes National Food Day

Farmers should be as much a part of Thanksgiving as family gatherings and turkey dinners, says NDP MP Malcolm Allen who wants the Friday before the holiday to be known as National Local Food Day. Allen, the party’s food safety critic, presented a bill to the Commons Oct. 7 to authorize the change. It was

Our “Response Ability”

But can it feed the world? The question routinely arises when the conversation turns to organic agriculture. Conventional wisdom says organic agriculture is a nice niche for those who can afford to pay the higher premiums as compensation for the farmers’ lower yields. But the production system can’t possibly achieve the productivity that will be


One-Issue Sermonizers Indeed!

In your Oct. 7 issue Ronald Doering asserts that the good people around us who champion local foods are “One-issue sermonizers.” Yes, promoters of local foods do tend to use food travel miles (usually 1,500 to 2,000 kms on

Letters – for Oct. 14, 2010

Eating local can be done While there may be some accurate points in Ronald L. Doering’s recent articleManitoba Co-operatorOct. 7 article regarding “locavores,” energy consumption of production, processing and preparing of certain foods and how it outweighs transportation of food, you cannot make the subject so “simplistic” that it applies to all food. For example,


Food Safety Review Slowly Getting Underway

The committee has been struck, but any revamp of food safety regulations is still a ways off. “We’re in early days,” said Anna Romano, executive director of the Food Safety Review Committee at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The group of government, agriculture and food industry officials has met once and agreed on six themes they

Blue Moon Saskatoon Welcomes Guests

Leslie and Dale Luhowy had a special treat to serve some recent visitors – freshly baked saskatoon pie made with berries from their very own orchard. The family’s saskatoon operation was a definite draw for folks participating in the province’s first Open Farm Day Sept. 19. But while they were there, visitors also learned about


Slow Cookers Help Busy People

When my husband and I were married, we received three slow cookers as wedding gifts. The gifts were much appreciated; however, we were fully stocked with the appliances already. My husband had a four-quart slow cooker and a one-quart slow cooker from his bachelor days. I brought a five-quart slow cooker into the marriage. With

Resilience Key To Survival

Modern industrial agriculture needs less efficiency and more resiliency if it’s going to feed billions more people in a world turned upside down by exploding energy prices and climate change. It sounds counterintuitive, but University of Waterloo Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon warns the current system is too “brittle” to withstand the challenges ahead. “I hate to