Sonset Farm

Past Food Down the Road Events

Food Down the Road organized  five major events in 2007: The four part Spring Series and in the autumn, the Local Food Summit.  Hundreds of people participated in these dynamic events—read all about the events.

Local Food Summit, November 2-4, 2007: Charting the future of farming and food for Kingston and Countryside.

Local Food Summit – What an Amazing Weekend!

The Summit featured many workshops on a variety of topics.  Click on the links below to view the available presentations.

Local Food Governance by Tom Manley (PowerPoint PDF)

Healthy Local Eating for the Whole Family by Mary Wood and Radha Poorhan (PowerPoint PDF)

The Future of Sustainable Farming by Pat Dawson (PowerPoint PDF)

What is Sustainable Farming? by Ann Clark (PDF)

Cooperative Development in a Competitive World by Russ Christianson (PDF)

Organic Food Strategy for Ontario: Value-added Processing by Russ Christianson and Mary Lou Morgan (PDF)

 

Spring Series, March-May, 2007

Event 1: Harvesting Support for Local Food: Success Stories from the Field

March 10, 2007 

Farmers, eaters and local business people gathered to learn what it takes to make a local food campaign successful.

Our speaker was Mark Lattanzi, Campaign Director of the Be a Local Hero, Buy Locally Grown program in western Massachusetts—the longest running and most comprehensive “buy local” program for farm products in North America. Annually this program engages more than 120 farms, 12 restaurants, 45 grocery stores and 8 farmers’ markets to raise awareness and sales of locally grown farm products. Recently, two hospitals in this same region have committed to serving healthy, locally-sourced and sustainably-grown food in their facilities.
 
180 people attended Part I: The launch of Food Down the Road and Building a Vibrant Local Food Campaign. 91 people attended Part II   Marketing Strategies that Make a Difference. 43 people came to a networking dinner in the evening.

Locally-sourced food is featured at all of our events and meetings.  Our break included a wide variety of home-baked treats featuring the local ingredients: apple cider, apples, butter, carrots, eggs, honey, maple syrup, milk, spelt flour.  The evening network-building meal featured local beef, butter, carrots, chicken, honey, maple syrup, parsnips, pork, potatoes, spelt flour and squash from 11 different local farms.

Event 2: The Future of Farm & Food Sustainability: Local Opportunities in an Age of Climate Change and Expensive Energy

March 28, 2007
Brought farmers, eaters, and local leaders together to discuss how we can turn the challenges facing farmers into opportunities for sustainable development in our rural and urban communities.

Our speakers were Pat Mooney and Titia Posthuma.

Pat Mooney is the Executive Director of the ETC (Erosion, Technology, Concentration) Group in Ottawa, Mooney is known to citizens, farmers, activists, CEOs, and politicians around the world as a leading authority on agricultural technology and biodiversity issues.  He received The Right Livelihood Award (the "Alternative Nobel Prize") in the Swedish Parliament in 1985, and the Pearson Peace Prize from the Governor General of Canada in 1998.

Titia Posthuma, who farms at Ravensfield near Maberly. Posthuma is an inspiration to many in Eastern Ontario’s farming community.  She began working the land at Ravensfield in the 1970s and has marketed all of her products locally from the start.  Her mixed farm is a model of sustainability – she regularly shares the lessons she learns there with farmers and others across the province.

146 people attended (about 45 of which were farmers)
Locally-sourced food is featured at all of our events and meetings. .  Our break included a wide variety of home-made sweets and savouries featuring the local ingredients: apple cider, apples, butter, carrots, cheese, eggs, honey, maple syrup, milk, onions, potatoes and spelt flour.

Event 3: Hungry for Health: Taking Steps toward Local Food for All

April 23, 2007
A full range of local food system participants, from farmers to dieticians to politicians, gathered to discuss models from cities which successfully offer fair prices to farmers, and affordable access to healthy food for all citizens.

Our speaker were community food security and local food system advocates Ellen Desjardins, Sue Hubay and Karine Jaouich. Desjardins, from Waterloo, is a registered dietitian who has worked in public health and food security for 20 years. A founding member of Food Secure Canada, she is a doctoral student at Wilfrid Laurier University. Hubay is a registered dietitian and public health nutritionist with the Peterborough County-City Health Unit, and has been chair of the Ontario Public Health Association’s Food Security Workgroup and the Peterborough Social Planning Council. Jaouich has been an organic farmer and works with FoodShare, a Toronto organization which has several innovative projects that promote healthy eating, develop community capacity and distribute local organic subsidized food.

In the afternoon, 40 representatives from a broad range of organizations involved in our local food system participated in the afternoon workshop.  Participants introduced themselves first by sector and then at multi-sectoral tables where questions were issues around community food security were discussed.

190 people attended the evening event and heard the successes and challenges that the communities of Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto and Peterburough face in providing local food to all citizens. Everyone had a chance to discuss ways we can better nourish our community during the question and answer period and facilitated table discussions.

Locally-sourced food is featured at all of our events and meetings.  Breaks included a wide variety of home-baked treats featuring the local ingredients: apple cider, apples, butter, carrots, eggs, honey, maple syrup, milk, spelt flour.

Event 4: Food Movements with Momentum: Building Structures that Support Vibrant Local Food Systems

May 10, 2007
The afternoon and evening sessions were focused on “structures” that support sustainable local food system development.  Food policy councils and food charters were two of many structures under discussion, from areas including policy, research, education, and marketing.
Our spearkers were Wayne Roberts and Mike Schreiner.  Wayne Roberts, director of the Toronto Food Policy Council, is Canada’s leading pioneer of food policy council and food charter structures that have been founded in cities/countrysides from Boston, to Ottawa, to Seattle, to Vancouver.  Roberts has used food to engage with policy-makers and politicians on social equity, environmental and economic well-being issues. He is a weekly contributing writer to NOW magazine and a frequent speaker at community and academic events across Canada and around the globe.

Mike Schreiner, vice-president of Local Flavour Plus, recently lined up a six-figure contract ensuring that approximately 10% of food used in University of Toronto cafeterias will be grown locally and sustainably by Toronto area farmers. He is an award-winning social entrepreneur who comes to LFP after 10 years as the co-founder of WOW Foods, a Toronto-based home delivery service for organic food that aims to build a healthy food system by linking consumers with local organic farmers. Mike was also the founder of the LETS Community Shared Agriculture project, as well as the co-founder of Earthdance Organics, an organic food service kitchen and bakery. Mike grew up on a conventional grain and livestock farm in Kansas.

75 local farm and food leaders participated in the afternoon.  They heard about local food structures from Roberts and Schreiner, then discussed where they each fit into our food system, the support structures that will enable their various organizations to grow, buy, process, cook, and sell sustainable local foods, and what their individual and collective next steps should be as organizational leaders.
95 people participated in the evening's public event, the grand finale of the Food Down the Road spring series.  Roberts and Schreiner shared success stories from Toronto, followed by a question and answer period.  Everyone had the chance to discuss what lessons could be learned for Kingston and countryside, what is unique about our region’s farm and food system, and what needs to be done to support and build it.  

Locally-sourced food is featured at all of our events and meetings. .  Our break included a wide variety of home-made sweets and savouries baked by volunteers, featuring the local ingredients: apple cider, apples, butter, carrots, cheese, eggs, honey, maple syrup, milk, onions, potatoes and spelt flour.