jillumbach Advocacy, Media, Partner Activities, Resources, Video

Grey Bruce: Poverty Outside the City

In December 2012, TVO participated in an international, cross-media series called “Why Poverty?” that tried to ask why, in the 21st century, poverty remains such a problem all around the world.

One of the spots is entitled “Grey Bruce: Poverty Outside the City.”  The Agenda spoke to three people, two involved in charities -the United Way of Grey Bruce  and the Adult Learning Centre –  one person who has struggled on low income, about the challenges faced by the less fortunate in Grey and Bruce counties.

http://theagenda.tvo.org/blog/agenda-blogs/grey-bruce-poverty-outside-city

While the spot is specifically focused on Grey and Bruce counties, it serves as a window to the kinds of particular circumstances both those in need and the charities that try to help them encounter in a large, far-flung rural community.

The video was a new experience for The Agenda, since they conducted all the interviews via webcam and used still digital images to complement the interview clips. While The Agenda team acknowledged the video quality was not the best, they felt it was a way to profile people that they might not have otherwise been able to showcase given time and budget constraints.

If you’re interested, you can watch and read all The Agenda’s “Why Poverty?” content in one spot.

jillumbach General Information, Media

5 Canadian Premiers Stepping Up to the Local Food Plate

17 Jun 2013

The political will to get more local food onto the public plates – is gearing up. No less than five Canadian Premiers have made solid commitments to furthering the local food movement. Three Premiers have specifically  said they want to see more  publicly funded institutions purchasing local foods and one Premier has set a target of 50% local on every plate!

New Brunswick’s  Premier David Alward  wants New Brunswickers to buy into local – especially blueberries . Here are a couple of  snippets from the NB throne speech (delivered November 27, 2012).

“In response to industry’s desire to expand blueberry production in Northeast New Brunswick, your government has put increased emphasis on identifying suitable land and infrastructure required to further develop this crop.”

“Your government has committed to promoting local community food products to residents, visitors and businesses as part of its strategy to grow the Value-Added Food sector. Your government will build on this effort with initiatives to promote the benefits of healthy food choices.”

Manitoba’s Premier, Greg Selinger  specifically wants students, patients, seniors and others in receiving care in publicly funded institutions to enjoy local foods.  The MB throne speech (delivered April 16, 2013) articulated:

“Our government will support a new local sustainable food initiative to increase purchasing from local agricultural producers, promoting community economic development by creating linkages with local farmers to bring more fresh healthy foods into public institutions and facilities”

Nova Scotia’s  Premier Darrell Dexter  has made a commitment to a a “Buy local” campaign .  Here are two key points in the NS throne speech (delivered May 26, 2013):

“Buy Local” has broad support from Nova Scotians, who know their farmers and fishers produce the best and safest food in the world. Buying locally produced food means Nova Scotians are getting fresher, healthier food and practicing environmental responsibility, and it makes good economic sense, too.

My government will increase Buy Local efforts through an expanded Select Nova Scotia marketing and awareness campaign. These efforts will help educate Nova Scotians about where our food comes from while supporting farm growth, farmers’ markets, locally harvested fish, and direct marketing initiatives.

Ontario’s Premier, Kathleen Wynne  has not only appointed herself as the Minister of Agriculture – elevating the status agriculture in that province to a level it so richly deserves –  but she is also pressing forward with a comprehensive food act – the Ontario Local Food Act (bill 36).  The purposes of the Bill are:

1)  To foster successful and resilient local food economies and systems throughout Ontario

2)  To increase awareness of local food in Ontario, including the diversity of local food

3)  To encourage the development of new markets for local food [Source: Local Food Act]

The Bill includes the establishment of local food goals and targets in consultation with stakeholders, ongoing work with public sector organizations to meet the goals and targets, regular reporting on efforts to support local food, and the establishment of “Celebrate Ontario Local Food Week” and other awareness activities.

And a whole new level of provincial government support for local foods was achieved when Quebec’s Premier, Pauline Marois  declared Quebec’s food sovereignty and promised her government would aim to ensure 50% of the food on Quebec plates would be from nearby farms, rivers and lakes.

“Whether it is at the grocery store, at the restaurant or in Quebec homes, Quebec foods will be raised to the level of jewels of our economy and emblems of our identity,” Marois said in her rural riding of Charlevoix-Côte-de-Beaupré. (Source:  The National Post, May 16, 2013).

Bottom line?  ”The future for Farm to Cafeteria in this country is so bright – I need sunglasses”, says Joanne Bays, National Manager Farm to Cafeteria Canada

jillumbach Advocacy, Media

PROVINCIAL AND TERRITORIAL MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE FOR HOUSING CALL FOR SUSTAINABLE FEDERAL FUNDING PARTNERSHIP

TORONTO, Ontario – June 25, 2013 – Provincial and Territorial Ministers Responsible for Housing today met to discuss the need for long-term, sustainable affordable and social housing.

“We are encouraged by the federal government’s recent proposal to extend funding for new affordable housing,” said Robert C. McLeod, Minister Responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation and Chair of the 2013 meeting of Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Housing. “But together we also need to protect the homes of the more than 600,000 families in social housing.”

The Ministers agreed that the current complement of social and affordable housing in Canada is among the most important social infrastructure in our communities. Significant decreases in federal social housing funding will create increasing challenges to meet the housing needs of Canadians.

As the host of the Ministers’ meeting, Linda Jeffrey, Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing noted that “the time to act is now. A long-term federal funding commitment for housing is critical to address the unmet housing needs of Canadians today and for future generations.”

Provincial and Territorial Ministers came together in Toronto to share information and build on common ground with respect to affordable and social housing issues. They noted that any affordable housing agreements need to be flexible and respect provincial and territorial jurisdictions, for example the training of apprentices. They also had an opportunity to discuss engagement with stakeholders and plans for a future meeting with their federal counterpart.

“We recognize the importance of affordable and social housing, and believe that all levels of government need to work together to meet diverse regional housing needs and priorities,” said Minister McLeod. “My colleagues and I invite Minister Finley, the federal Minister Responsible for Housing to a meeting in Yellowknife in order to work together to address the housing needs of Canadians.”

Although it shares the concerns of the other provincial and territorial governments about the substantive needs in housing, Québec intends to make its own representations to the federal government regarding housing at the appropriate time.

Ministers also noted that:

  • Safe, adequate and affordable housing is a basic need of Canadians, including persons with disabilities, and the ability to secure such housing is a determinant for most economic and social challenges.
  • Housing is critically important to the economy. Housing starts are a leading economic indicator because housing creates jobs, both direct and indirect. Affordable housing is a key component. In the three years from 2010-2012 combined provincial/territorial and federal spending added over $3 billion per year to the economy and created or sustained 35,000 jobs.
  • The aging population is putting increasing pressure on affordable and appropriate housing for seniors and limiting their ability to remain in their homes.
  • Poverty, which includes a large group of people whose housing needs are not met, costs Canada’s health care systems $7.6 billion annually.
  • A recent Mental Health Commission of Canada study found that increasing the supply of affordable housing will reduce pressure on health care, emergency services and the justice systems. Every dollar spent on housing reduces spending in other shelter, health and justice services by $1.54.
  • Children who are adequately housed perform better in school. Children in stable housing are four times less likely to drop out of school.
jillumbach Advocacy, Research

Almost 40 million bees lost from Elmwood farm

By Jon Radojkovic, Hanover Post 

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 12:38:19 EDT PM

What do alfalfa, coffee, chocolate, apples and watermelons have in common? All that food needs to be pollinated to become…food. And if the main pollinators, bees, are suspected of being killed by pesticides, what can we do to keep some food supply available for them until the slow reaction, hard lobbied government, passes a moratorium to stop the spraying of pesticides?

A public meeting was called last week to gather people around the issue of the millions of bee deaths in this region and around the world, after corn and canola was sprayed with neonicotinoid insecticides, common brands known as Poncho 600 and Matador 120.

Doubled with the huge increase of insecticide use on GMO plants, another problem for pollinators, which includes honey bees, sweat bees, squash bees, leafcutter bees (which pollinate alfalfa) bumblebees, some moths, and many others, is the loss of habitat. Put on top of all that high prices for corn, soya and wheat, fields are getting larger, because farmers are clearing many of the fencerows that traditionally would provide food for pollinators. At the same time, more residential development in the rural areas has seen an increase and size of lawns. These lawns are like a desert to pollinators, while many of them are also sprayed with pesticides.

One innovative way to provide more habitat or food, for pollinators, so they can continue to pollinate plants so humans can have food, is to plant perennial plants along our highways.

“Why does Ontario look so dead along its highways,” asked Carol Duncan, from Barrie, who spoke to about 50 people gathered at NFUO member Gary Kenny’s drive shed, near Neustadt.

Duncan talked about how she asked permission from the highway department near Barrie, to plant pollinator food—black-eyed-susans, wild strawberry plants, elderberry, choke cherry and even goldenrod. She got this idea after travelling to parts of the USA where there was an abundance of flowers and shrubs along interstate highways. “These are not gardens,” she explained, “they don’t need to be weeded forever.”

Another idea Duncan mentioned for pollinator plants was planting along hydro corridors. “It’s okay to cut the trees, but don’t spray and wild plants will grow,” she said. Grey County and municipal roads are typically mowed once along the sides, to keep the grass down and this lets wild flowering plants a chance to re-grow again, which is good for pollinators. Duncan cautioned though, that mowing the sides of roads and ditches by homeowners many times over the summer months, keeps flowering plants from coming up again. “Don’t mow the ditches, please,” she said.

Erika Schuet also talked about the loss of almost 40 million bees so far on their honey operation, Saugeen Honey, located near Elmwood. “I would say you could call this a, “bee holocaust,” she announced. After a good winter season, where their hives looked healthy, as soon as corn was planted this spring, the seed mixed with neonicotinoid insecticide, their and many other honey producer’s bees, died by the millions. They have had their bees tested by the pest management regulatory agency, an arm of OMAFRA, but so far have not had conclusive results. “The samples they have are to prove what science already knows,” Schuet says. She believes that past colony collapse is a result of lower immune systems in bees from insecticides, which is accumulating and coming to a head now. The half life of neonicotinoids is 120 days and can stay in the soil and water for years after. She also asked the big question, since the dust from these insecticides is in the air, is it not everywhere, especially in our water, and what is it doing to us?

“We all know it’s really about how chemical use is about making money for large corporations and their lobbying power,” said Chris Palmer, an attendee.

The thrust of the meeting, besides information, was more about what everyone can do to get a moratorium on neonicotinoids, at least a couple of years like the European Union enacted recently, and to save and grow more pollinator plants and shrubs.

Carey asked people to write or phone their MP, Larry Miller, who chairs the federal agricultural committee, plant flowering plants and shrubs instead of mowing your lawn and ditches, and hold meetings about the issue. He is inviting people to his farm, every Monday evening, to see what can be done. You can reach him at 519-665-7305 or nathanjcarey@gmail.com