Naomi McBride of Inside Out Vitality Within is a volunteer member of the Durham Food Policy Council and will be working with key individuals within the Durham community to fulfill the mandate of the DFPC and ensure all families can exercise the right to eat real local produce at a reasonable cost with easy access to the farmers producing it. Also, Naomi is currently working with the Durham Culinary Association (DCA) to assist in the promotion of farmer’s markets held at local high school for families to drop in a pick up local grown produce and see the high school students then in turn make a meal in the class rooms with home grown food. On July 12, Naomi McBride, RHN will be at U of T Scarborough campus at 3 Pm for the official opening ceremony of the farmers market offering produce, flowers, baked goods. Naomi McBride, RHN, will be a guest speaker. The Farmer’s Market will run from July 12, 2010 to October 25 from 3-7 and will feature professional local chefs and farmers.
Durham Food Policy Council
For Immediate Release
Durham Food Policy Council aims to fight urban sprawl to protect Durham’s agricultural land
June, 2010 – DURHAM REGION
The Durham Food Policy Council (DFPC) is a community-based committee in the Region of Durham that was established in early 2010.
The members of the DFPC have strong concerns about proposed plans pertaining to land use contained in Region of Durham’s Official Plan Amendment number 128 (ROPA 128), especially those that have implications for local agricultural lands and the future development of agricultural initiatives and lands for growing food for our local citizens. As we see it, ROPA 128 presents plans for where people may live and work but not for where they may get their food. The planned amendments present a business as usual scenario when it comes to access to safe food and water resources, appearing to ignore the changing nature of the global food and energy economies. This is alarming as the planned amendment will affect the Region’s land use over the next 20 years, the time when these global changes will have their greatest impact on the lives of citizens in our community.
At the Regional Council meeting on June 23, 2010, Ben Earle, Chair of the DFPC presented a delegation voicing these concerns, stating that, “We have specific concerns over the proposal in ROPA 128 to slate prime agricultural and environmentally sensitive lands in Northeast Pickering at the Carruthers Creek headwaters for development as we do not believe that these plans are based on adequate information about the potential impact of development in these areas.” The DFPC maintains these concerns.
At this same meeting on June 23rd, Councillor Bonnie Littley (Pickering) and Mayor Steve Parish (Ajax) put forth a motion asking their colleagues to consider deleting the proposed urban development in Northeast Pickering area until studies on watershed, agriculture, and economic impact can be conducted.
Regional Council rejected this motion.
The DFPC is disappointed by this decision, believing that plans to allocate this area for future living and employment land development are short-sited, based on quick gains rather than long-term planning for a healthy and sustainable community. Rather than advocate development of these lands we propose that they be protected from urban encroachment and that they be explored as a keystone for the development of a sustainable local agricultural system.
The Province of Ontario has instituted an iron curtain to protect green space and farmland with the Greenbelt legalisation passed in 2005. The Region of Durham resisted the Greenbelt and was slow to accept these changes. Now, five years later, it will once again be up to the province of Ontario to prevent unnecessary and poorly managed urban sprawl and protect prime agricultural and environmentally-sensitive land in our community.
The Durham Food Policy Council will continue to promote prudent use of the irreplaceable agricultural lands until this becomes a priority for the Region of Durham. The group invites concerns citizens to join the movement in seeing food and sustainable planning become a priority by the Region of Durham for the benefit of residents and Durham Region as a whole.
The Durham Food Policy Council (DFPC) is a community-based committee that was established earlier this year, following from the work of the Durham Food Charter Task Force, a community group that operated from 2007 to the end of 2009. The DFPC is comprised of representative stakeholders from various aspects of the local food system. Our stated mission is to create an environment that supports community food security through food sovereignty and a sustainable local food system in the Region of Durham. We support the development of a local food system that is environmentally sustainable, economically viable and socially just. Our role, like that of food policy councils in communities across North America is to assess and understand our local food system, advocate for sound food system planning, and to create space for discussion and strategic policy and program planning that supports our mission and the principles set forth in the Durham Region Food Charter. The Durham Region Food Charter presents our communities vision for a healthy and sustainable food system in the Region of Durham (http://durhamlives.com/healthy_eating/foodCharterDurham.pdf).
For more information about the Durham Food Policy Council, contact Rebecca Fortin (rfortin@cdcd.org or 905-686-2661).
The Durham Food Policy Council acknowledges the financial contributions of the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation.
Media contact:
Ben Earle, Chair
Durham Food Policy Council
905-686-2661 ext 115
Mailing address:
Community Development Council Durham
134 Commercial Ave, Ajax ON L1S 2H5