Brock University And Niagara Arts Centre To Host Panel Discussion On Supporting Locally Grown Food

By Doug Draper

Our greater Niagara region is one of those blessed places in the world where a rich diversity of food can be grown. But if we don’t go out of our way to purchase the food grown by our local farmers, that bounty may one day be gone.

A sad sign of the times in Niagara. Peach trees were torn out on this farm in west St. Catharines when a processing plant for the fruit in Niagara was closed due to overseas competition. File photo by Doug Draper

Just think about how vulnerable we may become if lose our local access to something as key to our survival as food and become dependent on other regions around the world for it? Bad enough we are so dependent on regions of the world – many of them now so unstable – for oil.

A report prepared a year ago this past March by the Niagara Community Observatory at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario concludes that although “consumers are becoming interested in local foods,” many of us continue to go to big chain grocers to buy that is imported more cheaply from other countries. But at what cost to a local-food producing industry that we could possibly lose forever if we don’t support it?
This Friday, April 8 at 7 p.m., Brock University will be featuring a panel discussion, titled ‘The Politics of Local Food: Enhancing food security in St. Catharines-Niagara’ at the Niagara Artists Centre in downtown St. Catharines, Ontario. The details for this important discussion about our local food supplies are included in a media release from Brock, posted below.

BROCK UNIVERSITY
MEDIA ADVISORY

Experts hold panel on local food

Food security in Niagara will be the topic of a downtown St. Catharines event on Friday, April 8.

“The Politics of Local Food: Enhancing food security in St. Catharines-Niagara” will be at 7 p.m. at the Niagara Artists Centre. A panel will discuss how while there’s a consumer interest in locally grown food, Niagara farmers and food producers continue to struggle against enormous odds to stay afloat in a system heavily stacked against them.

The panel will include:

·    Mustafa Koc, author of Hunger Proof Cities and founding co-ordinator of the Centre for Studies in Food Security at Ryerson University
·    Tom Neufeld, director of the St. Catharines Farmers’ Market and a Campden farmer
·    Malcolm Allen, Welland MP and NDP Deputy Critic of Agriculture and Food Security

The panel will address changes that need to be made to give Niagara a more secure, ethical and self-reliant food economy that supports local producers.

This event is part of the Brock University Sociology department’s annual speaker series.

The Niagara Artists Centre is at 354 St. Paul Street in St. Catharines.

(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater Niagara region.)