NFU Local 316 Promotes Regional Branding, Food Sovereignty

Dec 11, 2013

The National Farmers Union (NFU) Local 316's continuing efforts to promote the local food movement in the area have garnered them much-deserved attention and respect over the last decade and a half, when the local food movement in and around KLF&A started gaining momentum.

In an effort to learn more about how to continue to build the system in Eastern Ontario and to acquaint people with what they have been doing, namely building at the farm and producers level and encouraging interest in processing and retailing, Local 316 had a booth at the Eastern Ontario Local Food Conference, which was held in Kingston on December 2 and 3. The booth was manned by their president, Diane Dowling.

Local 316's recent projects have included sponsoring "Feast of Fields" events from 2004 to 2006, and "Food Down the Road" activities in 2007. Its members have shone a spotlight on local farmers while getting consumers excited about what is available locally and garnering support from the non-farming populations as well, and building long-lasting relationships therein.

Prior to the Kingston conference Dowling said she had attended a consultation put on by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food regarding developing regional branding and designations. “The position that we (the NFU) are holding is that if the provincial legislation defines 'local' merely as 'Ontario', this will disadvantage eastern Ontario since large-scale buyers in the area will continue to buy from the Ontario Food Terminal, where the food comes from south-western Ontario,” Dowling explained. “If the eastern Ontario producers are to benefit from this new Local Food Act and new Local Food Fund, the government has to promote regional branding and put in regulations or minimal requirements that buyers must buy within their own regions”.

The Local Food Act was approved in November and currently defines “local food” as grown in the province of Ontario. “We want to add onto that and have the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Ministry of Rural Affairs work towards more regional branding, which will help create jobs at a local level and create more demand for local products while also keeping money in local economies instead of sending it out of the area.” Dowling said she thinks the ministries are listening to these concerns, which is why they are holding the consultations.

Asked how people can help to support regional designations Dowling said that people can comment online and contact their MPPs and also the Eastern Ontario County Wardens' group. A numbers of groups, like Savour Ottawa, Kawartha Flavours and Frontenac Arch Biosphere Flavours, are some examples of producers who have already been branding regionally. “We think the government should build on what has already been started and is already growing and working.”

Dowling said she personally feels that the current challenge facing local producers is to find ways to aggregate [bring their products together] for processing and distribution. "Right now what we need are processing facilities, distributors and entrepreneurs to help bring producers' products to market.” She added that there is also a need to help existing farmers and new farmers develop the skills and the means to produce and sell their products.

Regarding food sovereignty, Dowling said that the NFU has for years been concerned about food sovereignty and their most recent publication titled "Growing Food Sovereignty: Healthy Food, Ecological Sustainability, Democratic Control" highlights this issue. “We want people locally to have a say over the food that is produced and consumed in their area. It should not be somebody in a big company boardroom in Rome or London or New York deciding what kind of milk to sell in any town, village, city or province. It's the people within the jurisdiction, whatever its size, who should be able to decide what is being grown, how it is being grown, and it is they who should be able to control what kind of food is available to them.”

Dowling said that overseas, big companies are buying up farmland, growing, crops like cotton or coffee for export and denying local growers the right to grow food to feed themselves. “In Canada what we are seeing is too much control over the products that farmers are able to use. For instance seed varieties are being discontinued so that farmers cannot even choose exactly what they can grow because the seeds are no longer made available or no longer exist. These are the kinds of decisions that are being made in far away boardrooms.”

Dowling said that in order to see the necessary changes made concerning food sovereignty, people first need to be made aware it's an issue, then speak up and work toward the opportunities that will allow them to make the decisions. “People need to understand that these decisions being made by others far away are not inevitable. We do have a choice.” For more information visit www.nfu.ca