Results tagged “agriculture”

The farmland of Dufferin County looks exactly the way you'd imagine: softly rolling hillsides, the landscape dotted with old clapboard barns and quaint country houses, wooden fences neatly marking off the lots. Nestled in this terrain, about an hour and half northwest of Toronto, is the township of Melancthon (population 2,895), a small community that has been an agricultural centre for many generations' worth of farmers. The soil in this region—Honeywood silt loam—is said by local farmers to be unique in southern Ontario, and is, particularly, ideally well-suited for growing potatoes.

The food we eat, and the sources thereof, have become the subjects of increasing attention over the past few years. In an attempt to bring farmers and the people they feed closer together, Slow Food Toronto hosted its second annual Farm-to-Home Fair at the Gladstone this past Saturday. Local farmers and food producers came out in force for some agricultural show-and-tell, and local eaters (that's us) came to learn more about the importance of buying from sustainable, Toronto-area farms. Torontoist departed with two dozen pastured, laid-this-week eggs, and also a bit of insight into our local food culture.

Urban agriculture is the new green. Now that we've got trash reduction, active transportation, and energy conservation well-entrenched in our collective consciousness it's time for the next frontier in city-based environmentalism, and our relationship to food is it. "Carrot City," an exhibit showing at the Design Exchange until April 30, is trumpeting the latest and greatest developments in urban agriculture. Torontoist was at the opening party Tuesday night, and got the scoop on everything from a highrise tower built especially for pigs to a plan that would have us install greenhouses under the Gardiner.

Mark Bittman, a.k.a. The Minimalist, has built a career out of making home-cooking an accessible, manageable, enjoyable activity for those who feel too harried or busy to spend much time in the kitchen. It’s a noble project, one for which he has been winning widespread recognition. Bittman’s How to Cook Everything (just re-released in a tenth anniversary edition) is often described as The Joy of Cooking for a new generation: a single, comprehensive volume that puts a full repertoire of cooking essentials into terms beginners can understand and the more experienced find helpful in a pinch. Every Wednesday many of us turn to his column in the New York Times to learn how to whip up a quick meal, sometimes in less than five minutes. Bittman’s articles are often among the most emailed at the Times, and his story about making no-knead bread two years ago instantly became the stuff of cooking legend.

As Torontoist reported recently, City Council has been considering a local food procurement policy, which would mandate increasing the proportion of food that city departments purchase from GTA farmers. Though the proposal that made it to council was substantially more modest than the version first proposed by city staff, it too faced some resistance. Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong seemed rather worried that the policy would lead to children in daycare being denied oranges, for instance. So great was his concern that he felt compelled to introduce a motion (ruled out of order by Mayor Miller) that the city first implement the policy at City Hall rather than in daycare centres, presumably so that councillors could show solidarity with the toddlers as they too went without their oranges at lunch. Interested citizens everywhere will be relieved to learn that the local procurement policy passed easily, and staffers assured the anxious councillor that oranges would remain available nonetheless. In even better news for local food advocates, Councillor Jenkins (possibly acting on the recommendation of the Toronto Environmental Alliance) successfully introduced an amendment calling for the city to investigate the feasibility of setting a target of purchasing 50% of its food locally (the rate is currently at about 20%).

Photo by Simone from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Photo by mama loo from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

The second annual Picnic at the Brick Works was held this past Sunday, and it was a veritable extravaganza of foodie fun. From the simple (sliced and dressed heirloom tomatoes) to the avant-garde (chocolate beet cakes, anyone?), local ingredients and chefs showed off their stuff.

October 16 is the day that the Walt Disney Company was founded (1923), the day that Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act in response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping (1970), and the day that President Bush signed into law the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution (2002). It is also, though you may not know it, World Food Day, as deemed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. World Food Day has been celebrated in more than 150 countries since 1979, and since 1981, each year has had a theme. This year's theme is The Right to Food; that is, "the right of every person to have regular access to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food for an active, healthy life. It is the right to feed oneself in dignity, rather than the right to be fed."

Green is the new black. Going green is not just about flicking off or simultaneous international concerts, but being more environmentally conscious about how it creeps into everyday living. Local Food attempts to go beyond the popular concept of healthy organic eating by reducing the distance your food travels to your mouth and exposing what it takes to get that pineapple on your table.

Studies show that two-thirds of Ontario farmers use conservation tillage (which reduces greenhouse gas emissions) and have cut down pesticide use by 52%. Way to go, Team Agriculture!

Spring has finally sprung in a big way, just in time for Earth Day. Tomorrow, why not try something new, while also doing your part to help save the planet?

If were anywhere near Jarvis and Dundas today, you were probably wondering if you've ever smelled anything so horrible, but one thing was certain: it was the smell of death.