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Hey Food!
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.”
Toronto’s celebration of the event is a symposium at Ryerson, put on by Alphabet City and the Ryerson Centre for Studies in Food Security:
Ryerson Responds to the Food Challenge: Join Ryerson University professors Mustafa Koc, Nina-Marie Lister, Pamela Robinson and guests in a hour-hour symposium that will engage in the challenges raised in Alphabet City’s Open Letter on Food and explore the ways in which Ryerson research and education can promote, study and activate food security, edible landscapes, and local food diversity.
It will be held at Heaslip House, 297 Victoria Street, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Admission is free.
Afterwards, you can head over to the Ryerson School of Urban and Regional Planning (105 Bond Street) for the opening of Growing Toronto’s Foodshed, a collection of architectural drawings, maps, and data analyses describing the reality and potential of Toronto’s foodshed. (Starts at 12:30 p.m. and runs until October 30th. Also free).
There are many more exciting and delectable food-related events as part of Alphabet City’s FOOD Festival, running through most of October.
Photo by Alehandro Sandoval from the Torontoist Flickr Pool, title of the post from Cookie Monster’s classic song.