cshore's blog

This evening, there will be the presentation from city staff on the upcoming composting roll-out, including the communications strategy, the grants, opportunities for demo projects, and any other relevant information, followed by a period of question and answer and discussion. This will take place from 5pm-6pm on April 14 (poster's note -- sorry for the late notice -- my fault!) in the Strathcona Room at City Hall as a public meeting before the VFPC`s main meeting at 6pm, which will be closed to the public as we finish our strategic planning. Guests are therefore asked to join us instead at our next public meeting on May 12. Please check back later for more details on the May meeting.

The VFPC's own Janine de la Salle is featured along with former VFPC liaison Peter Ladner in an interesting round table discussion about Urban Agriculture in the current issue of BC Business magazine. You can read the full article online at http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/bcb/top-stories/2010/03/03/vancouver039s-....

An excerpt:

Whether it’s fish farms or growing food that adds value to our food system, what do we need to do to make this happen in Vancouver?
DE LA SALLE: At a policy level there can be some land-use changes to allow for more agriculture activities to be permitted in the city. There has to be a more sensitive interpretation of the existing health and safety regulations. In the rural context, the provincial meat regulations have basically shut down small-scale meat processing in B.C.

This article appeared online at the Georgia Straight's blog: http://www.straight.com/article-286269/vancouver/time-metro-vancouver-fo....

Canada figures prominently in a survey of North American cities that have moved "beyond recycling" and are providing composting programs for organic wastes—but B.C. is hardly on the map.

Of the 121 cities surveyed, 55 were Canadian, but only one was British Columbian. (The B.C. city that made the survey? It was Mission—a community that has been collecting food scraps separately since the 1990s.)

The major cities in B.C. are late entrants to food scrap composting. None had the track record to make the EPA survey. Vancouver, which touts itself as the Greenest City, hasn't even left the starting blocks.

The EPA report offers a rich mix of lessons learned by these 121 communities over the years.

Due to the Olympics, the Vancouver Food Policy Council has moved its regular meeting to Tuesday, February 2 at 6:00 – 8:30 PM. Instead of meeting at City Hall, we will hold this meeting at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society, 1150 Raymur Avenue

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&q=Greater+Vancouver+Food+Bank+...

The draft agenda is attached.

The Vancouver Food Policy Council is meeting Wednesday, January 13th, 6:00 – 8:30 PM in the Strathcona Room at City Hall. For details, visit http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/policy/council.htm.

Frances Bula of the Globe & Mail wrote an interesting article about an urban gardener and the growing phenomenon of urban agriculture. She also quoted Vancouver Food Policy Council members Herb Barbolet and Janine de la Salle.

Read the article here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/growing-an....

Low-income British Columbians can’t afford healthy food.

Once the family on income assistance pays the rent, there is not enough money for healthy food, or any other costs of daily living. A family of 4 with 2 children on income assistance would need to spend more than 100% of their disposable income on shelter and healthy food, compared to a family with a median income (one earner) spending 48%. Many low income families struggle to afford food. While shelter and food costs have risen significantly minimum wage has remained at $8.00 hour. Without consistent economic access to enough nutritious food, healthy eating cannot be achieved and the risk of poor health increases.

Vancouver Food Policy Council Hosts Food Security Forum The Vancouver Food Policy Council, an advisory committee to Vancouver City Council, is hosting a packed forum on Thursday, December 3 titled “Food Secure Vancouver in a Changing World – Proactive Planning for Pending Changes.” The forum is being held at Langara College from 5:30-9:30 pm. The forum is part of the second phase of the Food Secure Vancouver Study being conducted by the Vancouver Food Policy Council, a two-year research effort that will be the largest study of food security ever done in Vancouver. Participants at the forum will discuss: How can we ensure that there are farmers and farmland for future production needs? How can we meet the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change on our local food system? How can we shift to greater food resiliency? The Forum is nearly full, with representatives from all aspects of Vancouver's policy and food sectors.

Belatedly, here is VFPC member Janine de la Salle's summary of a great event she attended this past summer.

The Slow Food Vancouver Agassiz Farm Tour that took place on Aug 22 attracted over 800 cyclists to a diverse set of 14 farms. Everything from dairy operations, artisan cheeses, cranberries, land-based aquaculture and biking through the hazelnut orchard, this Slow Food event showcases local agriculture and is not to be missed.

Kim Sutherland, of the Vancouver Food Policy Council, explained to curious bikers the whole-life process of creating delectable artisan cheeses at Farm House Natural Cheese.

The November meeting of the Vancouver Food Policy Council will be held on November 19th at 6:00-8:30 in the Strathcona Room at Vancouver City Hall.

Note that this is outside of our regular meeting dates, but as November 11 is Remembrance Day, we have moved this meeting to a Thursday.

This will be the last regular meeting of 2009.

For more information, please visit http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/polic....

The Province ran a story today about the Urban Aboriginal Community Kitchen Garden at UBC Farm that will be of interest to food policy types.

Check it out at http://www.theprovince.com/health/Aboriginal+Eastsiders+find+dignity+gro....

The Vancouver Food Policy Council is meeting Wednesday, October 14th, 6:00 – 8:30 PM in the Strathcona Room at City Hall. For details, visit http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/policy/council.htm

The Vancouver Food Policy Council is meeting Wednesday, September 9th, 6:00 – 8:30 PM in the Strathcona Room at City Hall. For details, visit http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/policy/council.htm.

VFPC's very own David Tracey has an insightful and educational article in the Tyee about the future of urban farming.

Check it out at this link.

The Vancouver Food Policy Council is meeting Wednesday, July 8th, 6:00 – 8:30 PM in the Strathcona Room at City Hall. For details, visit http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/policy/council.htm.