 |
| Source: Surrey BC Backyard Chickens & CLUCK Surrey |
EatLocalGrown, the original source of the image, was started shortly after Rick D. read the book The Omnivore's Dilemma. You can read Rick D's story here.
The problem today is that the legal definition of "organic" has been highjacked and watered down by Big Food.
In Canada, we have a second problem. CFIA changed the definition of "Local Food" so that it means it was grown somewhere in your Province, plus the first 50 km. of all other Provinces around you. Canadian Provinces are BIG places, bigger than some countries. Food grown in Windsor ON isn't too local to somebody living on the James Bay coast of Far Northern Ontario. Not too local, if you ask me.
EatLocalGrown is out of Boston MA. Here is a map of everybody they have signed up to be a local food producer (green square with the white carrot). Impressive. Bostonians might not starve after all.
 |
| EatLocalGrown and their Local Food suppliers near Boston MA, USA |
Now the Ontario Government is passing the Local Food Act to enshrine that definition. That will enable, and the #ChickenMafia and #EggMafia are already lined up and promoting themselves, the entire Supply Management System to be defined as "Local Food Producers".
So you see, that eliminates the distinction between your friendly neighbourhood Small Flocker, vs. the mega food factory over 1,000 km away. No difference, says the government.
Again, I'm not sure what a chicken or an egg raised in Southern Ontario, then shipped over 1,000 km to my local store has anything to do with "Local Food"
But alas, it's not me who gets to make those decisions. I submitted Small Flockers' comments to Ontario's Government, the NDP Opposition, and our local MPP back on April 14, 2013. The Act is 6 pages long, and we had multiple comments on every page (the comments are in the little yellow splotches on the Adobe Acrobat page, click on them and you can read the comment in the context of the Act).
We asked to come to testify at the Legislature's Sub-Committee who was holding about 6 hours of hearings on the Local Food Act, but we were denied the privilege. We did however, re-submit our comments to the Sub-Committee.
It seems all of it was sucked into a Black Hole, never to be seen or heard from again.
Perhaps you need to read the book, or watch the documentary Food Inc. (see yesterday's Blog Posting ), or like John D. says, get really pissed off.
