Debbie Field presents at Conference Board of Canada Food Summit, April 2013

From April 9-10, 2013, FoodShare participated in the Conference Board of Canada’s 2nd Food Summit as a member organization of Food Secure Canada(FSC) – a national voice for the Food Security Movement in Canada.

As a founding member of FSC, FoodShare Executive Director Debbie Field joined a small group of speakers strengthening the voice of civil society at the Summit in her plenary presentation on Household Food Security. The session was moderated by Rachel Gray of the Stop Community Food Centre, and included Martin Caraher from City University London, Great Britain, and Richard Kingdon from Second Harvest Toronto.

Debbie’s presentation highlighted many of the crises in our industrial food system, bringing forward ideas from FSC’s People’s Food Policy for Canada, and recommending that the Conference Board strengthen its draft strategy through adequate representation of Food Security issues. She proposed successful solutions from both FoodShare’s work and international examples that are exemplary models for what can be included to build a National Food Strategy that is truly holistic and inclusive.

In creating a National Food Strategy, Debbie emphasized that it must include voices from first nations, diverse populations, and newcomers, and incorporate the critical role of local co-ops, independent family farms, local restaurants and community-based non-profits that produce mostly for a local market in the food economy. As a starting point, Debbie identified that a collective campaign for universal student nutrition programs is something that the community, government, and private sectors could take coordinated action to get behind immediately.

Throughout her presentation, Debbie addressed the need for a Canadian National Food Strategy to incorporate best-practice international examples that integrate health and low income access with the economy, such as Brazil, rather than only looking to strategies from countries that focus on exports, industry, and corporate interests.

Through participation at the CBOC Food Summit, FoodShare actively contributed to dialogue emphasizing the right to food, and the need for policy makers to lead a Food Strategy focused on long-term solutions that collectively reflect the opportunities and needs of our communities, economy, environment, health, and public policy.

Click here to view Food Secure Canada’s Resetting the Table: A People’s Food Policy for Canada, and a Citizen’s blog about what participants had to say from the Summit.

Check out other reactions from the media and attendees in the following articles: