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21 March 2010 ,

My book of the year? The Edible City...

By Melanie Redman
Photo courtesy of Flickr and batara Photo courtesy of Flickr and batara
Since my official emigration to Canada in 2005, I've repeatedly encountered three opinion groups:
  1. Montreal rocks
  2. Vancouver rocks
  3. Toronto sucks
I count myself as part of an emergent group, known as: No, really, Toronto ROCKS!

My new favourite book is a prime example of why. The Edible City: Toronto's Food from Farm to Fork is, well, fabulous. I begged my buddy Natalie to bring it down to Buenos Aires for me at Christmas after I learned of its launch at the Centre for Social Innovation. Since then, the book is all but glued to me. There are chapters I read over, and over, just to absorb and retain more of the wealth of information about the history and the present of the food system in Toronto. And, to light my fire even further, there is a hell of a lot of vision for what the future can, and should, look like.

Each essay in the book, lovingly curated by Christina Palassio and Alana Wilcox, gives us a little more insight into the breadth, richness and - not to be underestimated - complexity of how food gets from the farm to the fork, who is involved, policies at play, interests competing, etc. Not only that, but there are some damn good recipes too!

Just a quick overview of the two chapters that REALLY turn me on...
  • "High off the hog: Hogtown as food processing hub" by Steven Biggs - When many of us hear the term "food processing" we tend to get a little uncomfortable, see it in a negative light (the anti-farmer's market). Until we are all feeding ourselves from our urban gardens and local family farmers year-round, we can't really ignore the presence and importance of the food processing industry. It's even harder to ignore Steven's point that 12% of the industrial workforce in the City of Toronto (as of 2008) is employed in the industry. Let's face it, Folks Gotta Eat, and they generally need jobs to do it. This essay lays out the past, present, and future of the food processing industry in the Toronto region, including a fantastic discussion of the current policies and incentives that nurture Toronto's vast potential for growth in this area. (I'm a jobs/labour policy nerd.)
  • "Food Fighters: The Stop Community Food Centre and the end of the food bank" by Jason McBride - If you don't know about the amazing work and systemic approach of The Stop, this essay is a fantastic way to dive in. Under the leadership of the long-time social justice advocate, Nick Saul, The Stop and its two million dollar budget provide a constellation of facilities and services, primarily to the Davenport West catchment area. The ever-expanding services include: a huge community garden at Earlscourt Park, a greenhouse and sheltered garden at the Green Barn, hands-on growing and cooking classes for Grade 5 students across the TDSB, perinatal nutrition training for pregnant women, civic engagement programming that encourages community members to speak out about both hunger and income issues, and the list goes on and on.
Want to learn more? Well, buy the darn book, and/or check out the recorded forum that my buddies at the Sustainability Network captured from the book launch. Whatever you do, don't try to pry it from my hands...

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Written by: Melanie Redman

Melanie Redman

Melanie Redman is a Social Mission Collaborator with more than 10 years of direct experience in strategic, leadership and advisory roles across the social mission sector in the U.S. and Canada. She calls many places home - most recently Toronto, Buenos Aires and Seattle - but was sprouted from the Ozark Mountains of Southern Missouri. Learn more about her work at www.melanieredman.com or on LinkedIn.

 

Responses to “My book of the year? The Edible City...”

2
Alan Dixon Says: March 25, 2010 9:28 AM

Hey melanie:

Thanks for the excellent tip. Gotta go birthday shopping and you've just saved me!

p.s. cowboy coffee rocks. When I lived in Costa Rica, they had this little dirty sock contraption that you could use if your coffee was ground pretty fine, but if you can get your hands on percolator grind, or a little hand grinder, you can do even better - just stir after bringing to a boil and let sit for a minute before pouring, and hey what's a little grit between the teeth anyway? I like to pretend I'm camping.

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Melanie Redman replied to comment from Alan Dixon Says: March 25, 2010 1:45 PM

Glad I can help! I'm sad to say that even though we're staying in an Italian-owned hostel here in Bogota, the coffee is still Nescafe. Man, I bet the corporate execs at Nescafe are living high on the hog. ;-)

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