Canada to chair food aid talks

I'm trying to spend more time learning about Canada's position in the global food security conversation. I've learned a lot from my hero Maude Barlow about Canadian water, but I don't know much about Canada's relationship to global food aid, etc. This morning in The Globe and Mail, I saw a piece about the upcoming Food Aid Convention. Canada is the chair of the talks. In this closed-door session, a handful of the world's richest nations will renegotiate the historic international agreement that governs food-aid commitments to hungry countries.

Closer than we think - on food and class

I'm sitting in my comfie sublet in the Kensington Market in Toronto on a Saturday morning, sipping my gourmet, shade-grown, fair-trade "happy" coffee, with the Grateful Dead on the system (I only listen to the Dead on Saturday mornings, as somehow it seems appropriate). I'm reading blog posts and articles that relate to food policy and security, feeling pretty darn food secure myself. The phone rings. It's a friend/relative calling to ask if I can send him some money so he can buy food this week.

Breasts are good, breast milk is even better

I'm not sure if it's my city-winter-itis getting to me, or if I'm just a bit overwhelmed with global news in general, but I've taken a tiny little break from regular blogging. You probably didn't notice, and if you did, you might want to get some other hobbies. Whatever the case, I'm back, and I'm annoyed. Recently, in the U.S., the Internal Revenue Service announced that breast pumps would be eligible for tax breaks. GREAT! More support for working mothers to ensure their babies have the best start possible. Sadly, not everyone supports this move - enter She-Devil Sarah Palin.

Dark Days Challenge update

USDA Dietary Guidelines reviewed

Okay, folks, I'm finally getting around to reviewing the recently released Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, from the USDA. There are no real surprises on my end, just a general frustration at all the things NOT in the guide, and a half-assed acknowledgement of a few improvements in the Guidelines.

Come over to the dark side

We eat chicken almost 10 times a month on average--according to data from 2007-- but on less than two of those occasions do we choose chicken legs, thighs, or drumsticks. At the household level, this isn't problematic; families can buy prepackaged white meat instead of whole birds. But magnify this preference millions of times over on a national scale, and the imbalance could, theoretically, lead to canyons of perfectly edible chicken going to waste.

Food deserts, continued...

Recently someone stopped me in a conversation and asked what I meant by the term "food desert." We've talked about food deserts before on Folks Gotta Eat, but I like to revisit it and amplify some of the examples I come across. 

Sorry honey, I'm off to join the FoodCorps

We've got two major sets of issues regarding access to healthy, fresh foods that don't destroy the environment to produce. We have a rapidly-aging farmer population, with Big Ag pushing out as many of them as possible, and we have that same Big Ag with their buddies in the processed-food industry shoving crap down our children's throats. There are a myriad of creative solutions springing up all over the U.S. and Canada (and the world). One solution just started taking applications - FoodCorps.

Save the date!

Hold your hats and saddle your pony! Mark Saturday, January 21, 2012 on your calendars for the 6th Annual National Soup Swap Day! The Toronto Swap will be hosted by Folks Gotta Eat at the Centre for Social Innovation.

Hope on the water front

I spent the end of last week at the Ontario Camps Association's annual conference. I had resigned myself to a few days of interesting, but middle-of-the-road programming - that is until I saw that the keynote speaker was my hero, Maude Barlow!