11/07/06

Thinking locally wins food group $1-million
Non-profit greenbelt organization awards cash injection to promote ethical farming

SCOTT DEVEAU, The Globe and Mail

Lori Stahlbrand's dream of establishing a strong network for locally grown food in Ontario is moving one giant step closer to reality today as the ethical-food guru receives a $1-million cash injection for her efforts.

Her non-profit organization, Local Flavour Plus, is being awarded $1-million by the Friends of the Greenbelt to promote ethical farming, loosely defined as farming that promotes environmental, social and financial benefits in local economies.

Ms. Stahlbrand said it's always been disconcerting to her that people who want to eat ethically and support local farmers in Ontario are not able to.

"People here in Ontario, who are not only interested in the health benefits they perceive with organics, but also the environmental and social benefits, are not able to support those benefits . . . because they can't get local food that is organic," she said.

Roughly 85 per cent of the organic food consumed in Ontario is transported here from outside the province.

Ms. Stahlbrand founded Local Flavour Plus to establish and promote a set of criteria that would help consumers to identify locally and ethically grown food. With support from the Friends of the Greenbelt, which was established with a $25-million provincial grant to support farming, the environment and rural communities along Ontario's greenbelt, she will also help farmers sell to large buyers such as universities and hospitals.

Local Flavour Plus is among 13 recipients in the group's first round of grants, issued today.

The $1-million will be used primarily to help the small company (with two full-time and four part-time staffers) certify farmers in the greenbelt and link them with institutions in their communities, Ms. Stahlbrand said.

"There has never been a demand put on institutional purchasers to purchase locally. Now they're having to look for these producers," she said.

"Institutions are big sources of food purchasing and they can't have direct relationships with farmers and farmers' markets, because they're buying in such huge quantities and they're going through distribution systems and food-service companies."

Ms. Stahlbrand, a former senior CBC broadcaster, said she has had a long-standing interest in food issues. She co-wrote a book on the topic, Real Food for a Change, which tackles food-system reform and its implications for individuals and their communities.

The Local Flavour Plus initiative is modelled after a successful U.S. program, Food Alliance. Farmers who adopt methods such as integrated pest management systems, soil and water conservation, preservation of wildlife, fair labour practices and energy conservation methods will be rewarded under the program.

While Ms. Stahlbrand says she recognizes there are added costs to her plan, she argues there is also consumer support.

"We're definitely not trying to sell this on price. We're saying that there are values here that are worthwhile for an institution and worthwhile for their clients and that that needs to be built into the cost of food service," she said.

Ron Bonnett, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said that while there is a limited market for such products, it is a noble effort to try to grow local economies.

"Usually when it comes to these things, you have to follow the money," Mr. Bonnett said.

If it's not economically feasible for farmers to adopt sustainable methods, they won't do it, he said. "But, if they're looking to increase the number of local institutions that buy local products, they should grow the market."

Local Flavour Plus is hammering out the details of an agreement with the University of Toronto to sell ethically produced food in some of its cafeterias this fall.