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A Special Edition of Making Waves magazine - Summer 2006
Pour le français
There's a war going on out there, and it's all about food - growing it, processing it, transporting it, selling it. Some figure that a food system obsessed with corporate concentration, free trade, and high tech remains the way to go. Others see the future in smaller farms and enterprises that make nourishment integral to enriching communities & to preserving the Earth.
making waves is published quarterly by the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal. It is written by and for people trying to revitalize struggling communities and help marginalized groups improve their overall quality of life. It is the only periodical on CED currently published in North America, and is read by professionals and activists in this field across Canada.
This Special Edition, "Growing Hope," is being distributed in English and French to a great many people and community-based organizations active in the food and agricultural sectors, as well as our regular subscribers.
Scroll down this page to tour the table of contents of the Special Edition. (The French-language translation is currently underway and will be available shortly.) All its articles are available in portable document format (PDF), as are many selections from our back issues.
You can also request a trial issue or subscribe. Click here if you would like to write an article for making waves, and click here for information about advertising in the magazine.
CONTENTS
We gratefully acknowledge the support of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Canadian CED Network for this Special Edition. Banner photo courtesy of Laura Berman, GreenFuse Images, Toronto.
Why Food? Why Now?
In the last 50 years Canada's food system has come to be all about efficiency, quantity, and economy - not health, employment, environment, and self-reliance. The response of our communities to this threat, while admirable, is wholly unequal to its magnitude. This edition of making waves invites you to identify the real issues, the real opportunities, the real difficulties - and to start building a real food system. Read this article.
Food Facts
Canadians have achieved unprecedented levels of efficiency in the production and distribution of food. So how come it's undermining our health and well-being? Read this article.
Plotting the Future of Food
Amidst the rising acrimony over how we expect to feed ourselves in the next 50 years, three main schools of thought and strategy emerge. Two remain devoted to technological innovation, driven by corporate investment and international competition. A third proposes something more dramatic: configuring a food system integrated with the life of natural and human communities. Read this article.
Kauai Fresh
As its "Kauai Fresh" food brand demonstrates, Kauai Food Bank Ohana is learning how to give its charitable activities an entrepreneurial edge. Dependency is giving way to capacity and partnerships as this organization tries literally to work itself out of a job. Read this article.
A Taste of the Future
To Equiterre, the rebuilding of the food system is fundamental to social justice. Through research, communications, political advocacy, and social entrepreneurship, Equiterre has been helping to carve out a market in Québec for local, organic, and community-supported food. Read this article.
Building the Ecological Food System
Launched in the early 1980s as a charitable response to hunger in Toronto, FoodShare has grown into a champion of community-led initiatives in food preparation, education, enterprise, and public policy. Yet systemic change is still far off. What's missing? Read this article.
Canada's Conscious Consumers
"Market fragmentation" represents an enormous opportunity for social entrepreneurs in the food sectors. Each of the seven major trends in consumers' food preferences represent a wave that growers, processors, retailers, and restaurateurs can ride into the future. Read this article.
The High Road to Food Security
Don't expect government alone to convert the agricultural and food industries to sustainable, responsible practices. To truly matter, those practices must be made to "take up space" in the marketplace, through the collaboration of communities and labour. Read this article.
Brain Food
In a world of giant transnational corporations, the deck appears stacked against social enterprise in the food sectors. Here are two tools that may help you redefine your competitors, your allies, and your purpose, and "reshuffle that deck." Read this article.
Fighting for the Farm
In the dismantling of Canada's food security, farmers have become both agents and victims of transnational corporations. There will be no resolution to the crisis in our food system unless farmers' interests and perspectives are taken fully into account. Read this article.
Getting Real About Food
With a revised Agricultural Policy Framework in the works, a prime opportunity beckons to impress the values and insights of the Ecological Paradigm on Canada's food system. To make that happen, community food practitioners - nonprofits, entrepreneurs, charities, and co-operators - must forge a movement that speaks with power, to power. Read this article.
This publication has been guest-edited by Sandra Mark and Frank Moreland, principals of Edible Strategies Enterprises Ltd. (Fanny Bay, B.C.), a consultancy specializing in the application of community economic development to issues of local food sustainability. They and the Canadian CED Network (CCEDNet) also encourage you to comment on the report of the CCEDNet food policy subcommittee, "Growing Hope: Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food Policy, Recommendations from the Community Voice."
TRIAL ISSUES
Like to assess Making Waves for yourself? We would be happy to mail you a copy at no charge. Please send your request via e-mail, including a complete street address, and your trial issue will arrive shortly.
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