PEI Food Security Network Annual General Meeting

P.E.I. FOOD SECURITY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Tuesday, December 1st
9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The Farm Centre, 420 University Avenue, Charlottetown
Lunch will be provided

Agenda – Morning

Fair Trade & Food Security
Guest Speaker, Renwick Rose
& Discussion, guided by the Production and Distribution Working Group

Renwick Rose, Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of the Windward Islands Farmers Association (WINFA), is one of the pioneers of the Fair Trade movement in the Caribbean. He was instrumental in securing the first exports of Windwards Fair Trade bananas to the United Kingdom in 2000.

Renwick has also been very active in advocacy in trade matters on behalf of Caribbean organizations. He is a founding member of the Civil Society Forum in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and current Chairman of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), a local body set up by Parliament to advise and dialogue with government on social and economic policy issues. Renwick has just been elected Chairperson of the Caribbean Policy Development Centre, a regional NGO policy and advocacy organization grouping women, youth, workers, farmers’, environmental, religious and other social organizations.

Internationally, he is also a founding member of the ACP Civil Society Forum and a member of the Follow-Up Committee of the Economic and Social Committee of the European Commission. Renwick has also been a representative at meetings of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

Agenda – Afternoon

News from Working Groups
Report of Coordinating Committee
Membership Report & Discussion
Members’ News; Community Food Security Events and Activities
Decisions: Should the PEI Food Security Network become incorporated?
Approval of Cooper Institute as the host organization for 2009-2010.

The P.E.I. Food Security Network is an education and action organization committed to achieving food security in Prince Edward Island, dedicated to changing community attitudes and public policy to promote: environmentally appropriate practices for the production and distribution of food; the availability of affordable, healthy, culturally appropriate and personally acceptable food; livable income for producers; the right to food; and PEI self-reliance in food.

Distance Education Course in Food Security

409 Gender and Food Security- Fall 2009 Ryerson

Throughout the world, women and children are numerically the most affected by malnutrition and general food insecurity. On the other hand women are largely responsible for making food available to their families, are increasingly becoming the majority of the workers, worldwide, in the agricultural production and industrial processing of food for sale and consumption, and are predominant in the field of food security as professionals, either as nutritionists, social workers or other health professionals. Yet, a disproportionately small number
of women reach positions in decision-making bodies, be it at local, regional, national or international levels.

The course explores the theoretical frameworks from which one can better understand the intricate relationships between gender and food security. It also looks at contemporary issues in the area, such as gender roles and female identity, intrahousehold resource control, discrimination in labour markets, and the role of food in the lives of women.

Gender and Food Security is part of the Certificate program in Food Security and is open to undergraduate and graduate students. Registration is open until classes start. Course begin on September 12, 2009.

For more information about individual courses or the Certificate in Food Security, please visit www.ryerson.ca/ce/foodsecurity or contact the academic coordinator, Reg Noble: food [at] ryerson [dot] ca

Please note that this is not a PEI Food Security Network initiative. For more information on this course, please contact the coordinators directly. Thanks!

Representatives of Mexican Organic Markets, September 16-19

From September 16 – 19, representatives of the Mexican Network of Organic Markets  – an organization that links organic, producer-operated markets across Mexico – will visit P.E.I. Two public events are planned for their visit, and details follow, below.

The purposes of the Mexican Network of Organic Markets are to increase the availability of locally grown, organic produce to local Mexican consumers, and to increase the Mexican public’s awareness of organic products and their benefits to human health and the environment. The network promotes participatory organic certification, which is a system of peer evaluation that eliminates the need for a third party inspector and focuses on allowing producers to educate each other in sustainable farming practices.

Santiago Martinez Bringas is one of the visitors.  He comes from the Mexican state of Baja California del Sur, which is in the far west of the country, and is the Coordinator of the Organic Market in San Jose de los Cabos.  The other confirmed delegate, Juan Moran, is a coordinator of the Organic Market of Tlaxcala.

PUBLIC EVENTS

On Thursday evening, September 17th at 5:00 p.m., you are invited to an organic pot-luck meal at St Paul’s Church Hall, 203 Richmond Street in Charlottetown.  This will be an opportunity to chat with our guests  informally over a meal.  Bring your favourite dish!

On Friday morning, September 18th from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., you are invited to Murphy’s Community Centre, Room 205 to hear a presentation about the Mexican Network of Organic Markets and to share your experiences and ideas about food security, organic production, marketing etc.

Email Cooper Institute (cooperinstitute [at] eastlink [dot] ca) for more information (but because we are on holidays still, you might not hear from us until after Labour Day . . . enjoy the last week of summer!)

Food Security and Sovereignty Public Forum

TOWARDS A NATIONAL FOOD POLICY: A National TOUR Event

Event Poster in PDF

Are you concerned with:

• Rising oil and gas prices? Escalating food prices? Genetically modified food?
• Support for our farmers? The future of our agricultural lands? Food vs. Biofuel?
• Localized food production? Global unrest from food shortages? … and MORE?

Food for Thought

Food Security and Sovereignty

PUBLIC FORUM

With

ALEX ATAMANENKO, MP

Federal NDP Agriculture & Rural Affairs Critic

With local guest panel.

Thursday, May 21 7:00 PM

Murphy Community Centre Rm:205

200 Richmond St. Charlottetown

BRING YOUR ISSUES, STORIES, CONCERNS & SUGGESTIONS!

Your input will help shape a National Food Policy

Please note that this is not a formal PEI Food Security Network event. For more information on this local event, please contact the event organizers with the Federal NDP directly: 1-800-667-2393 / 250-365-2792 atamaa1@parl.gc.ca

Seeds for a Song

Imagine a bank that gives you a ten fold return on your investment and helps secure the world’s food supply all for the price of a song! Kindly send this letter to your friends and we can make it happen.

The Best Bank is a Seed Bank.

Seeds for a Song PDF

For millennia, farmers the world over saved part of their crop to plant the following year. The tastiest tomato, the largest potato, the hardiest squash would be kept for seed. Countless varieties were developed, saved
and traded. This practice is eroding. Small seed houses have been purchased by large companies, even organic farmers plant hybrid seed that cannot reproduce the following year. Companies like Monsanto are patenting genes from plant species collected in poor countries and making it illegal for peasants to plant seeds that their own ancestors developed.

What can we do?

Having grown up on a small mixed farm in Prince Edward Island, saving seed comes natural to me. I started a seed bank in my own community a few years ago. Every spring we get together, have a party and trade seed—luscious tomatoes, heirloom beans, rare grains. It’s fun, and it gives one a sense of security to know that our food supply is not entirely in the hands of a few
multi-national corporations. This is an issue for all of us; the city gardeners and rural farmers. It is my dream, and the dream of many others, that we develop seed banks in homes and communities all over.

How can we make this dream come true?

I  am a professional musician and I will always play music, but that is not enough. I believe each of us can help create heaven on Earth, one idea at a time.

What do I have to give?

A song. I’ve just released a new album, Late Night Parlour. I want to give away a song for this project. The song is called “Dance Me Outside”. It was inspired by my parents who always found time to go dancing, even when there was so much work to do around the farm.

I  invite you to download “Dance Me Outside”. For $0.99 you get a song that will inspire you to dance around the kitchen and you will be part of a banking system that puts people’s needs first. Of course, this will help me too. More people will hear my music, and I will finally be able to make this project fly.
Gardeners are invited to send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I will send you some amaranth or heirloom bean seeds while my supply lasts! Part of the project money will go to hiring an organic farmer to grow seed that we can give away to start other seed banks. We will donate the rest to indigenous farm organizations in India and Latin America who are desperately trying to retain ownership of the seeds for their traditional rice, maize and other staple food crops.

I am so excited about this project, it is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. If you like to garden, dance or just enjoy good food, help me spread the word through e-mail and Facebook. My hope is that this idea will fly faster than dandelion seed in a summer breeze.

Happy gardening, dancing, and eating from beautiful Prince Edward Island.
—Teresa Doyle

Please note that this is not a formal PEI Food Security Network project. For more information on what you can do to help and to buy Seeds for a Song tracks, please contact the organizer directly by visiting www.teresadoyle.com.

Growing Circle AGM

Greeting Friends of the Growing Circle Co-op:

You are invited to the 2nd Annual General Meeting of the PEI Growing Circle Organic Food Co-op

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
7 to 10 PM
St. Paul’s Church Hall
101 Prince Street (at Richmond)
Charlottetown

Come hear about our new Virtual Farmers’ Market initiative. See flat graphics of our new web site and a presentation of the selling and buying process.

By linking local producers with local citizens – the Growing Circle Co-op will have a variety of positive impacts, from environmental to economic.

In the spirit of the food cooperative please feel free to bring something for the social snack table. Producers are welcome to bring product to sell during the social hour.

Everyone is welcome, it is not necessary to be a member of the co-op to attend. We hope to see you there!

This event is not formally a PEI Food Security Network event, so please call the organizer directly for more information: Jane McNeil at 569-0233 or email: growingcirclecoop@live.com

Workshop on Growing the Island Way

On March 23, 2009, the PEI Food Security Network Food Production and Distribution Working Group hosted a policy directions workshop to study the document Growing the Island Way: The Next Chapter for the Agriculture and Agri-food Economy of Prince Edward Island.

The report from the workshop is now available: FSN-Workshop-Report-March-23

Workshop Objectives:

• to identify Growing the Island Way… as a continuation of past policy directions
• to situate Growing the Island Way… within the current PEI development strategies
• to critique the process used in the development of Growing the Island Way…
• to analyze the stated vision, mission, goals and targets of Growing the Island Way… from the perspective of food security
• to identify actions and next steps

STORM DELAY March 31st

The PEI Food Security workshop will start at noon today (March 31) instead of 10 a.m.

Join us for lunch and a “slightly” compressed agenda. It is at the MURCHISON CENTRE, not the Murphy Centre as reported by CBC radio.

Good luck in digging out!

Michelle

Michelle MacCallum

Executive Director

Women’s Network PEI Inc.

March 31st Forum on Food Security

This is a reminder  on behalf of the PEI Food Security Network of another upcoming forum on food security

• Tuesday March 31st, 2009, 10am-4pm
• Murchison Centre (15-17 St. Pius X Avenue, Charlottetown – off St. Peter’s Road)

The forum will feature two guest speakers, Ubali Guerrero, and Celerino Tlacotempa, both farms leaders from Mexico and members of Via Campesina.

The forum will be a chance to hear about the work that Ms. Guerrero and Mr. Tlacotempa are doing in Mexico and with Via Campesina, and to discuss the challenges and successes that people face in working towards food security. They will have the chance to comment on how the right to food is being addressed on PEI.

The forum will also feature a presentation by Sara Roach-Lewis of Women for Environmental Sustainability (WES), about that group’s research on the role of women in fisheries management.

This is also an invitation to a meeting with the guest speakers, after the forum from 4:00pm to 4:45pm, to speak about addressing fair trade and the right to food on PEI. This will be a great opportunity to get some suggestions on how best to move forward with these issues.

For more information, or to register for the forum, call Michelle
MacCallum at 368-5040.

Hope to see you on the 31st!

Two Upcoming Food Security Events

for PEI Food Security Network (FSN) Members and Associates

#1

Monday, March 23, 1:00 to 4:00 pm
Murphy’s Community Centre, Charlottetown

A workshop on the impact on food security of new directions for PEI agriculture* a review of the January 2009 document, Growing the Island Way: The Next Chapter for the Agriculture and Agri-Food

Organized by the FSN Food Production and Distribution Working Group

Please Register: call Michel or Marie at 894-4573 or e-mail
cooperinstitute *at* eastlink *dot* ca

(*The Food Production and Distribution Working Group will plan a future workshop on the fishery)

#2

Tuesday March 31, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Murchison Centre, Charlottetown

A Forum on successes in overcoming global and local obstacles to food security featuring Juana Ferrer Paredes a farm leader from the Dominican Republic and featuring a made-in-PEI plan for overcoming the obstacles to Food security Organized by the FSN Food Production and Distribution Working Group; the Access to Safe, Healthy and Culturally Appropriate Food Working Group; and the FSN Coordinating Committee.

(Juana works with Via Campesina, an organization of small- and medium-sized producers from 56 countries from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. This organization is one of the first promoters of the food security movement)

Please Register: call Michelle or Sara 368-5040 or email
michelle *at* wnpei *dot* org