foodshed looking at T.O.

through a food lens

URBAN APIaries
Beekeeping is on the rise —
what’s behind the trend?

DUMPSTER FEAST
A local group shows how one
person’s trash is another’s dinner

Brain food
Schools introduce policy
on healthy snacks

Winter 2011
foodshedmagazine.ca
Top Left: Nathan Isberg looks onto his jar
of crickets. They are not his pets. Instead, he
raises them to use in a dish he serves at his
restaurant. Eating insects, although generally
viewed as taboo in the West, has both nutri-
tional and enviornmental benifits.
Bottom Left: A movement to rekindle our
relationship with food and its source has been
gaining momentum. Sarah Elton, Toronto
food journalist and author of Locavore, says the
increased interest is a reaction to the cheap and
bad food that is readily available.
Right: The Bendale Market Garden in
Scarborough is believed to the first school-
based market garden in the country. Ian
Hepburn-Aley (front) from a local food
organization, FoodShare, helps students learn
agricultural skills.

Read these stories and more at:

foodshedmagazine.ca
contents
21
7

18

12

14 5 21 24

4 From the Editorial Desk 16 Bursting at the Seams

Foodshed proudly presents its inagural issue The green bin program is a little too successful

5 Edible Landscapes 18 Feeding the Hungry

Gleaning from the city’s edible network of trees
7 City Bees
Beekeeping is on the rise in Toronto
9 Small Businesses, Big City
Being a food enterpeurner in T.O.’s diverse market
10 The Human Raccoons
One person’s trash is another person’s dinner
12 United Through Food
Farmers markets as social spaces
What started as a band-aid solution is now a main-
stay. Are food banks doing more harm than good?
20 Urban Gardening
A quick guide to growing food in the city
21 Fugitive Fowl
A growing movement is trying to bring hens back
to the city
24 Sowing Diversity
How one seed can grow hundeds of varieties of
vegetables

14 Gastronomical Map 25 Eating ABCs

Charting Toronto’s food facts A school food policy to improve student nutrition

WINTER 2011 | 3
foodshed looking at T.O. through a food lens

Foodshed Magazine looks at the relationship

between food and our city — how growing,
accessing and consuming food shapes the
design of Toronto, as well as how the existing
urban landscape influences what we eat.

Visit our website at foodshedmagazine.ca to

read stories and view our multimedia content.
You can also follow us on the following social
media sites:
Tomatoes
Facebook: Foodshed Magazine at the Bendale
Twitter: foodshedTO Market Garden,
Scarborough.
YouTube: foodshedmagazine
Flickr: foodshedmagazine

Email: foodshedmagazine@gmail.com
From the editorial desk...
Food is rooted in a sense of place. We’re connected to what we eat — ­ where it comes
Masthead from and how we access it. The path food takes to get to our tables, and eventually our stomachs,
can be understood as a foodshed. Living in large city like Toronto can leave us disconnected from
Amanda Kwan this process, but when you follow food’s journey from field to table, you begin to see how intercon-
nected our eating habits are with the way our city is built. Toronto’s foodshed is a complex one,
Alina Smirnova spanning the entire globe. Yet our city has the potential to source a lot of the food it consumes
locally, considering that Toronto is built on some of the most fertile land in the country.
Alice Hoang There’s a movement growing to rekindle our connection to food — people are raising chickens
in their backyards, bringing farmers markets to their communities, and starting apiaries. At the
Emily Hunter same time, policy makers are recognizing this desire for the local by creating policies that reflect it.
Toronto has traditionally been at the forefront in developing solutions to food inequality, creat-
Saeda Raghe ing a food policy council in 1991. The city released a report in June 2010 on their first food strat-
egy that aims to address issues of food access and urban malnutrition by integrating food security
Faculty Supervisor into all city departments. With a new city council, there is potential to reinvigorate the debate on
how to design the city through the lens of food.
Ellin Bessner

GROWING greenhouse pollination food

harvesting
foraging

seeds

fork

apiary

compost banks
FOOD
BUGS

gleaning backyard
dumpster diving

abattoirs
cooking FOOD
bees

chickens FOWL
eating

TOURISM
community gardens cooking aglet
WEEDS PROCESSING PLANTS organics
meat
landfill

foodshedmagazine.ca
health

fruits & vegetables URBAN street

sustainability
nutrition

security
eating

snacks
rooftop gardens FARMERS farmers
access

grocery stores
gastronomy agriculture
canning balcony
farm land gardens markets
4 | Foodshed Magazine
edible landscapes Urban foraging
can change the
way we see our
city and our
relationship with
food
Story & photos by
Amanda Kwan

T
he tree rustles as three metal claws
tug at its edible bounty. One apple
drops to the ground. A man stand-
ing under the tree picks up the fruit
and places it in a bag. “That’s the fallen fruit.
We don’t give those away to organizations,”
says Chris Sharp, the Riverdale hub coordina-
tor for Not Far From the Tree, a residential
fruit-harvesting program in Toronto.
The tree they are gleaning from is in the
backyard of a house two blocks south of
Greenwood subway station. The canopy of
apples towers above the volunteers. With
only one ladder for five gleaners, one volun-
teer climbs on top of a patio table. Raising the
fruit-grabbing contraption toward a branch,
she snags the fruit and watches it drop into
the small bag attached to the end of the pole.
Once they’re finished harvesting, they will
divide the apples three ways between the vol-
unteers, the tree-owner and a local food bank
or social service.
Toronto’s network of edible trees is of-
ten invisible to most residents. But as cities
question their ability to provide food for its
citizens in a sustainable manner, urban fruit
foraging can offer a way for people to increase
their food security and reconnect with their
food. “A lot of people are becoming more
aware of issues around food and where their
food comes from, and want to find local food,”
Sharp says. “And you can’t get much more lo-
cal than a tree in your own neighbourhood.”

WINTER 2011 | 5

1 that took food for granted. My parents’ gen-
4 3
1) Chris Sharp weighs the bounty. 2) Volunteer Lynn Kamazaki retrieves an apple from the pouch. 3) For fruit
too far to reach by hand, gleaners use a pole with a metal claw and bag attached at one end. 4) Volunteer
Eva Bencze loads apples onto the cart, which is used to transport the fruit.
Yet the idea of eating fruit grown in our cit-
ies often elicits concerns about whether the
food is safe to eat. It’s a contradiction in the
way we think about our food: we fear local pro-
duce, yet accept imported ones, says Laurel At-
kinson, program coordinator for Not Far From
the Tree, which began in 2008. “I trust fruit
growing pesticide-free in my own backyard
rather than picking an apple from the store and
wondering what it’s been sprayed with, how
long it’s been travelling in a truck surrounded
by fumes.”
Gleaning can change the way people
view food accessibility in Toronto because they
start seeing the possibilities of growing their
own food in the city, Atkinson says. “There’s
still a big divide. People say backyard gardens
are just small, it doesn’t really count. But when
people see a tree and come on a pick and see
that we’ve picked 300 pounds of fruit from
one tree, you start to understand how one lit-
tle piece of land can actually do all of this and
more.”
Projects like The Edible Tree Tour led by
LEAF highlight the existing potential of Toron-
6 | Foodshed Magazine
2 has been positive, Poizner says. Even some
to’s edible canopies. LEAF (The Local Enhance-
ment and Appreciation of Forests), a local or-
ganization dedicated to protecting Toronto’s
urban forests, began the tours in 2007, which
have been gaining in popularity, said Sahar
Ghafouri-Bakhsh, Community Outreach intern
at LEAF. “People weren’t aware of how ed-
ible the trees in their neighourhood were,” she
said. “A lot of people have these trees in their
yard but they never looked at them as a food
source.” Some of the trees they feature on the
tour include: Gingko tree, Sugar Maple, Ameri-
can Elm, Russian Olive, and Japanese Maple.
There is no bylaw in Toronto banning people
from gleaning fruit growing on public lands but
the legal ambiguity makes it harder for public
harvesters to justify their actions when ques-
tioned by the city. In November, then-mayor
David Miller signed an official decree that
would allow people to harvest fruit from public
parks.
Ben Nobleman Community Orchard
is the first one of its kind in the city. Located
across from Eglinton West Station, the project
brought a flurry of protest when it was first
proposed almost two years ago. Detractors said
the fruit would attract wasps, provide weapons
for children, and even stain their clothing. The
opposition illustrates how alienated people
are from their local food system, says Susan
Poizner, a Growing For Green volunteer who
spearheaded the project. “A lot of the people
who were protesting were from a generation
eration remembers what it’s like to be hungry.”
But for the generation that followed, food was
plentiful. And it’s a privilege we may not be able
to keep forever as the economy and environ-
ment changes, she says.
Growing for Green planted the first set of
trees in June 2009. Today, there are nine trees
growing in the orchard (three sets of pears,
plums and sweet cherries) and the feedback
residents who were initially concerned now
support the project. “We are developing a rela-
tionship with the trees,” she said. “The way we
are nurturing these trees, they’re our babies.
When they do give us fruit, I think we’ll re-
ally cherish them. We won’t look and say, ‘Oh,
there’s a spot on it.’”
Not Far From the Tree is in the process
of creating a public fruit-tree map of Toronto,
with information about the type of fruit the
tree bears, when it’s ready to be picked, and
whether or not you need to bring a ladder.
Atkinson says that until now, they haven’t fo-
cused on fruit trees on public property because
they figured anyone could get access to it. “But
we still often get calls and emails saying there’s
a pear tree in this parkette or there’s an apple
tree here just going to waste,” she says.
The group plans to overlay this data with
other information, like the location of the clos-
est food bank where people can drop off the ex-
tra fruit they’ve gleaned. Another component
they want to add is the ability for gleaners to
post stories about their harvesting trips. This
feature is important, Atkinson says, because it
helps connect people, and it inspires them to
take part in the local food system. “Seeing a
map is one thing but I think it’s just a vehicle to
get you on the ground.”
After an hour and a half of gleaning, the vol-
unteers — necks and arms aching — decide to
stop. Sharp weighs each bag. The total comes
to just over 50 kg. The volunteers discuss the
fate of the gleaned fruit: chutneys, preserves,
or maybe fruit leather. As they help Sharp load
the fruits onto the cart, they look up at the
tree. The top of the canopy is still dotted with
apples.
City Skyscrapers dwarf rushing people, idling taxis, lounging pigeons and a couple of hot
dog stands — a familiar scene at Union Station. But 14 floors above, the atmosphere is entirely
different. Across the street from the station, the rooftop terrace of the Fairmont Royal York hotel

Bees
is dotted with containers of growing vegetables and herbs. And in the corner, a hub of buzzing
activity: six beehives that house up to 300,000 bees. They may not seem to belong to this urban
space, but they do.
“Bees thrive in cities,” says David Garcelon, the executive chef at the hotel, which opened their
fist hives two years ago. “There are a lot of parks, people have a lot of flowers, and there’s not a lot
of competition.”
Urban apiaries Toronto is seeing an increase in homes for these unlikely residents. Just in 2010, the Four Sea-

on the rise sons Centre for Performing Arts, the University of Toronto’s Trinity College and Downsview Park
all added hives to their properties. Together with the existing hives at the Evergreen Brick Works,
the Fairmount hotel, Casa Loma, on Toronto Island, and other locations at U of T — there are over
Story & photos by 30 hives. But professional bee farmer André Flys says if unregistered ones are taken into account,
Alina Smirnova the number is probably in the hundreds.

WINTER 2011 | 7
 There’s this holistic
process and bees are
just another part of that
puzzle
-- Jacob Kearey-Moreland
What compels someone to take up beekeep-
ing in the city? Even to go as far as breaking
the Ontario Bees Act that requires beekeepers
to register their hives and keep them at least 30
metres of a property line?
One obvious allure is honey. The Royal York
hotel has harvested almost 200 kilograms of
honey in 2010, which it uses in its restaurants.
Honey is not a highly regulated product and
someone selling it would be subject to the same
vending regulations as a regular kitchen, Flys
says. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has
barred imported honey before because of high
level of pesticides found in it, but here, most
people just produce it and sell it, he says.
Honey’s taste is influenced by the kinds of
flowers bees harvested pollen from, so Toronto’s
honey bees will reflect the city’s floral diversity
in their product. This year’s yield at the Royal
York hotel has hints of tropical fruits, whereas
last year’s tasted more herbal, Garcelon says.
But bees are also simply fascinating and
offer much to learn, says Jacob Kearey-More-
land, a U of T student involved with the hives
on the roof of Trinity College. For example,
bees build symmetrical combs, communicate
through dance moves and play an important
role in food production. “We have a symbiotic
connection with bees in a sense that we genu-
inely depend on them,” Kearey-Moreland says.
Bees are essential for pollinating crops. This
enables them to reproduce, making them an im-
portant part of agriculture. Because crops pol-
linated by bees can produce up to eight times
more fruit, bees
contribute up to
$1.7 billion per year
of value to growers,
according to the Ca-
nadian Honey Coun-
cil. Since their tasks
are so valuable to
agriculture, growers
pay beekeepers well
to ship their bees to
them during polli-
nation periods, Flys
says. They can go as
far as California.
But bees and oth- Six beehives on the 14th floor roof of Fairmont Royal York house up to 300,000
er pollinators are bees and produced 200 kilograms of honey in 2010.
dwindling in num-
bers. Several factors are suspected: disease, this holistic process and bees are just another
pollution, climate change, environmental deg- part of that puzzle,” he says.
radation and pesticides. Flys says he believes Currently, pollination isn’t a huge issue in
the latter play a major role; some pesticides are Toronto, Flys says. Toronto’s urban agriculture
just too effective and do not differentiate be- does include community gardens, and balcony
tween pests and useful insects. and backyard gardens, as well as some farms at
The awareness of these facts and the im- the boundaries of the city. But if the city does
pact of bee decline are reasons Garcelon, Flys want to scale up its food production beyond
and Kearey-Moreland all cite for the increased this, bees would be of great help, he says.
interest in urban beekeeping in Toronto. “The Expanding urban agriculture and looking
fact that [bees] are disappearing at an alarm- after a small bee city can also bring people to-
ing rate should be cause for worry for all of us, gether in the big urban area like Toronto. “It
considering that we all depend on food and by gets a lot of communities together — they
extension bees,” Kearey-Moreland says. Their work together to produce food and it binds the
role can be seen as linked with environmental people to get to know one another and their
movements, which are also on the rise. “There’s neighbours,” Flys says.

Bees & Agriculture Industry

(With info from the Canadian Honey Council)
>> Bees are pollinators — as are butterflies and bats — making them important to growing food crops
>> Crops that have been pollinated are up to 8 times more productive
>> Because of this, the value bees’ pollination to food production in Canada is about at $2 billion per year
>> There are about 7,000 beekeepers in the country and 300,000 colonies of bees
>> Canada produces 75 million pounds of honey a year, exporting half of it, with most to the United States

8 | Foodshed Magazine
 small businesses,
big city
Toronto’s large food market is perfect for launching a product
S
usan Ho always wanted to be part of
the food industry, even though she
isn’t exactly where she envisioned
when she began. Ho is the owner of
Tea Aura Inc., which currently manufactures
five tea infused flavours of shortbread biscuits:
matcha green tea, chocolate mint, rooibos chai,
early grey and lavender currant.
Ho, a food and nutritional management
graduate from Centennial College, initially
wanted to open a teashop and develop products
for her store. “I did a business plan and realized
that doing a teashop would encompass too high
of an overhead to start up,” she said.
She scaled back the business to something that
wouldn’t cost her as much money, devel-
oping tea-related food prod-
ucts. After graduating
from the federal gov-
ernment’s Self Employ-
ment Benefits Program,
she joined the Toronto
Food Business Incubator
(TFBI) to produce her prod-
ucts in their test kitchen.
TFBI, Located in the
west end of the city, started
three years ago as a non-profit
group. Connected with the eco-
nomic development department
of the City of Toronto, it helps com-
panies get started in the food-manu-
facturing sector. It provides business advice
and shared equipment for food manufacturing
with flexible leases.
It currently focuses on clients who are de-
veloping products to be sold to retailers and
wholesalers — not restaurants or special kitch-
Story & graphic by Saeda Raghe
ens, said TFBI manager Albert Peres. The focus
on manufacturing is important because of To-
ronto’s large food manufacturing cluster, Peres
said. “It’s unknown to everyone [because] you
don’t hear about it,” he said. “But in fact, To-
ronto is the centre of many food producers. ”
Toronto’s food industry employs
40,000 people and generates $20 billion in sales
revenue, according to a city study. Food exports
to the United States have tripled in the last
10 years and Toronto has the second
largest food manufactur-
ing cluster in
Nor th
America.
There are 400 food
manufacturing companies in Toronto
and 1,600 in the GTA.
“Toronto is an absolutely brilliant [food]
market to enter,” Peres said. “Torontonians eat
everything and they like to experiment. You
know that if you start a business here there will
be a market for it.”
The TFBI was Phase one of three to create
International Food Processing and Innovation
Centre (IFPIC) in Toronto and it has been suc-
cessful, said Michael Wolfson, food and bever-
age cluster specialist for the City of Toronto.
The TFBI is currently working with 12 clients,
graduated three clients and has a waiting list
of 10 to 12 companies. “The need, demand and
value of the incubator has more then been
proven,” Wolfson said.
The city was planning a second phase to ex-
pand the TFBI to include five
accelerator units but it fell
through due to lack of fund-
ing. “Governments are there
to help seed projects, but
they are not there to
be bottomless pits of
dollars. Unless you
can figure out how to
make something self- sus-
tainable it isn’t going to suc-
ceed in the long run,” he said.
Wolfson said manufacturing food in
Toronto has economical, environmental
and safety benefits; couple that with our abil-
ity to produce and an intelligent workforce, and
a lot of new clients are looking at the Toronto
food manufacturing industry.
From an environmental viewpoint, “as fuel
becomes more expensive people will look to-
wards local food production and processing to
meet their needs,” Wolfson said.
All Tea Aura Inc. production is currently
run out of the TFBI shared kitchen three days
a week, but Ho said they are getting too big for
the TFBI’s facilities. She hopes to expand her
business with other tea-infused products in up-
coming years.
WINTER 2011 | 9
 A local group cooks and serves food they found in a dumpster the night before.
The Human Raccoons
In the underground world of dumpster diving, activists salvage food to
feed the city’s hungry. But is it worth the risks? Story & photos by Emily Hunter
O
ut of plain sight, a small group of Toronto activists trailed
back alley routes in the Annex until they hit their target — a
dumpster. At 10 p.m., the small group of men and women in
their 20s sifted through garbage bags, empty wooden crates
and cut-up cardboard boxes, like human raccoons. Flashlights beamed
through the smelly pits, as pairs of legs dangled out. It was the urban
version of finding some buried treasure.
The haul included peppers of every colour in perfect form, a slightly
browned bunch of bananas, an overly ripened squash, scrumptious look-
ing eggplant and even a chocolate bar in its original wrapping. By the
end, it was a bountiful harvest of mostly fruits and veggies — all from
the inside of a grocery store garbage bin.
This was a typical Friday night dumpster dive for the activists of Food
Not Bombs (FNB) Toronto. The group is only a year old and has a core
team of eight who “dive” every two weeks. Searching through the trash
of a downtown grocery store, the group claims that perfectly edible and
10 | Foodshed Magazine
safe food is being wasted — food that could help feed the hungry in the
city. “What we found here tonight was just a small, little haul from some
small, little market grocers; throughout the city there are truckloads of
food we could use every day,” says Jay Wydra, 38, one of the divers.
Food Not Bombs Toronto is part of a global underground movement
that feeds the food insecure, such as homeless and low-income people.
The FNB movement started nearly 30 years ago as an anti-war group in
the United States, but has expanded to feeding the hungry using food
waste in over 1,000 cities around the world. In Canada, there are over 30
FNB chapters and plenty of food waste to be reclaimed.
As of 2007, nearly 40 per cent of food produced is never eaten, but
thrown into the trash, according to Statistics Canada. In Toronto, two-
thirds of the city’s food waste comes from manufacturers, grocery store
chains and restaurants, city officials say. “We find exorbitant amounts of
wasted food, enough to feed 60 people every time” said Sammy Knight
(pseudonym), a FNB member.
 While FNB targets small-scale grocery store
dumpsters, larger grocery stores and food busi-
nesses waste even more. “Grocery stores throw
out over $10,000 worth of food every month,”
says a former employee at Highland Farms,
Charles Hitchings (pseudonym).
The reasons grocery stores trash the food are
multiple: overstocking, items nearing the end
of their shelf life, damaged packaging and even
just incorrect labeling. But for the FNB activ-
ists, those aren’t good enough reasons to not
use the food to feed the hungry. “Food isn’t
necessarily thrown out because its gone bad —
it has more to do with how wasteful our society
is,” said FNB member Alex Charlton (pseud-
onym). “Instead of just wasting all this food,
that waste can be given to someone else.”
With over 50 per cent of the working poor
in Toronto unable to purchase food and over
30,000 homeless, according to the city, these
young activists have taken it upon themselves
to feed some of the hungry from trash.
That Friday night, as the group scanned over
their recovered items, another activist arrived
with a shopping cart welded to his bike. He
is one of the eight core divers and the group
cheered as he arrived. They quickly filled his
shopping cart to the brim with apples, cucum-
bers, even guava and the collection of edibles
they’d procured that night. Then, the cyclist
took off into the night to begin preparing the
food for the next day.
Perhaps it was a quick retreat for fear of get-
ting caught. The group’s activities are illegal
after all, as they trespass on private property,
steal from private dumpsters and serve food
without a permit. But the group says none of
this matters since morals trump law.
Not everyone agrees, however. Diving for
food has legal ramifications that implicate the
small business grocer, said Taslim Jamal, own-
er of Wholesome Market, a small grocery store.
Her store’s dumpster was never targeted by
divers but she said there are a lot of regulations
surrounding food. “If people were to take food
from a dumpster, the grocery store itself could
still be liable if people got sick from that food,
even if someone stole it,” Jamal said.
Toronto Public Health says the health risks
associated with dumpster diving outweigh the
benefits. “There’s no guarantees with what’s
put in a dumpster, of what’s healthy and what’s
not, it all gets mixed in,” said Wolf Saxler, man-
ager of food safety, remarking that rodents, in-
sects and worms fester in dumpsters.
Charlton says the city is demonizing the
group. He argues that FNB takes special pre-
cautions for the safety of the food they pro-
cure. For example, the group targets fruit and
vegetable markets and only collects raw foods,
he said.
Food isn’t
necessarily thrown
out because its
gone bad. It has
more to do with
how wasteful our
society is
-- Alex Charlton
But food out of a dumpster is still food out
of a dumpster, says Aileen Shannon, program
director for Saint Stephens Community House,
a homeless shelter. Beyond health issues, it is
also degrading, she says. “I think this is absurd
and frankly it’s demeaning to feed homeless
people from a dumpster,” Shannon said.
Charlton disagrees. He says food out of
dumpster is good enough for anyone to eat. “I
myself eat out of a dumpster and I’m not home-
less,” he said. “We ourselves eat the food and
feed it to anyone who might want it.”
However, critics point out that
there are alternatives to dump-
ster diving. The organization
Second Harvest makes legal
arrangements with
large grocery chains,
m a n u fac t u re rs
and res-
t a u -
rants to collect food
for the hungry before it
hits the dumpster. “The food
we collect turns into 16,000
meals a day in the city,” says Ste-
phen Faul, executive director of Second Har-
vest. “A lot of this food would otherwise be put
to landfills.”
Second Harvest feeds nearly 250 social ser-
vice agencies, including shelters for the home-
less, refugees, women who face abuse, and
children’s aid programs. Last year, the group
collected 6.4 million pounds of food, twice as
much as eight years ago. “This is only the tip of
the iceberg of what’s out there,” laments Blayne
Walker, an employee of Second Harvest.
Which is why for the FNB activists, as long
as food waste still exists, they will continue to
dumpster dive — despite the criticism they face.
The following Sunday, the dumpster food
— after being cleaned, chopped and cooked
— was served to homeless people in Christie
Pits Park [location name changed]. A small but
steady line of people surrounded the food, as
the activists doled out their culinary creations
from pots and pans — either wrapping the
food in tinfoil for later or serving it on a plate
to eat right then and there.
There was a rice and veggie stir-fry, some
warm and toasty bread, pumpkin lasagna, fruit
salad and banana bread just to name a few of
the dishes offered. Feeding over 40 people that
day, the dumpster dive was considered a vic-
tory by the FNB activists.
Maybe the victory was only realized when
one man being served said, “This will feed me
all night.” For that’s what it was all about from
the first pick of the trash.
WINTER 2011 | 11
 T
he market grounds were bustling
with people. Families sat at picnic
tables or on hay stacks eating French
fries in carton cones, while children
had their faces painted and planted vegetables
in the outdoor garden. Aromas of apple cider,
roasted corn, and sausages filled the air while
acoustic guitar players entertained the crowd
with Spanish melodies.
In September, nearly 2,000 people came out
to the grand opening of Evergreen Brick Works
— an environmental centre — for its re-pur-
posed buildings and new programs.
Its farmers market is just one of many that
have recently opened in the city. According
to Farmers’ Markets Ontario, there are 154
farmers markets in the province, with over 15
million visits in 2008. Fourteen new farmers
markets were organized in 2009 and another
dozen were slated to open by the end of 2010.
And just in Toronto, the number of markets
Volunteers lay out McIntosh apples at Evergreen Brick Works’ grand opening in September, 2010.
doubled in the past few years, says Evergreen
Brick Works spokesman Nate Habermeyer.
One appeal of farmers markets is the quality
of the food, says Arlene Larosa, Distillery His-

United through food

toric District Farmers’ Market organizer. “The
produce is grown by the farmer and picked usu-
ally the morning of the market, ensuring that
they are getting the freshest possible produce
Farmers markets are growing in numbers and from farm to table,” Larosa says. “The grocery
stores get it in and it sits [until] it sells or has
popularity, serving as social venues that offer to be sent back to the supplier.”

local, high-quality produce But shopping at a market is not convenient

for everyone. Marg Bass, a customer at No
Frills on Lawrence Avenue, says she would go
to farmers markets more often if they were
Story & photos by Alice Hoang more accessible; most are held once a week and
close by 2 p.m. “They’re only for stay-at-home
moms,” Bass says. “But I have organic produce
delivered to my home. And I just buy corn from
this guy around the corner of my house on
Kingston [Road].”

12 | Foodshed Magazine
farmers markets don’t provide the
convenience and immediacy that grocery stores
do, but customers say they offer a country-like
feel to urban consumers. Unlike grocery stores,
farmers markets go beyond the sole purpose of
buying and selling, as public spaces are turned
into hubs with intimate environments, pro-
moting civic engagement.
For example, Evergreen Brick Works was
a destination for friends and family to spend
quality time together around high-quality
food. Steve McCarrey, who was with his wife
and children at Evergreen Brick Works, says his
day at the grand opening was a fun outing.
He says he enjoyed spending time with his
family and had the chance to bring his kids to
the farmers market, as they’re in school when
he goes on weekdays. “There’s one that’s close
by where I work near Metro Hall downtown,
so it’s convenient — I can go there during my
lunch hour,” McCarrey says. “I think that it’s
better quality, it’s locally grown in the province,
and you can talk with the farmers.”
As the celebration held activities, he says his
kids’ favourite part of the day was rock climb-
ing and going up the hills by the hiking trail.
People also go to the markets to support
local farmers and to have intimate one-on-one
time with them.
Carmen Clauser, a vendor who sells during
the summer at Guildwood Village Farmers’
Market on Livingston Road, says she develops
relationships with her customers as she tells
them how to grow certain vegetables and they
would share recipes. She says she gives them
basic tips, as the most common questions peo-
ple ask her are: “What is it?” and “How do you
eat it?”
“For example, beans — there are different
ways of making beans,” Clauser says. “But first
I tell them the simplest way to eat it, so they
can appreciate the flavour. And then I tell them
how you can add it to a soup or a casserole.”
She says the customers who buy from her
are committed and trust her. “There is a faith-
ful following of people who are aware that they
can get fresh stuff, local stuff, in the winter and
in the summer,” Clauser says. “They trust me.
They trust that what I say I bring is what it is.”
At the Guildwood Village market — which
extended its hours to 6:30 p.m. to accom-
modate people’s work schedules — farmers
packed away their produce and loaded boxes
onto trucks as sellers offered good deals to cus-
tomers. After taking off her black apron, Claus-
1
2 city and making enough money to participate
3 er countries. But Habermeyer says a caveat of
4 round markets, including St. Lawrence and
At Evergreen Brick Works: 1) Families and friends
enjoy roasted corn. 2) Edward Dirse of Nature’s Way
Organics sorts a few of the 40 different kinds of
vegetables his farm produces. 3) Omar Price of P&H
Farms sells heirloom tomatoes. 4) Michael Sacco of
ChocoSol Traders makes xocolatl — a drink made of
cacao beans, boiling water, and spices — as he ex-
plains its health benefits.
er picked up a basket full of mini pumpkins and
handed them out to children.
Clauser also takes part in The Stop’s year-
round farmers market and says winter markets
have a lovely atmosphere as there’s a mixture
of artisans, farmers, crafters and bakers.
The farmers market at the Everegreen
Brick Works was coloured with an array of
green, red, orange and yellow as fresh produce
was the centre of attention in the pavilions. But
while there were melons, tomatoes and pump-
kins, people also indulged in sweet treats like
sheep milk, ice cream and hand-made Belgian
waffles made from natural local ingredients.
The organization reaches out to all commu-
nities across the GTA, Habermeyer says. “We’re
open and inclusive, so you see a lot of families
around the Evergreen Brick Works,” he says.
“But you also see some folks from the east end
of the city and the west side, so it’s a real mix.”
Vendors have increased since the Brick
Works Farmers’ Market opened in 2006, tri-
pling in the second year from 10 to 30, Haber-
meyer says. The market has also become more
sustainable as more farmers are coming to the
on a weekly basis, he says. “I think the advan-
tage that we have is we’re in a really unique
location,” Habermeyer says. “Since May 2009,
there’s a free shuttle bus [at Broadview subway
station] that takes visitors straight to Ever-
green Brick Works.”
There’s controversy over what consti-
tutes a farmers market, as some have re-sellers
and vendors with produce imported from oth-
Brick Works Farmers’ Market is “vendors must
be local farmers or food producers.”
Although farmers markets range in size and
vendors, they have the common thread of fos-
tering social gathering and community activity.
“I can shop, but I can also attend cooking class-
es or bring my dog to play in the dog park and
smell all the food cooking,” Habermeyer says.
Evergreen Brick Works Farmers’ Market has
gone indoors in December, 2010 to join year-
Kensington. There will also be activities, as
the roof of its gardens will be turned into an
ice rink, leaving the entire building exposed for
people to skate around the boundaries, Haber-
meyer says.
He says he hopes the market’s organic com-
munal atmosphere and excitement will be kept
alive during the winter. “I’ve had the pleasure
of getting to know some of the farmers and
producers personally and shake their hands,”
Habermeyer says. “I feel a bond with them and
consider them friends. For me, knowing the
people who have harvested the food, or made
it, makes the meals I prepare even tastier.”
WINTER 2011 | 13
 mapping toronto’s food

14
7

7
2

13
4

12
 1

5
9
T.O.’s Food Facts: Past & Present
1. North York farmers market 8. Willowvale Park (now Christie Pits)
One of the many that have recently been springing In 1914, locals were banned from picking mushrooms
up across the city. in the park to protect the land.
10
2. Food Cycles @ Downsivew Park 9. Evergreen Brick Works
An urban farm with vegetables, beehives and a com- The former brick works factory was converted into an
posting program. environmental centre that also offers food programs.

3. Food Truck 10. Carrot Green Roof

A man used to sell produce out of his truck at Dorset
Park before the city stopped him. But now the city is
considering legalizing the practice.
4. Ben Nobleman Orchard
11 The first community orchard in the city. It currently
has nine fruit trees.
Once complete in April, the roof will host vegetables,
herbs, and fruit trees.
11. Cabbagetown
In the late 1800s, Irish immigrants in the area could
only afford to eat cabbage they grew in their front
yard — thus giving the neighbourhood its name.

5. School Market Garden 12. Hogtown pigs

Benadale Business and Technical Institute has the first
school market garden in the country. Students are in-
volved with the entire process from field to table.
6. PACT’s Farm-in-the-Village
A 14,000 square foot urban farm that engages youth
through agriculture.
Williams Davies started his pork business in the early
1860s, giving Toronto its pig moniker.
13. St.Andrew’s Market
One of the main markets until the late 1800s. Re-
cently, residents have tried to revive it with a farmers
market.

7. FoodShare 14. Fishing in Lake Ontario

A food security organization offering programs from In the 1800s, Torontians could buy fish caught in the
growing to cooking. harbour.
Bursting at the seam
The city’s green bin program
has a festering problem — it’s
too successful
Story & photo by Emily Hunter
16 | Foodshed Magazine
I
n September, mountains of organic scraps
were piled high at the Dufferin Waste
Management Facility in North York, filled
with kitty litter, soiled baby diapers and
fungi-growing fruits by the tonne. Filling the
nostrils, the smell was like a sewer line.
This is one of the last stops for Toronto’s
green bin waste. Toronto produces 130,000
tonnes of organic waste a year. But until
recently, two of the four city-contracted
processors were shut down because they were
having difficulty coping with the excess volumes
of organic waste. “There’s a real challenge of
processing capacity,” said Steve Whitter, solid
waste manager for the city.
Whitter said the processor closures left the
city’s seven transfer plants with 4,200 tonnes
of organics, “a couple thousand tonnes more
than I’d like to have.”

ms
However, he insists the fall stockpiles were
held for a short period and caused no major
problems that would force the city to send
the organics to landfill sites. One of the closed
contractors, OrgaWorld, also re-opened its
facility in the fall, allowing the city to resume
some of its organics processing.
But the city is frequently affected by an
unstable market for the organic waste, Whitter
laments. Since the green bin’s launch in
2002, Toronto has gone through 13 processor
companies. Facilities typically shut down
because of odour complaints or layoffs.
John Harwood, a former city solid waste
supervisor who spent over 30 years in this field,
retiring in 2008, says he’s seen first-hand how
organics were shipped to landfills because of
processing delays. If the stockpiles grow mould
or begin to stink, which frequently happens,
Community composting has the
ability to alleviate some of the city’s
waste
-- Marlee Kohn
it’s considered a health hazard and must be
thrown into landfills, Harwood said.
Whitter however denies this, saying they
have not landfilled even a pound of organics.
Toronto has embraced the green
bin with over 90 per cent of single-family
households and small businesses participating
in the program. The city says that with the
success of the program, 70 per cent of Toronto’s
garbage has been diverted from landfills, half
of that being organic waste.
But processing it all has become a challenge
and the city knows this problem is not
disappearing any time soon. A new processing
plant is being built by 2013 to ensure sufficient
capacity, while the city is expanding the
Dufferin plant.
Yet despite the city’s efforts, some experts
say the stockpiling is only going to get worse
when apartment buildings are included in the
green bin program by 2012. “It’s ironic but
the green bin’s problem is coping with its own
success,” writes Peter Gorrie, in the August
edition of BioCycle. “[It’s so successful] that
one of their main difficulties is coping with the
increasing quantities that residents are sorting
and putting out.”
“There are tonnes and tonnes of other
food waste that we haven’t begun to deal
with,” said Sunday Harrison, co-founder of
FoodCycles, an urban farm in North York.
Apartment buildings that waste thousands
of tonnes of food annually are exempt from
the composting program, Harrison says. But
instead of pushing for an increase in the city’s
organics capacity, she says there are better
ways to deal with food waste. “Community
composting has the ability to alleviate some of
the city’s waste,” said Marlee Kohn, researcher
with The Stop Community Food Centre, a
food security organization. “It’s not meant to
replace the green bin but instead to assist the
green bin program in some of its gaps.”
Kohn and Harrison are a part of a small
but growing movement advocating for mid-
scale composting in the city. Both The Stop
and FoodCycles have their own composting
facilities, which handle over 20 tonnes of
food scraps annually from their various food
programs. But they are limited to composting
their own food waste because provincial
regulations prohibit off-site waste being
used for public health and safety reasons.
“Community composting is in a weird grey
zone when it comes to regulations,” Kohn said.
“It’s treated like a major processing facility
instead of a mid-scale operation.”
Kohn and others in the composting business
suggest that community composting could
have its own set of regulations, adhering to
health and safety standards, but be allowed
to accept off-site waste from the surrounding
neighborhoods.
Montreal and Pennsylvania have been
running successful community composting
projects for years. In Montreal, a community
park accepts 20 tonnes of vegetable and fruit
waste annually from surrounding apartment
buildings, while in Pennsylvania, farms collect
grocery store food scraps, earning farmers
extra income from manufacturing compost.
“Montreal and Pennsylvania provide good
examples of where Toronto could benefit from
community composting, if we were to focus our
attention on areas that are typically left out of
the city’s organic waste program,” Kohn said.
But there are those that are still skeptical.
“I can’t imagine that any organization that
wanted to do this could handle the magnitude
of organics this city produces,” Whitter said.
Advocates of community composting
say that they wouldn’t attempt to process
large amounts of organics, but only alleviate
some of the city’s capacity challenges. “The
conversation of composting shouldn’t stop at
the green bin,” Kohn said. “It has done great
strides for Toronto, but we need to continue
this dialogue and keep improving the way we
divert city waste.”
Watch a behind-the-scenes video
of the the green bin program, visit:
foodshedmagazine.ca
WINTER 2011 | 17
 feeding the
hungry
Food banks were concieved as
band-aid solutions. Should we
phase them out today?
Story & photo by Saeda Raghe
I
f you live in Toronto, you’ve probably come
in contact with a food bank at some point
in your life — whether you and your fam-
ily used it in a time of need, volunteered
for one of the over 70 food banks affiliated with
the Daily Bread Food Bank (DBFB), or donated
money or groceries to food drives.
In this city of about 2.5 million people, al-
most 1 million visited a food bank in 2010, ac-
cording to the DBFB. That number might stay
the same, as last year’s recession resulted in
the loss of thousands of jobs and the economy
is not bouncing back as quickly this year, food
bank officials say. The Thorncliffe Food Bank is not affiliated
Food banks sprang up in Ontario in the
1980s to temporarily deal with emergency
situations, but have since become a necessity
in many communities. Some people argue that
food banks mask hunger in the city, are inef-
fective in combating poverty and should be
abolished, while others believe food banks are
an essential service and have grown to provide
more than food.
Jawed Anwar, the founder and coordinator
of the Thorncliffe Food Bank says he believes
the issue of hunger would be more apparent if
18 | Foodshed Magazine
food banks didn’t exist. His food bank serves
over 500 people a month, mostly Muslim im-
migrants, and is one of the only ones in Toron-
to to offer Halal meat. He started it in Febru-
ary 2009 after noticing a need for a food bank
while he was chair of the Thorncliffe Park Pub-
lic School council. “I’ve lived in this community
for four years,” he says. “I’ve come in contact
with many parents and children and see their
needs.”
Anwar said the current state of welfare sys-
tem doesn’t provide enough money for food
after families pay off rent and utilities.
think about the things that propel people to go
with the DBFB, even though Anwar has been to the food banks, those things are a long way
trying to connect with them for over a year. He from changing,” she says.
says someone from the organization respond- Like Anwar, Tarasuk says welfare in Ontario
ed to his emails and calls and visited in July doesn’t provide enough to make ends meet and
2009, but he hasn’t received any updates as the provincial government is not addressing
to when and if he can get donation from it, as poverty. “Until that happens we can’t expect
many food banks in the city do. “It’s really hard the need for these services to diminish,” Tara-
to manage without help,” Anwar says. “The cli- suk says.
ents are increasing.” She says she doesn’t think poverty would be
Valerie Tarasuk, a University of Toronto nu- any more apparent if there weren’t food banks,
tritional sciences professor, says she doesn’t but has a problem with the message they send
think food banks can be abolished. “If you when asking for donations. “Their appeal for
 Volunteers restock The Stop’s food bank. The centre located in west end Toronto strives to give out fresh food
instead of prepackaged items to promote healthy living.

food drives gives the illusion that by donating
food you are addressing the problem, and that I
think is problematic,” she says.
Tarasuk wants Canadians to take their sup-
port of food banks further to advocate for more
support for low income earners and food as a
basic human right by taking their views to the
ballots.
Rekha Cherian, food bank coordinator for
The Stop Community Food Centre, says her
west end Toronto organization believes food
banks shouldn’t exist.
The Stop is a flutter of activity on any given
weekday. The centre’s small receiving area is
packed with people waiting to enter the cafete-
ria for the meal drop-in program, sitting in the
waiting area to talk to a counsellor for many
of The Stop’s programs and in line to pick up a
food hamper from the centre’s food bank.
Their mission is to increase access to healthy
food while combating inequality and building
communities. As one of the first food banks in
Toronto, their organization provides more than
just food as a way to combat poverty. They also
offer advocacy programs, legal clinics, cooking
classes, a prenatal program, sustainable food
systems education, bake ovens, markets, gar-
dens and greenhouses.
Like Tarasuk, The Stop believes healthy
food is a basic human right and that access to
healthy food is not only hindered by low in-
come but many other issues.
Cherian says food banks have the same pur-
pose as when they started 30 years ago, which
is to provide food for people in need. “They’re
existing because people don’t have enough
money for food, and that’s because there’s a
lack of full time jobs with benefits, and there’s
a lack of affordable housing.”

WINTER 2011 | 19
Urban gardening
You don’t need a big plot of land to grow food in the city. Follow the flow chart below for some tips
to creatively use the space you have access to.

Do you have a backyard? YES Plant some vegtables,

consider starting with
a seed.
Join a backyard
sharing program
NO
— either lend your
space or use
someone else’s.
Do you have access
to a community
garden?

YES NO

Sign up! But Ask your

space may be councillor to
tight. help you set
one up.
Do you
Do you have a
have a NO balcony
window or access
sill? to a
YES
rooftop?

Plant some
NO
herbs along YES
your window.
A plant is
grown inside
Start a container a pencil case
Consider guerilla gardening. But watch on the Carrot
garden — they’re Green Roof in
out: it’s illegal, people may trample on
light-weight and East York.
your hard work, and the soil may not
productive.
have been tested for contaminants.

To learn more about balcony gardening & rooftop agriculture,

visit our website: foodshedmagazine.ca

20 | Foodshed Magazine
Fugitive Fowl
Backyard chickens are illegal in Toronto. But there’s
a growing movement that is trying to bring the
practice back to the city
Story & photos by Amanda Kwan

S
amantha, Hepzebah and Baylik are
huddled in the corner of the backyard.
With their heads low to the ground,
they eat their morning snack in rela-
tive silence. A plane flies overhead, the sound of
the engine drowning their soft clucking.
Paul Stewart watches them with a bemused
smile on his face. “They don’t always peck
alongside so cutely like this,” he says. Stewart
has been harbouring fugitives in his backyard
for the past seven months. But they earn their
keep, providing him and his roommates with a
daily supply of fresh eggs.
The hens — or “the ladies” as Stewart refers
to them — are part of Trinity Reach Farm, an
urban agriculture project he started with his
roommates in the backyard of their rented
house in Little Italy. The only problem: chickens
are illegal in Toronto, except in certain areas of
the city that are zoned for agriculture.
But recently, with the rise in the local food
movement, there has been growing interest
in bringing hens back to the city. City officials
are currently studying the feasibility of keep-
ing backyard chickens as part of their report on
Toronto’s urban food strategy. Staff from public
health, animal services, and the Environment
Office are looking at what rules are in place in cities that have legalized Cinnamon and a fourth unnamed hen. She’s one of the main players
the practice, and will make their recommendations in their reports, pushing for change at city hall. In 2008, she created an online petition to
which could be released as early as spring. legalize backyard hens in Toronto. Since then, her website — torontoch-
ickens.com — has become a reservoir of information for urbanites who
She initially did it for the eggs. “From the time I had chil- are thinking of raising their own hens in their backyards. So far, 1,600
dren, I was on a path of how to improve the quality of our food, and to people have signed her petition, which she eventually wants to bring to
stay away from things I didn’t want my kids to have,” says a woman who city hall.
calls herself Toronto Chicken to protect her identity. “Backyard chickens Backyard chickens used to be legal in Toronto before they were
are a perfect fit because you can control the feed the chicken has, and banned in 1983 due to health concerns. At that time, mainly immigrant
thereby control the eggs the family is eating.” Toronto Chicken keeps communities, like Italians and Portuguese, were raising urban chickens,
four hens in the backyard of her mid-town Toronto home: Bianca, Ayr, a practice they brought over from their home countries.

WINTER 2011 | 21
Paul Stewart got his first two hens, Hepzebah and Baylik, in April from a friend’s farm in Campbellford, Ontario. About a month later, he got a third hen — Samantha.
Why did urban chicken-keeping fade from
Toronto? The issue is that city dwellers aren’t
exposed to agricultural practices, Toronto
Chicken says. “For people from other coun-
tries, it’s totally natural,” she says. “I have a
neighbour on one side from Romania, and he
saw my chickens and said, ‘Oh, that’s great. I
grew up with those.’”
There is an increasing number of people in
Toronto who are interested in urban chicken
keeping, Toronto Chicken says. She describes
the people who have contacted her through her
site as “the responsible type” — people who
want to raise hens for eggs. “And they want
to do it right,” she says. “I’ve held a couple of
workshops, and each time about 30 people
come out, and they all ask very good questions.”
In April, Stewart bought Hepzebah and Bay-
lik from a farm in Campbellford, Ontario. A
month later, he bought Samantha, a black and
white speckled heritage hen. “When we first
introduced Samantha, we had to build another
coop because they were picking on her to the
point where they would defeather her or re-
strict her from getting food,” he says. “Chick-
ens are kind of jerks.”
Stewart says none of his neighbours have
complained about his hens. “You just bribe
22 | Foodshed Magazine
Chickens are
kind of jerks
-- Paul Stewart
people with eggs,” he says jokingly. Most of his
neighbours — Italian and Portuguese families
— used to raise animals in their backyards, like
his backdoor neighbour who kept chickens,
rabbits, a rooster and even a pig at one point.
Toronto Chicken had one neighbour who was
concerned her family might eventually eat the
hens. So she invited the family to her home
to see how she cared for her chickens. “The
kids were really fascinated. I think the father
thought it was still a little weird,” she says.
Misconceptions about chickens — that
they’re dirty, noisy, smelly and attract rats — is
one of the main barriers to legalizing the prac-
tice in the city. Opponents argue that backyard
chickens can pass viruses, like the avian flu,
to humans. But Toronto Chicken says the real
cause behind these epidemics is factory farm-
ing where the birds are bred in cramped quar-
ters — the perfect environment for viruses to
spread and multiply.
Battery-cage birds also have weak immune
systems because they never see the sun, which
helps with vitamin D and also kills aquatic vi-
ruses like the avian flu by dehydrating them.
Compare these birds to her free-range hens,
which have ample room to roam, spread their
wings and socialize. “If you look at my chick-
ens, they are the picture of health,” she says.
Backyard chickens are allowed in cities like
Brampton and Niagara Falls. In April 2010,
Vancouver passed a bylaw allowing up to four
chickens in backyards, but the fowl have to be
kept no more than three metres from a door or
window. Stewart says Vancouver’s bylaw is a re-
stricted version that prevents people who can’t
afford to buy houses with large backyards from
keeping chickens. “And a lot of times, [people
with large backyards] aren’t the people who’d
be interested in it,” he says.
Stewart is pragmatic about the possibility of
legalizing backyard chickens in Toronto. While
he thinks it’s the right thing to do, it’s not a
top priority for city council, nor should it be,
Stewart says. “But I think just going ahead and
doing it, and working it out with your smaller
community — like your neighbours — making
sure they’re into it first, is just as beneficial to
getting it legalized,” he says.
 Ward 21 councillor Joe Mihevc says he’d like
to start a two-year pilot project to test the pos-
sibility of keeping urban chickens — one in a
suburban ward and one downtown. “No one is
saying [Toronto] should become one big farm
but I think increasing the amount of food that
is produced locally, that people have some con-
trol over, would be a good idea,” he says. Some
of the ground rules for the pilot project would
include a cap of five hens, or making the num-
ber based on the size of the backyard; no roost-
ers; and keeping hens for eggs only.
Stewart, who did an internship at Mihevc’s
office, wants his backyard chickens to be part
of the pilot project. He’s also done some work
with the councillor’s office to push the agenda,
like when they brought hens into city hall and
presented them to the head of the Toronto
Food Policy Council as a retirement gift. But
they didn’t know he lived in a condo. “So we
sent the chickens back to the farm. But there
were probably 100 people in the meeting, jour-
nalists there,” Stewart says.
If Toronto eventually legalizes backyard
chickens, Mihevc says he would consider keep-
ing his own. “I have a backyard and I would love
to. I will be one of the guinea pigs.”

If Stewart gets caught, he’ll have to

pay a $260 fine for each hen. The money is the
part that scares him the most. But he doesn’t
think any of his neighbours will report him.
“If I did get caught, I’ll think, ‘Oh, it was nice.’
I’ll probably bring them to my friend’s farm in
Cambellford.”
But he does have one motive for getting
backyard chickens legalized.
“You see how nice and short the grass is
here?” he asks, pointing to the grass in his
backyard. “The grass is really long up front. So
I’d like to take them up front and let them mow
the lawn. That’d be something nice, if they were
legal, is to have front-yard chickens, not just Ward 21 councillor Joe Mihevc wants to start a two-year pilot project to test the possibility of keeping
backyard chickens.” chickens in the city — one in a downtown ward and another in the suburbs.

What to do with your chicken poo

Paul Stewart used to place a straw bed in the coop and rake it out every week. “It was a big pain
in the ass,” he says. Then he learned about a deep litter method: mix a carbon material (i.e.: wood
shavings or straw) with nitrogen (i.e.: the poop). As the poop decomposes, it creates compost,
which Stewart uses in their garden. The deep litter method also eliminates most of the fecal
stench. “Maybe I’m just used to it, but I don’t smell it,” he says. “And I think it’s cool they’re supply-
ing us with compost we can use to grow food. It’s a nice addition to the eggs.”

WINTER 2011 |23

Sowing
Diversity
We can grow hundreds of varieties of vegetables if
we start with a seed Story & photo by Alina Smirnova
E
nglish Telegraph, Lebanese Sultan,
Spacemaster and Yellow Submarine.
These four names may sound like they
have nothing in common, but they
do. They are four of the hundreds of species of
cucumber seeds Torontonians can access — if
they know where to look.
“There are over 70 Canadian seed companies
that offer over 10,000 types of seeds and any-
body, anywhere in Canada can get these seeds by
mail-order,” said Judy Newman of Seeds of Diver-
sity, which conserves biodiversity of food crops.
But a recent report by Metcalf Food Solu-
tions found that accessing a variety of edible-
plant seeds may be a challenge for those not
involved in the urban agriculture movement.
“It’s not obvious,” said Joe Nasr, a co-author
of the report. “It’s not the kind of thing where
on a Saturday morning you can walk over to
your neighbourhood nursery and buy what
you need.” If people can’t easily access desired
seeds or plants, they might not want to take up
gardening, he said. For example, immigrants
might be discouraged if they can’t find vegeta-
bles they are used to growing back home.
Having access to a large variety of seeds is
also linked with biodiversity and food security.
Colette Murpy, who runs an organic seed and
seedling supplier Urban Harvest, said she has
seen a steady increase in customers every year.
She attributed the trend to rising concerns
over genetically modified food and food secu-
rity, which is closely linked with seed diversity
because if a disease strikes a crop, having 20 va-
rieties of it rather than one would make it less
susceptible to the disease. “The more varieties
we have, the more secure our food is,” Murphy
said, citing the 18th century Irish Potato Fam-
ine as an example of where dependence on one
24| Foodshed Magazine
crop variety had devastating effects. Monocrop
farms are also more susceptible to insect infes-
tations, she said.
“There is strength in diversity,” agreed New-
man, adding that people also enjoy seed va-
riety for personal reasons. “Taste in variety
is a wonderful thing to have. If we all ate the
same tomato it would be a pretty boring life.”
There is also a sense of history around certain
varieties of plants. For example, an intern at
Everdale Farm — an educational centre — was
working on the farm when she came across a
tomato with the same last name as her, New-
man said. “She started shouting because she
had come across the Climenhaga tomato,” she
said. “It turned out that someone in her family
had bred that tomato, had given it to someone
who’d given it to us. We were growing it here
and she didn’t know about it.”
The ability to access all this variety is
one advantage of growing something from a seed
rather than buying a seedling, Newman said.
“You can’t get that when you just go to your lo-
cal Home Depot, or Canadian Tire, or local nurs-
ery to buy a seedling,” she said. “You’re lucky if
they have two or three types of tomatoes.” And
the seeds are out there, as a quick search on the
Internet will show. B u t
people may not know
about local places
that offer
varieties or
seed savers
may not have money to
advertise, Murphy said.
There are ways to tap into the diverse seeds
without ordering off the Internet. Toronto
holds an annual seed exchange event, Seedy
Saturday, run by the Toronto Community Gar-
den Network. Urban Harvest, which grows all
its seeds and seedlings within Toronto and the
GTA, has not only a store, but also sells seeds
at farmers markets and other shops.
A lack of knowledge on how to start
growing from a seed can discourage gardeners
from doing so, Newman said. “People have the
idea that it’s too difficult,” she said. “It’s easy to
go to Canadian Tire and grab some seedlings
rather than start them yourself.” But you don’t
have to be a farmer to grow plants from seeds,
she said. You don’t even need a large plot of
land ­­— gardening can be done on balconies
and windowsills. Before she started her seed
business and store, Murphy said she used to do
everything in her bedroom. “It got a little bit
crowded because I used to grow a lot of plants,”
she said. “There were times I was crawling un-
der them to get to my bed.”
She said she always encourages people to ex-
periment with seeds because the knowledge of
saving seeds and planting them can easily be
lost. And it provides more than just food. “It
also provides a real sense of satisfaction and
accomplishment when you plant a little seed
and you watch this miracle of it growing.”
 Wendy Tan, a Grade 12 student at Agincourt Collegiate Institute, volunteers to sell healthy food at her school.
Eating ABCs
Schools set to replace junk food with healthier meals
and snacks
Story & photo by Alice Hoang
T
he lunch bell rings and it’s time for students to refuel. Some
pull out sandwiches from lunch bags, some stand in the cafete-
ria line, ordering burgers and fries, and some walk to the plaza
across the street, coming back with a couple slices of pizza.
But schools in Toronto will be encouraging all kids to add healthy food
to their timetables next fall. The provincial government introduced On-
tario’s Food and Beverage Policy in January 2010. It will come into ef-
fect Sept. 1, 2011 and replace the current nutrition policy, released in
October 2004.
While schools across the province will have to serve foods that meet
the new nutrition standards, giving students healthier food options,
some students are already making healthy choices.
It’s been four months into the school year, and one student has
bought food from the cafeteria and gone out for lunch a total of three
times. Gelila Solomon, a Grade 12 student at Pope John Paul II Catholic
Secondary School (PJP II C.S.S.), says she would call herself a healthy
eater as she only eats junk food once in a while.
Sitting in the cafeteria with her container of rice, fish, and salad, Solo-
mon says she makes her lunch in the morning before she goes to school.
“I buy a chocolate milk often, but not really lunch. I haven’t had a single
cookie this year from the [cafeteria], but they are quite the treat,” she
says with a laugh.
She says students may complain about the new regulations, but the
healthier menus will benefit them in the long run. “If these numbers of
obesity increase at the rate they already are, it could be a lot more detri-
mental than a kid sacrificing his Twinkie,” Solomon says.
The healthy eating strategy was initiated because good nutrition is vi-
tal to a young person’s growth, development, and well being, says Gary
Wheeler, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care spokesman.
WINTER 2011 | 25
 “Research shows that a healthy school en-
vironment enhances learning and success
and provides academic, social, emotional and
physical benefits,” Wheeler says. “Schools play
an important role in teaching students healthy
eating habits and reinforcing those lessons
through school practices.”
The new standards will reinforce the ini-
tiatives that schools have already started, says
Shaun Chen, Ward 21 TDSB trustee.
Agincourt Collegiate Institute’s “The Snack
Shack,” a program started in fall 2007, sells
nutritious food and beverages at lunch time
and after school. The program is funded by the
Toronto Foundation for Student Success and
is run by staff and student volunteers. “It’s a
really great thing because the students are in-
volved, and it teaches them skills in that sense,”
Chen says.
Yogurt, granola bars, milk and whole wheat
bagels line the counter. Wendy Tan, a Grade 12
student at Agincourt C.I., says she has been
eating healthier since she began volunteering
at the Snack Shack two years ago. “I just eat
lunch when I’m at work, so it’s convenient,
too,” says Tan as she counts the inventory.
Rita Manghirmalani, The Snack Shack’s pro-
gram co-ordinator, says the items are afford-
able for students, as most are sold at 25 and 50
cents. “A lot of students buy from here because
we sell food at a lower price than the cafeteria.
And they get a free fruit or vegetable with a
purchase,” says Manghirmalani, pointing to
boxes of apples and cherry tomatoes.
On average, The Snack Shack makes $80-
$100 at lunch time and $60-$80 after school,
Manghirmalani says.
Chen says the new policy allows leeway for
student fundraising activities, like selling choc-
olate bars on school property, but he would
rather see students be allowed to fundraise by
selling more nutritious foods.
PJP II C.S.S. began the “Health Action Team”
in 2010, an initiative funded by the Ontario
Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. “Our
students went apple picking last week and gave
it to all the Grade 9s,” says Helen Mieta, a food
and nutrition teacher at PJP II C.S.S. “My nu-
trition class hopefully will be trying to prepare
pumpkin chips and roasted seeds. So we’re
trying to teach that there are really cheap and
healthy things that you can eat that are simple.”
The policy doesn’t control what food stu-
dents bring from home, but if children are
given proper information and the chance
to be involved in decision-making, they will
choose healthy foods, says Mieta. “I think in
general children know what’s healthy, what’s
not healthy, and they will choose healthy alter-
natives if they taste good, and they can taste
good,” she says. “And I think it’s a falsity to say
that kids will only choose French fries, any-
way. I don’t think that’s true. We want it to be
healthy and we want it to taste good, so let’s
find a common ground.”
Public education and social marketing
campaigns are critical to helping Ontarians be-
come more informed about what they need to
do to lead healthy and productive lives, Wheel-
er says. Since 2009, the Ministry of Health
Promotion and Sport invested $1.4 million for
Healthy Eating and Active Living campaigns
and $1 million to raise awareness of the severity
of diabetes and associated risk factors, he says.
Schools have already put in new vending
machines in September 2010, says Shannon
Suitor, HealthyVendCananda representative.
The company was developed in response to the
guidelines developed by the health and educa-
tion ministries.
PJP II C.S.S. doesn’t have new vending ma-
chines, but the current ones are free of choco-
late bars and potato chips. The school has al-
ready taken steps toward promoting healthier
diets for students by removing their deep fry-
ers and stacking vending machines with water
and juices, says Paul McAlpine, principal of PJP
II C.S.S. “When the guidelines come through
in September there [will be] no wiggle room in
terms of what we consider healthy or not — it’s
what’s dictated,“ McAlpine says.” So things will
be directed to us as to how we put our menus
together. [The caterer] will have the ability to
decide the menu based on parent and student
involvement, but it will have to fall into the cat-
egory that is scripted for them by the ministry.”
There’s a shared responsibility, as the min-
istry leaves it up to school boards to imple-
ment the policies and monitor the progress,
Chen says. “If a school were not to comply, we
have staff that would essentially find out, in-
vestigate, speak to the ministries and find out
what’s going on,” he says. “We will continue to
look at ways to ensure that all schools are fol-
lowing the right policies and procedures.”
A concern for schools is how they can still
offer quick service, as caterers are working on
how they can best serve students while stay-
ing within the nutritional guidelines, McAlpine
says. “One thing about the deep fryers was it al-
lowed for fast food,” McAlpine says. “It allowed
them to get a large amount of food produced
very quickly, which was a benefit when you’re
dealing with 1,400 kids coming in at one time
for lunch. Taking the deep fryers out has made
the caterers more creative as to how they can
get a large amount of food produced in the
same amount of time.”
Recently, more students have been leaving
school grounds and getting food that they’re
more used to buying, McAlpine says. But he
says he hopes the new rules will deter this habit
as schools are bringing in more healthy living
initiatives to promote good eating patterns. He
adds that making health-conscious decisions
is a learning process. “Students will need to be
educated into healthy food choices and not say-
ing, ‘I can’t get it at our cafeteria anymore, but
I can still get it down the corner.’ Maybe slowly,
maybe once or twice a week they’ll eat here and
they’ll get their healthy choice.”

Stats of children’s health in Ontario

(With info from the Ontario Ministry of Education website)

>> 28% of kids aged 2–17 are overweight or obese

>> Less than half of kids aged 2–19 eat the minimun recommended number of daily servings of fruits and
vegetables
>> Obesity costs the health care system about $1.6 billion annually
>> Five other provinces that have mandatory nutrition standards in schools: British Columbia, Quebec, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland

26 | Foodshed Magazine
fun & games

Check the answers at our website: foodshedmagazine.ca

ACROSS DOWN
3 Eating these creatures is viewed as normal in many 1 Chickens are illegal but this bird can be raised as a pet
countries but seen as a taboo in the West 2 A prominent Toronto food writer
6 A large food bank that is affiliated with over 70 3 Bureaucratic rules are blamed for hindering _____
organizations from diversifying
9 The first community orchard in Toronto 5 A space someone can use to garden if they don’t
10 A skill that can be lost in today’s society have a backyard
12 The act of salvaging edible food 7 Some say Toronto’s _____ can be used to fight
14 Travelling with the purpose of discovering new food climate change
15 More young urbanites are taking up this activity 8 Preserving the season’s best in jars for the winter
17 People’s Food Policy Project network is trying to 11 A program that supports new entrepreneurs
reclaim _____ 13 A province in Canada that already has a school food
19 Bee hives in Ontario need to be ____ metres from policy
someone else’s property line 16 Linked with food security and saving food crop seeds
21 Food prepared for long-term storage 18 An edible weed
23 Method for growing crops in a small space 20 The city started this program in 2002 to reduce waste

WINTER 2011 | 27
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