44th Parl. 1st Sess.

November 23, 2022

Context: Bill S-227, An Act to establish Food Day in Canada (AGRI) - Nov/23/22

05:17:12 p.m.
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Thanks. I couldn't pass up this rare opportunity to speak in support of a bill before this committee, which is great. I couldn't be in more support. I can barely find the words for how supportive I am for this. It's really a great bill. Thank you both for putting it forward. I do have a few things that I want to say. I really think it's great that you're paying tribute to Anita Stewart and her legacy. For me, during all my work in food systems development over quite a number of years, about 15 years, I had a really good friend named Wayne Roberts. I don't know if you've ever heard that name, but Wayne Roberts was a doctor, a Ph.D., who started the first food policy council in Canada in Toronto. He also was on the board of FoodShare Toronto and Sustain Ontario. He was a founding member of Food Secure Canada. He won a Canadian environmental award. He chaired the Toronto-based Alliance for a Green Economy. He won a Queen's Diamond Jubilee award. He passed away January 20, 2021, at 76 years old, the same age as my father, of cancer. It broke my heart to lose that friend who was one of my best friends and taught me so much about food and food systems. I think that if he were here today, he would support this bill. I often think about him when I'm on this committee and thinking about the interventions I make. He would definitely support this bill. I know, because he loved the food system. He saw the diversity in our food system as an incredible opportunity for us to celebrate our culture as Canadians. He also saw it as a gateway. He saw food as a gateway to solving many of our issues. He wrote the book called Food for City Building, which is a really great book, if anyone has the time to read it. Contrary to popular opinion, sometimes we hear about food in rural communities, many of which I've worked with. Mr. Nater, I worked in your community. Ms. Rood, I worked in Middlesex-London to form the food policy council there over three years, and in Perth County. I hope you guys don't debate that too fiercely, because you both come from really great agricultural regions of Ontario. I think the point I want to make is that Wayne Roberts talked about food as medicine. He talked about it as one of our last connections with nature. Our daily imbibing and enjoyment of food really connects us to the natural world, which many of us have lost. He talked about how, through the food system, we can build healthier communities. We can build a more prosperous economy. We can protect the environment. We can promote biodiversity. We can employ people, offer skill-building opportunities, have a better sense of mental health and wellness and on and on and on. There's almost no end to it, when you think about it. It's really great, and I hope that a national Food Day like this will get to celebrate food system champions from across Canada. That's something I'm hoping for. I hope you guys would support that; I think you probably will. Anita Stewart is definitely a food champion to celebrate, but there are many others. I can think of Debbie Field, who was one of the founders of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, who has worked her whole life to get children healthy, nutritious food. I think of Cathleen Kneen, who passed away years ago, and Nick Saul, who started Community Food Centres of Canada. There are many, many others across Canada, and obviously we can't name them all. I just wanted to say that I hope we can honour those food system champions. That's something I'd really look forward to. The only other point—maybe two really quick points—I think are important is that food literacy in my previous work came up over and over again when we talked about food security. Many of the organizations that work on building a more food-secure Canada are really talking about income and income security, but they're also talking about food literacy. Food literacy, we know, is a general term that includes all the skills, whether it be shopping, harvesting, growing food and understanding where it comes from—all the skills, right to maybe the compost pile and how you compost. I think a Canada Food Day like this could really support our raising awareness and build a lot more food literacy in Canada, and that's certainly something I would support. Last, for me a sustainable food system is one that's a citizen-engaged food system. It's democratic. It promotes a sense of active involvement and participation in the food system. I think in some ways—and Wayne Roberts really taught me this—through the food system, we can also build a healthy democracy. I'll leave those with you just as considerations. I'm really thankful for your work on this bill. It's rare that we find things we can all support and there's not much debate on. Kudos to both of you for your work on this.

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Ryan Turnbull