Food literacy a big focus for Ontario's first local food report

Friday, June 5, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

The Ontario government used its first annual Local Food Report to lay the groundwork for future reports and outline the current food literacy landscape in the province.

The report, released at Queen’s Park today during Local Food Week, is part of the Local Food Act the government passed in 2013 that requires reporting on its local food activities.

Ontario Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal says in a statement accompanying report that expanding Ontario’s market for local foods is key to helping the sector meet goals set by Premier Kathleen Wynne in 2013. She challenged the agri-food sector to double its growth rate and create 120,000 new jobs by 2020.

Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Don McCabe says the report is important for highlighting results to date. “We should be able to build on those results and bring more opportunity in the future.”

As part of its local food strategy, the government established strategic objectives: to increase awareness, access and sales of local foods. For increasing awareness, the government outlined three local food literacy goals. They’re geared to beefing up the number of Ontarians who know what local foods are available, how and where to obtain them and prepare meals for family and friends plus making Ontario foods more available through food service providers.

The Local Food Report shows there are opportunities to increase shoppers’ awareness of local foods. Annual Foodland Ontario surveys of 1,500 principal grocery shoppers show many Ontarians know what Ontario-grown produce is available in season. Two-thirds of shoppers can identify half or more of the produce grown seasonally. But people were less knowledgeable about produce available year-round. Only 40 per cent of shoppers were able to identify at least one product grown in Ontario year-round.

Product knowledge differed by categories with more than 80 per cent of shoppers finding it easy to identify Ontario-grown fruits and vegetables. But only 55 per cent could identify Ontario-produced meat.

“These figures show there are opportunities to further increase consumer knowledge of the variety of products grown, harvested and made in Ontario,” the report says.

It will take education and outreach to meet the goal of increasing consumers’ knowledge of how and where to obtain local foods, the report says. The government can’t do this on its own but must tap into the knowledge, expertise and resources of groups, such as Agri-Food Education Inc., Farm & Food Care Ontario and FoodShare.

For the goal of increasing the number of Ontarians who prepare local food meals at home, the report notes Foodland Ontario surveys show 46 per cent of shoppers say they will definitely try to buy fresh Ontario foods in the future, while 35 per cent probably will and 19 per cent might or might not buy them.

“These levels point to opportunities to increase demand for local food,” the report says.

To reach the food service industry, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs is working in partnership with organizations such as the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance to increase restaurants and food service operations’ use of Ontario foods. The alliance’s program, Feast ON, supported by the ministry led to more than $10 million in Ontario-sourced purchases in 2013. The program recognizes businesses committed to buying local ingredients whenever possible and showcasing Ontario-produced food.

The broader public sector spends about $745 million a year on food. The government works in partnership with the Greenbelt Fund to boost purchases of Ontario foods by the sector, the report says.

Amy Cronin, chair of Ontario Pork and co-chair of the Agri-Food Growth Steering Committee couldn’t be reached for comment. BF