Tag Archives: Canada

In Context: Seasonal Eats

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Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.

Photo by Ketowna09 courtesy of Creative Commons

No matter where you live, you can do your part to improve the food system (and your well-being in the process).

This video from www.eatrealeatlocal.ca illustrates what’s happening to the food system in Canada.


An easy way to pitch in and start fixing the problem is to eat local. When you eat local you eat with the seasons; you eat your fruits and vegetables the way they were meant to be eaten.



Benefits include:

Flavor: Fruits and veggies right after they’repicked during their growing season taste fresher and have a lot more flavor.

Environment: When grown in their ideal season,plants are naturally stronger and more resistant to pests and disease so thatthey require fewer pesticides and fertilizers
Nutrition: Certain fruits and vegetables canonly be grown during certain seasons. When you buy them off-season, you’relikely purchasing food that was picked weeks or months, earlier. Since producestarts to lose nutrients shortly after they have been picked meaning out ofseason has lower nutritional values.

And don’t forget,when you eat with the seasons, you keep wealth in your community.

While specific cropsand harvest dates vary by region, here is a sampling of fruits and veggies youcan expect to find at the market this spring.

  • Apricots
  • Asparagus
  • Beets
  • Cherries
  • Fava Beans
  • Greens
  • Lemons
  • Mint
  • Peas
  • Strawberries
  • Turnips

To find out what’s in store for you this spring, check out Locavore on iTunes. It’s an app that tells you what fruits and veggies are available in yourarea.

In Context: A Passion for Farming

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Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.


Photo by Heifer Canada
Kalynn Spain and her horse

Kalynn Spain’s passion and enthusiasm for farming isirresistible. In 2009, her uncle helpedto set her farm plans in motion when he offered her space to farm on his landin Manitoba. But for Kalynn, her dreambegan much earlier. “As a kid, I alwayswanted to live in the country. All of mypaintings and drawings were pictures of horses, pigs, and farmyards. That’s where it all started,” Kalynn laughs.

In 2011, Kalynn registered for the Exploring Your Small FarmDream course, offered by the Manitoba Farm Mentorship Program. The course helps aspiring farmers decide ifrunning a farm business is right for them. When asked how it has helped her, Kalynn says, “One thing that reallystuck out for me was quality of life. You need to take care of yourself so you can take care of your land,your animals, and your family.” Thecourse confirmed for Kalynn that farming is her future and inspired her tobegin acquiring start-up resources and gathering people around her to help herfulfill her dream.
After completing the Exploring Your Small Farm Dream course,Kalynn was provided with an internship opportunity through the Manitoba FarmMentorship Program. This initiativeconnects aspiring farmers with experienced mentors and contributes to costsassociated with farmer training. Inreturn for the training she received through the Manitoba Farm MentorshipProgram, Kalynn passed on the gift by interning for 13 weeks on two mentorfarms. The internship helped hone herskills and further develop her farm plans. “I see my farm being very mixed,” Kalynn says about her farm dream, “Isee vegetables. I see chickens and pigsfor sure… After spending a summer on acattle farm, I’m not sure about having cattle, but it’s good that theexperience showed me that early on.”
The Manitoba Farm Mentorship Program is a Heifer Canadaproject that provides training, networking, and resources for new and aspiringfarmers in Manitoba. Kalynn is one of 16interns, 30 Explorer course participants, and over 750 people who have attendedManitoba Farm Mentorship Program courses, workshops, farm tours and othertraining events.
Kalynn’s involvement in the Manitoba Farm Mentorship Programhas only increased her passion for growing and raising food. “It’s changed from a romantic dream tofeeling that it’s something young people should be doing. It will make me happy. I will be contributing to society andimpacting people’s lives.”
“I want to be a role model,” Kalynn says. “I think we need to engage more youngpeople. My generation needs to considerfarming as a career, consider its impact, and realize they can actually doit.”

In Context: A Spotlight on Poverty in Canada

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Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.


Photo by Darcy Kiefel, courtesy of Heifer International

Canada has seen some noticeable economic improvements in thelast ten years; however:

  • 1 in 10 Canadians live in poverty
  • 1 in 3 Canadian adults that work full-time do not makeenough money to sustain themselves and their families with a healthy lifestyle

Canada measures poverty in relative terms and does not havean official poverty line. Canadian poverty statistics are calculated byCanada’s Low Income Cut-Offs (LICOs), which is calculated by comparing thepercentage of income individuals and families spend on basic needs with otherCanadians.

Many blame unemployment as the “big, bad” reason for povertyin Canada and other developed countries, but that’s not always the case. As amatter of fact, the Canadian unemployment rate is in decline. An overlooked andunderlying factor of poverty in many of the world’s wealthy, industrializedcountries is income inequality, which is the extent to which income is unevenly distributed in one country.
In 2008, for everydollar the average Canadian family in the poorest 10% of the population had, Canadianfamilies in the richest 10% of the population had 13 times as much.
When income inequality in a country is high, it reflects onhow a country uses its resources. The higher the income inequality in acountry, the slower the economic growth, usually begging the question: “Is thecountry utilizing its citizenship’s skills and capabilities to the fullestextent?”
Measured by the Gini Index (which calculates how far incomedistribution among individuals in a country deviates from an exactly equaldistribution), income inequality in Canada has increased more over the last 20years than in any other country with similar income per capita.
Nearly 400,000 full-time, Canadian adult employees earn lessthan $10 an hour, drawing them and their families deeper into the cycle ofpoverty. And with poverty comes poor health— The World Health Organizationhas named poverty as being the single largest determinant of health.
  • The majority of theworking-poor cannot afford secure and affordable housing and healthy (or inmany instances an adequate amount of) food
  • Parents on limitedincome often skip meals so their children have an adequate diet
  • Limited food budgetsand lack of access to fresh food often results in Type 2 diabetes—which wasformerly seen in adults only, but is now increasing in children

And perhaps one of the scarier statistics to surface:

  • According to a studyconducted by McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, there is a 21-yeardifference in life expectancy between the poorest neighborhood and thewealthiest neighborhood

Research by Poverty is Making Us Sick show that if annualincome were increased by $1,000 a year to the poorest 20% of Canadians, it wouldlead to as many as 10,000 fewer chronic conditions and 6,600 fewer disabilitydays every two weeks.

So, while poverty in Canada doesn’t look like poverty inunindustrialized nations, it exists nonetheless. The difficult decisions familiesmust make (pay rent or buy food) are the same, contributing to a decline inquality of life and degrading the emotional and physical health of a nation.
Photo by Darcy Kiefel courtesy of Heifer International

You can help make a difference and learn more about howHeifer Canada is helping at www.heifercanada.org.


In Context: Canada

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Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.

Population: 34 million

Native Greeting: Quanuq itpin? (Inuvialuliktum for How areyou?)

Capital: Ottawa

Official language: English and French

Local currency: Canadian dollar


Overview
Canada is the second largest country in the world but thelargest to border only one other country. With the continental United States tothe south, Canada is located in northern North America with the North Atlanticon the east, North Pacific on the west and the Arctic Ocean on the north.

Photo by alexindigo courtesy of Creative Commons
90% of the 34 million people that live there live within 100 miles of the US border where the climate is mostly temperate. Canada reachesarctic and sub-arctic temperature in the north. In the west, the landscape ismostly plains and mountains with lowlands in the south.
Despite Canada being ranked #6 on the Human Development Index, the country has an alarmingly high rate of povertyand homelessness, nearly 16% of Canadians live in poverty and over 3 millionpeople live in food insecure households.
Among the poor, the indigenous populations in particular are at high-riskof malnutrition and hunger due to wage disparity in urban centers coupled withrising unemployment rates, high cost of nutritious food on reservations andlack of education.
Did you know…
  • A basket of healthy food costs twice as much in the norththan in the south.
  • Nearly half of the aboriginal population living in majorCanadian cities live in poverty.
  • In 2001, only 8% of the 25-34age group of Aboriginal peoples had a completed university degree, while 28% ofall Canadians did.
  • Rural farmers are athigh risk of losing their land and livelihoods to largecorporations.
Heifer’s approach in Canada
A growing interest in organic farming and eating local provides a positive opportunity for change.
The Heifer Canada approach has grown and evolved over the years and projects nowspan three primary areas of focus: family farm preservation, First Nationsagriculture, and urban and rural community food security.

The foundationof Heifer’s efforts in Canada has always been the partnerships it establisheswith those in genuine need. This, combined with the rapid decline of farmersacross the country demands a continued strong presence of Heifer’s work inCanada. Heifer Canada began in 1980. They currently have 17 projectsand have assisted more than 2,000 families to date.
Livestock portfolio: Apiaries (bees), chickens, worms, cows,horses, pigs, turkeys, fruit trees and vegetable seeds
Issues addressed: Poverty among the indigenous and urbancommunities, land preservation, loss of biodiversity and environmentaldegradation.

Turkey Time

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Happy Thanksgiving! Sure, it’s the most American of holidays, but the United States doesn’t have the corner on turkeys. In fact, Israelis eat the most turkey per person, usually spit-roasted from a shawarma stand or in schnitzel form. The United States comes in second, followed by Canada. Turkey consumption is ramping up in Brazil and Mexico, and it’s a traditional Christmas dish in El Salvador and other Central American countries.

Turkeys are native to North America, but Heifer International provides these plucky birds to families throughout Eastern Europe and Central America. Heifer turkeys are currently scratching around family farms in Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Mexico. And turkeys are incorporated into a large project in the Cahabon River Basin in Guatemala, where indigenous Q’eqchi families living in the cloud forest are raising turkeys, rabbits, worms and fruit trees.

One more fun thing about turkeys: If you see a pack of them, you could be boring and call it a “flock,” but we prefer the more colorful “gobble.”

Have a great holiday!

Why Does Heifer Work in Canada?

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Newcomer FarmStart-Up program participant Peter Seenath
by Catherine Scott 

“Farming this land is the best thing that’s happened to me in my 27 years in Canada.  To me, farming is the greatest thing you can get involved in.” 
These are the words of project participant, Peter Seenath. Earlier this month, 13 Heifer volunteers and staff members visited the Newcomer FarmStart-Up Program at McVean Farm, a peri-urban project in Brampton, just outside of Toronto, Ontario as part of the Heifer Canada Study Tour.  Prior to the visit, many of our study tour members had been wrestling with the question of “Why does Heifer work in Canada?” After all, Canada is a developed nation, with a relatively strong economy, and a bigger social safety net than many other countries around the world.  Despite these factors, however, there is a high degree of food insecurity in the country. However, 15 percent of Canadian children are living in poverty, and between 1989 and 2004 the number of Canadians using food banks increased by 123 percent.

Another major issue in the country is the lack of new farmers. Right now, only 2percent of the population is engaged in farming, and the average age of farmers is 55. In the next 15-20 years, 60-70 percent of farming land will be transferred from current farmers, and many have no plans for the land use (much of the farm land may be given over to large scale mono-cropping projects, or used for urban development). There is a compelling need to train new, young, energized farmers. Enter FarmStart-Up. One of the goals of this project is to work on farm succession plans: Older farmers have land. FarmStart-Up has farmers. This can be a win-win for all involved. With Heifer’s help, FarmStart has provided land and training to new immigrant farmers, who hail from 27 different countries, and are growing mushrooms, radishes, garlic, hot peppers, melons, squash, etc. and marketing these crops to local sectors. 

In addition to the need for new farmers is the increasing desire from people to know where their food is coming from. Under the current, broken food system, much of the food that is grown in Canada is shipped to the US for processing, and then re-enters Canada for sale and distribution. FarmStart wants to address the food system at the local level, by engaging with new immigrant farmers who can then sell their products through CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and local farmers’ markets. Right now, Toronto only has enough fresh food to last for seven days if all imports stopped. 
It is staggering to consider that 60 percent of the food is imported in a country that was partly founded on farming. Nearly 100 percent of the garlic sold in stores in the area is imported from China, despite having conditions that allow for high quality garlic to be grown locally. As farmer Bahauddin “Bob” Baloch told us, most food here is incredibly cheap. In Canada, “you have value, but no flavor! We are producing good food, to help make good, healthy people” explains farmer Bob. 
When we asked Bob how they select the farmers who participate in FarmStart, he replied, “You need really good looks!” Good looks aside, these folks submit proposals each fall that outline their marketing and farming experience, and their plans for their land plots. Most of the farmers start out with ¼ acre test farm for one year. If they are successful, they can expand in the following year. FarmStart is founded on a farm incubator model, with the end goal being to move these farmers onto rural lands when older farmers retire. Heifer provided one of the most important elements for this project: the pipes to allow the land to be irrigated. The farmers also attend three compulsory workshops on weed management, small tool use, and soil coverage to increase their chances at success. 

 
From start to finish during our visit, we saw an incredible display of Heifer’s Cornerstone of “Sharing and Caring.” More experienced farmers were mentoring more inexperienced farmers. They were selling one another’s products at the farmers’ markets, and they were making strong connections with the local, surrounding community. We were graciously allowed to help work on the land that afternoon, and most of us were soon cured of our romanticized vision of farming. It is hot, sweaty, tiring work, and we are grateful for all those who farm, so that we may eat. At the end of the day, Newcomer FarmStart-Up’s Program Manager, Sridharan (Sri) Sethuratnam explains, “Farming is as much about people, as it is about food. It’s about community. It’s good to have a face behind the food.”

Catherine Scott is a senior grant writer for Heifer International. To learn more about the Newcomer Farm Start-Up Program, visit their website.