Food Sovereignty
Cooper Institute is committed to education and action to promote food sovereignty, which some sectors refer to as "Food Security".
Cooper Institute identifies with the following declaration resulting from the Forum for Food Sovereignty in Mali in 2007. The forum was made up of about 500 representatives from more than 80 countries, of organizations of peasants/family farmers, artisanal fishers, indigenous peoples, landless peoples, rural workers, migrants, pastoralists, forest communities, women, youth, consumers and environmental and urban movements.
Cooper Institute was one of the key organizations involved in the formation of the P.E.I. Food Security Network in 2008. Other organizations involved in the network include P.E.I. Women's Network, the P.E.I. Healthy Eating Alliance, ALERT, P.E.I. People First, P.E.I. Association for Newcomers to Canada, P.E.I. Council of People with Disabilities.
The PEI Food Security Network’s Mission Statement
The PEI Food Security Network is an education and action organization committed to achieving food security in Prince Edward Island. It is dedicated to changing community attitudes and public policy to promote: environmentally appropriate practices for the production and distribution of food; the availability of affordable, healthy, culturally appropriate and personally acceptable food; livable income for producers; the right to food; and PEI self-reliance in food.
Cooper Institute and the PEI Food Security Network are also members of Food Secure Canada
Peoples Food Policy Project
The People’s Food Policy Project (PPFP) is a pan-Canadian network of citizens and organizations that is creating Canada’s first food sovereignty policy.
Marie Burge is an Animator with the PPFP. Animators, who come from all the provinces and territories of Canada, are the face of and driving force behind the People’s Food Policy Project. As such, they are responsible for most of the grassroots organizing related to this project to gather regional interests, priorities, and visions and to represent these to the national project.Kitchen Table Talks
In October, to mark World Food Day, the Peopleʼs Food Policy Project (PFPP) launched the Cross-country Kitchen Table Talks. Various communities in PEI are taking part in this action. Neighbours, families and friends are getting together in their homes and other meeting places to come up with ideas about how to develop the first Canadian Food Policy. One enthusiastic group of Charlottetown seniors held their session before the formal launch. They brought up issues such as: the amount of imported food they see in the stores; the lack of access to locally produced food; that people on low income cannot afford to buy healthy food; that greed of big corporations and the control they have on politicians leave everyone else out of the picture; and how little importance governments place on food and on the will of the people.
The launch of the Kitchen Table Talks will continue to the end of November. Promoters of the events expect to hear a lot about what is wrong with the food system. They especially want to discover new ideas for people-centered and eco-friendly policies to fix the system. Key conclusions from the Talks will be forwarded to PFPP coordinator in Montreal.
Canadians for many years and from various walks of life have been shocked by the lack of a national food policy. Colleen Ross a farmer in Iroquois, Ontario comments, “Canadians need to let decision makers know that they want food grown using environmentally sound practices in a system that provides food security for all.”
The Peopleʼs Food Policy Project has devoted the past two years to the formation of a made-in-Canada food policy. The PFPP is a broad network of eaters, farmers, community and health workers, academics, cooks, small business owners and others engaged in food. During a year of extensive consultation, more than 70 PFPP volunteers heard from approximately 1,000 people across the country about ways which Canadians can reclaim and rebuild their food system. The consultation generated 365 policy submissions. These were summarized into ten discussion papers that will eventually make up the People's Food Policy. These papers are on the website www.peoplesfoodpolicy.ca
PEI has been involved in the Peoples Food Policy Project from the beginning and contributed to the policy statements. Marie Burge is a PFPP animator for PEI. She is now inviting Islanders to get involved in the current phase of the project, the Kitchen Table Talks. “These events are easy to organize,” says Ms Burge, “ Just invite the people you usually get around with and get them talking about the major food issues of the day. There are suggestions on the website and we have some discussion-starter questions. If you need information, contact me at 894-4573 or cooperinstitute@eastlink.ca . Let me know when and where you might want to have a Table Talk. Then afterwards, send me some of the key ideas from your group" .