2 min read
Written by Marc Xuereb
On March 5, 2012, the Greater Toronto Area Agricultural Action Committee and its partners, the City of Hamilton and the Region of Niagara released Food and Farming: An Action Plan 2021. The plan provides five broad strategies and numerous specific actions to revitalize the area’s food and farming cluster which contributes $12.3 billion to the provincial economy.
The Action Plan outlines the 10-year vision for the Golden Horseshoe food and farming cluster and addresses the serious challenges impeding its growth, including multiple and conflicting government policies and regulations, rising fuel costs, a lack of integration, urbanization, competition for land, gaps in infrastructure and traffic congestion.
The plan’s vision for the The Golden Horseshoe food and farming cluster includes being globally renowned as a vibrant cluster, “characterized by profitable farming operations, a thriving hub of food processing, food retail and food service businesses, extensive research capacity, innovative technology, and a wide range of healthy and safe products.”
It focuses on five opportunities to achieve the vision.
- GROW THE CLUSTER
Grow the Golden Horseshoe cluster so it becomes the leading food and farming cluster in the world, renowned for healthy and safe products. - LINK FOOD, FARMING AND HEALTH
Educate current and future consumers about the importance of locally sourced food and farming products for enhancing their health and well-being. - FOSTER INNOVATION
Encourage and support innovation to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the Golden Horseshoe food and farming cluster. - ENABLE THE CLUSTER
Align policy tools and their application to enable food and farming businesses to be increasingly competitive and profitable. - CULTIVATE NEW APPROACHES
Pilot new approaches to support food and farming in the Golden Horseshoe.
The 28-page report contains detailed background on each of the five areas, and concrete actions for each. At right is an example of the detailed action plan for linking Food, Farming, and Health.
Download the entire plan at http://www.gtaaac.ca/food-and-farming-action-plan/.
See media coverage of the release of the plan at: http://www.yorkregion.com/news/article/1312758–farmers-aim-for-paradigm-shift.