Posted by Sheryl Kirby in announcements, farm to table on August 20, 2008 at 9:42 am
The Holland Marsh area of Ontario's Greenbelt region is the province's "salad bowl" with over150 farmers on nearly 10,000 acres of some of the richest soil in the country.
Yesterday, the Holland Marsh Growers Association announced that it has received a $400,000 grant from the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation to assist with not only growing, but storage, processing and packaging as well, which will help to shorten the distribution chain and strengthen the local economy.
These new programs will also work to diversify crops beyond the carrots, onion and celery that were the mainstay of farms in the area, to include vegetables ranging from different types of lettuce to spinach, bok choy and kohlrabi.
The Association will also work with farmers to become certified by Local Food Plus, allowing them to create a distinct Holland Marsh-Local Food Plus brand.
To celebrate the grant, Toronto chef Jamie Kennedy prepared a salad made entirely from Holland Marsh-grown produce consisting of artichoke hearts and romaine lettuce, garnished with coloured carrots, celery root and beefsteak tomatoes, topped with a shallot vinaigrette. The salads were hand-delivered to Premier Dalton McGuinty and MPP Julia Munro, who represents the Holland Marsh area.
It is an insult to the ethnic farmers in the Holland Marsh region to not only be completely overlooked for a grant by the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, but to be ignored for their large growing contributions to this country. Earl Young of Norman Young and Sons already grows kohlrabi, spinach, kale and swiss chard. However, as 2nd generation asian farmers, they are not even mentioned by Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation. The Singhs grow a large variety of salad greens. Goodyear Farms and Best Asia farms in the Keswick Holland Marsh region grow, pack, process and ship snow peas, bok choy and other asian cabbage since the 1980's. None of these farms are worthy of Greenbelt Foundation recognition? It's high time that the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation had ethnic representation on its board and advisory committee so that they might be able to recognize farmers other than those of white skin!
I think it’s important to correct the record here. The Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation has an excellent track record in supporting ethnic farmers directly and indirectly.
To begin with, the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation gave the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA), the group I work for, a grant back in Summer 2007 to research and produce the first ever “Food from Home Guides” that showcase farmers and retailers that grow cultural food in and around the Greenbelt. We’ve just finished the first two guides, one for the Chinese and one for the South Asian communities in Toronto.
Recently, the Foundation announced a round of grants (http://www.ourgreenbelt.ca/greenbelt-grants/grants-made), including a couple that are of particular interest to multicultural farmers and consumers. The Kawartha Heritage Conservancy: A Farming Future for the Eastern Greenbelt Phase II grant is in cooperation with FarmStart, which helps new and immigrant farmers get started. And the Wabash Building Society grant is for a new farmers’ market that will draw more Greenbelt farmers to market and showcase locally-grown ethno-cultural crops to residents of this diverse community.
In previous years the Foundation gave grants to promote ethnically diverse farming and foods (such as the $62,000 New Farmers in the Greenbelt grant, and the $400,000 New Farmers to Grow grant, both of which went to the Centre for Land and Water Stewardship at the University of Guelph; and the $32,500 World’s Largest Multicultural salad.)
Put simply, it’s entirely misleading to suggest the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation in any way overlooks or ignores ethnic farmers. The facts show the exact opposite is true.