Cornwall ON – This weekend it’s time for Eco Farm Day, one of my favorite local events as it was one of the first we covered!
Conference Chair this year is Mr. Tom Manley of Homestead Organics and Organics Central which is an exciting new development that Mr. Manley and his team have been working hard at.
Eco Farm Day takes place this weekend at the Ramada Inn on Brookdale in Cornwall Ontario.
Key note speakers are Mr. Shiv Chopra and Ms Margaret Webb.
Microbiologist, author, and food safety activist
www.shivchopra.com
shiv.chopra@rogers.com
His academic qualifications include graduation in veterinary medicine and M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Microbiology. He is the recipient of numerous academic awards, including a Fellowship of the World Health Organization. Shiv Chopra’s name has become synonymous with food safety. He and fellow scientists have waged many battles over 4 decades against a succession of Canadian federal ministries of health and helped to protect the food supply worldwide. With support of his union, Dr Chopra and his colleagues refused to approve various harmful drugs intended for meat and milk production. He endured disciplinary actions, spoke out publicly, testified at Senate committees, and won federal court cases against Health Canada. Due to Dr. Chopra’s work, Bovine Growth Hormone was barred in Canada in 1999 and in the EU. He has spoken out on BGH, dangerous antibiotics like Revalor-H Baytril, and the true causes of mad cow disease.
The safety and security of food supply is in deep trouble throughout the world. Chronic and acute food-borne diseases emanate from the industrial production of food, involving longer than normal storage and delivery to consumers as highly processed and boxed eatables. The wide use of pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, slaughterhouse wastes, and GMOs poses a phenomenal risk. The most obvious answer to this dilemma is to grow and consume organically produced food, but the market faces such demand to which it is unable to cater. The outsourcing of organic cultivation to far flung places and even certain deserts across the globe is neither tenable nor acceptable. The only alternative is to produce and consume local organic foods. Strategies will be discussed on how to resolve these issues in the best interests of the public.
Journalist and author
www.margaretwebb.com
mmwebb@sympatico.ca
Margaret Webb is the author of “Apples to Oysters: A Food Lover’s Tour of Canadian Farms” and the Toronto Star Series “Crisis on the Farm”. She is the winner of silver National Culinary Book Award. Margaret grew up on a farm near Barrie, ON. She attended University of Toronto for a BA; Concordia University in Montreal for an MA; the Canadian Film Centre as a screenwriting resident and tv writing resident; and the Banff Centre of the Arts Literary Journalism Program.
In this humorous and inspiring talk on the future of food policy in Canada, she dishes on how we can make food serve eaters, farmers, health, the environment and our interconnected urban/rural economies.
The event kicks off Friday night with a Gala Dinner and Ms Webb speaking. Saturday is the full day event with tons to learn about as products and services from the region are all in one large space. It’s a great opportunity to bring the family down and learn about how important healthier products can change your life.
There are 12 additional speakers on Saturday ranging topically from Over Winter Storage of Fruits and Vegetables from
George Bushell; Effective Weed Control and Crop Rotations from Steve and Loraine Lalonde; Creating a Consumer Meat CSA Program from Harry Stoddart; Holistic Management for Healthy Land, People, Profits from Tony McQuail; Building Healthy, Sustainable Local Food Systems from Devorah Belinsky; Marketing isn’t just about advertising – especiallyonline from Alicia Wanless, and of course Managing Grain Quality on the Farm from Tom Manley of
Homestead Organics, chair of Eco Farm Day 2011!
Eco Farm Day 2011 takes place at the Ramada in on Brookdale in Cornwall Ontario!
Exit Brookdale from the 401 and head towards the Seaway International Bridge!
See you there!
For more information visit their WEBSITE
