Program

Include exciting tours, informative and skill-building workshops, dynamic round tables, collaborative planning meetings, films and engaging, exciting speakers.

Workshop streams

• Farmer to Farmer Training: Both new and experienced farmers gained from these interactive workshops that spanned everything from marketing to livestock production and everything in between. Workshops included:

• Community Food Security: Innovative successful approaches that transform food systems from the ground up were explored. Informative and engaging workshops and presentation covered everything from urban chickens to social enterprise from the back yard to city hall.

• Rebuilding the Middle: A sustainable food system includes producers, consumers, and the groups that connect them through distribution and processing – the middle. Communities and businesses are creating innovative and promising approaches to processing and distribution while others are fighting to stay in business. Participants learned about successful approaches and how to help create this fundamental link in the food chain.

• Outreach and Education: Across Ontario people are getting engaged in thinking about food and in changing the food system. Participants learned how media, marketing, school programs, and community initiatives are getting people involved in the food system.

• Building Our Capacity: There are many skills that we need in order to prepare the ground for a sustainable food system. While the other streams provided great examples and ideas for how our food system can be recreated, workshops in this stream provided opportunities for attendees to build some of the skills necessary for success. Workshops covered the areas of research, policy, advocacy, communications and evaluation .

Meetings and Round Tables

Throughout the conference groups met to work through challenges and plan next steps to build a sustainable food system. These meetings were for those who want to connect and take action on province-wide issues and who are willing to do some preparatory reading before the conference and to potentially collaborate after.

Films

Throughout the conference food films were screened that shed light on what’s happening in our food system.

Speakers

Bring Food Home 2011 was graced by knowledgeable and experienced speakers from across the globe. Speakers included: Raj Patel, Mark Winnie, Jeanette Longfield, Dawn Morrison, and Jon Steinman.

Tours

Tours included visits to innovative food projects at Trent, community gardens in Peterborough, the history of red fife wheat, and more.