Food Action Committee Projects and Sub-committees

• Food Miles
• Urban Gardening
• Food Connections
• Food Policy
• Halifax Landshare
• Public Education and Outreach
• Clothing and Textile Action Group (CTAG)
• Heliotrust (includes Musicians for Farmers)
• Emerald Web

  

Food Miles

The Food Miles Project is a research, education and policy initiative that delves into the Nova Scotia food system.  We are examining our current diet, made up up mainly imported food items and looking at the social, economic and environmental benefits of a more locally-based diet.  Our aim is to increase awareness of the impacts of our food choices.  To learn more about this project, please click here.

See the Local Food Procurement Policy Literature Review here.

 

Urban Gardening

Here at the Urban Garden Project, we celebrate food in the city. For us this means supporting garden projects and urban farms, cooking with local produce, offering workshops, connecting people and resources, and talking about what we need and what we want as a community. For more information on what we’re up to, click here.

 

Food Connections

The Food Connections Project is focused on rebuilding the necessary skills we need to fully enjoy the food that is grown here.  This project aims to increase our abilities to cook seasonally; to can, freeze, and store food for the winter; to take advantage of win-win relationships between farmers and consumers; to celebrate and enjoy our harvest.  For more information about this project, click here.

 

Food Policy

The food policy subcommittee of the FAC meets periodically to learn about, and act on, issues having to do with local, regional, national and global food policy. These issues often intersect with the issues taken on by other subcommittees (oftentimes, our education committee), so the makeup of this little sub-group is quite fluid.

In the past couple of years, we’ve looked at issues such as Terminator Seed technology and other GMOs.  We participated in organizing the Halifax leg of a nationwide panel on the social and environmental concerns raised by increasing agrofuels production. We have also done research on the use of biosolids in agriculture and have produced a position paper.  We are a group committed to learning as much as we can about food policy, how it impacts our and others’ food sovereignty, and how we can act to change policy.

 

Halifax Landshare

The Halifax Landshare project facilitates coordination between land owners who are unable to garden (because of a lack of time, physical disability, etc) with aspiring gardeners who do not have access to land.  People on both sides of landsharing  alliances can post their locations on a website, and then coordinate with others in their neighborhoods to set up fruitful relationships.  

We are a new subcommittee of the FAC, and our project is still evolving.  We have many dreams for the future, including creating a library of tools and gardening references, easing hunger pains by donating fresh produce to soup kitchens, and hosting amazing harvest parties.  We welcome newcomers and new ideas! To start using Landshare, please click here.

 

Public Education and Outreach

The public education sub-committee is responsible for raising awareness of the importance of local, sustainable food choices. Our activities include movie nights, public talks, workshops, cooking demonstrations, and representing FAC at public events. We also coordinate the sales of FAC’s cookbook, Eating by the Seasons and we piloted a series of local, seasonal cooking classes.  Past events included three very memorable Harvest Festivals.  The energetic sub-committee is always looking for enthusiastic volunteers who love to promote local, sustainable food.

 

Clothing and Textile Action Group (CTAG)

The Clothing and Textile Action Group (CTAG) is a dynamic and organically evolving collective.  The group’s foci include examining issues of textile and clothing production, consumption and education in relation to the environment.  The scope is from local to global, affecting change on a personal and societal level.  Ongoing research, education and outreach projects keep the group vital.  For more information about this project, click here.

 

Heliotrust

FAC is linked to Heliotrust, an organization whose mandate is to “explore, develop, conserve and share ecological farming systems” through actions such as farmland conservation and a farmer-mentor program.  Musicians 4 Farmers is a quarterly celebration of local food, farmers and great music, with ticket sales going to support Heliotrust’s important work.

Four times a year (once per season!), Musicians for Farmers honours farmers with delicious locally-sourced food from Terroir Catering and fantastic locally-sourced musical talent.  All proceeds go to Heliotrust.

See a YouTube video of our first Musicians 4 Farmers event! Filmed by Louise Hanavan.

 

Emerald Web

The Emerald Web is a new project of the Food Action Committee (FAC). Though it was conceived by FAC, it links all seven issue committees of the EAC. Nova Scotia is a province rich in natural resources, yet so often our communities face ecological threats in the name of economic development. The Emerald Web project aims to display and link the vast number of ecological initiatives taking place in our province, showing us that green initiatives can bring us economic prosperity. By bringing attention to ecological initiatives in Nova Scotia and linking them to create a sense of community and cooperation between everyone taking care of the earth, we hope to build this confidence throughout our communities.

For more information on the Emerald Web project and our pilot project focused on Kings County click here.

 

Food Action Committee

Phone: (902) 442–1077
Fax: (902) 405-3716

We meet at the EAC on the third Monday of every month at 5:30. We need new members committed to a vision of sustainability. And there is lots to do: research, education, organizing, lobbying. Get involved today!