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Local Food Plus

Promoting New Markets for Greenbelt Farmers

Grants Made:

$1,000,000 - June 5, 2006

LFP certified Greenbelt-grown products include field vegetables, greenhouse vegetables, tender fruit, berries, apples and pears, chicken, table grapes and wine grapes.

http://localfoodplus.ca

Initiated in 2005 on a platform of farming reform to increase the industry’s viability, Local Food Plus certification system incorporates economic, environmental and social issues and opens new markets for Canadian farmers.

This project catapults local, sustainably produced food into the public consciousness in Ontario. Consumers are recognizing the label in their universities and grocery stores, and vendors and shoppers alike are recognizing the value of what it means to buy from certified farmers and processors: that the food is produced using environmentally and socially responsible growing practices.

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The Greenbelt Foundation is

  • Supporting the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance to foster strong Greenbelt Plan implementation at the municipal level

  • Bridging farming and hiking interests to acknowledge environmental progress by farmers

  • Funding visionary planning processes such as the new Cootes to Escarpment Park Management Plan, and a massive reforestation plan in Rouge Park

  • Creating a network of Farmer’s Markets to help improve our local food economy

  • Securing local food procurement commitments for Peel, U of T. City of Toronto Facilities and Markham

  • Supporting changing the City of Toronto policy to adopt a local food purchasing bylaw for city facilities

  • Partnering with Harbourfront Centre to tell the story of Ontario’s Greenbelt to 12 million people via a year-long, outdoor photography exhibit

  • Hosting the successful Tour de Greenbelt to promote Ontario’s Greenbelt as a tourism destination

  • Developing a successful culinary tourism platform for Niagara

  • Engaged Hamilton schools to switch to Greenbelt food for their students

  • Hosted the first ever Global Greenbelts Conference in Toronto in March 2011 with speakers and delegates from over nine countries

  • Supporting the creation of an award-winning Greenbelt granola bar

  • Convincing Peel school boards to buy Greenbelt food for students

  • Reaching over 75 million by placing 220 permanent highway and regional road signs to ensure Ontarians and visitors know about this valuable protected area

  • Enhancing Farmers’ Markets, increasing sales for farmers in the Greenbelt and beyond

  • Supporting development of action plans for a variety of agricultural areas and commodities

  • Increasing amount of Greenbelt food in food share program 140%

  • Creating Greenbeltfresh.ca, the leading electronic marketplace to source local, Greenbelt foods from over 600 producers

  • Supporting tourism initiatives including in the Niagara and Caledon areas

  • Bringing thousands of Ontarians out into the Greenbelt each year through grantee activities and the Annual Tour de Greenbelt cycling event

  • Contributing to greater sales of Greenbelt wines at the LCBO

  • Supporting the creation of new multi-cultural crops and development of ethnic local food guides in Toronto and York Region

  • Contributing $2.65 million to Greenbelt farmers to improve their operations (leveraging millions of dollars from federal sources), and to employ the opportunities of the Green Energy Act

  • Assisting in designing new policies to protect Lake Simcoe through timely research

  • Successfully merging social welfare initiatives with environmental concerns

  • Supporting the Credit Valley Conservation Authority to protect and restore wetlands

  • Securing local food procurement commitments for Peel schools, City of Toronto, City of Markham and others

  • Funding the Holland Marsh Growers’ transition from an export, commodity focus to one that serves the local market with value- added products

  • Identifying barriers to opening markets for Greenbelt farmers and proposing solutions

  • Participating strategically in growing the Greenbelt by working with Toronto, Peel, Halton, and Guelph

  • Funding policy changes to encourage more local food to be sold in Durham

  • Funding research and analysis on greenbelts around the globe which concluded that Ontario’s Greenbelt is the most robust in the world, with a strong legal and policy framework

  • Providing grants and support to significantly increase sales at farmers’ markets

  • Supporting the development of multi-cultural crops and training new Canadian Farmers

  • Engaging with over 170 million Ontarians directly through our marketing, events and communications activities

  • Supporting interested Greenbelt Farmers to Go Organic

  • Supporting food policy council in Durham to create food charter

  • Building a local food economy from developing new markets to enhancing distribution channels

 
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Dufferin Wellington Peel: total economic impact of Greenbelt ag, forestry, fishing rec & tourism = +$493M http://t.co/dMqj9cnI @TownofErin about 11 hours ago

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