Celebrating the powerful taste of Ontario
Annual week recognizes the power of local food and the people behind it
What started with an innocent Facebook post has pretty much sunk one brand of ketchup in Ontario and turned another brand into a local hero.
And with Local Food Week in full swing — touted in Ontario’s Local Food Act legislation as a chance to recognize and celebrate our homegrown bounty — the story of how French’s ketchup moved from a second-fiddle condiment to eat-local poster child is certainly worth noting.
The 2016 Facebook post was short and sweet — and it grabbed a lot of attention. A man from Orillia declared that he was switching to French’s ketchup because Heinz had pulled its operations out of Leamington, Ont., which happened back in 2014. That move eliminated 740 jobs along with a ready market for Leamington tomatoes.
The French’s Food Co. stepped in with a pledge to put those tomatoes into its ketchup. But at the time, bottling took place in Ohio.
Elliott Penner, president of French’s, recognized an opportunity to turn patriotism into a market play. He went looking for a local bottler and found one in Select Foods, a Toronto processing and packing company with roots going back almost 80 years. Select packs products for such brands as Newman’s Own, Neal Brothers and Compliments.
A grant from the Greenbelt Fund helped Select set up a new bottling line. “We hired 10 employees as a direct result of this,” says Select owner Andrew Mitchell, who bought the company two years ago. “And now we have the capacity for future expansion.”
That’s the power of local — and the power of the people.
“Even a few years ago we were buying our tomato paste from California,” Mitchell said.
“Well, it’s really expensive, you have exchange rates and transportation costs. Then we found locally produced tomato paste. The quality is amazing, it’s closer, it’s cost efficient. So, being locally produced isn’t a sacrifice — for some products it’s a benefit.
“The whole French’s ketchup story is a made-in-Canada story that resonated with consumers. So we’ve made a big investment predicated on the belief that there is a made-inCanada story for other products,” Mitchell said.
“When you look at people’s sensi-
“We have over 200 cultures present in Ontario today and we are producing over 200 commodities.”
JEFF LEAL ONTARIO’S MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
tivities to where stuff is made, I think there’s a new hypersensitivity to food that wasn’t there even 10 to 15 years ago. The whole local food movement is huge.” It’s certainly more visible. “Local Food Week makes us think for a moment as consumers about the choices that we’re going to make,” said the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation’s Susan Murray.
“How we choose where that food comes from, how we prepare it, how fresh it is, how far it travels and what it means to building our families, our communities and our province.”
Today, the Greenbelt Act, which was passed in 2005, has a 90-percent approval rating among Ontarians. The act protects almost 800,000 hectares of valuable farmland, forests, wetlands and watersheds in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH).
According to the Greenbelt Fund, which provides grants that support efforts to increase local food accessibility, local food sales increase by $13 for every $1invested by the Fund.
The power of local is not lost on politicians of all stripes. Local Food Week is a function of the Local Food Act, which passed in 2013 with the support of all parties.
The legislation is the first of its kind in Canada. It includes measures to bolster the agri-food sector by increasing food literacy and expanding local food accessibility in Ontario, as well as developing new markets for food grown and produced in the province.
Jeff Leal, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, notes that agriculture contributes $35.4 billion to Ontario’s annual gross domestic product.
This week, Leal announced that another $1 million would go to the Greenbelt Fund to help farmers and processors grow their markets and to deepen awareness of the diversity of locally grown food in Ontario.
“We have over 200 cultures present in Ontario today and we are producing over 200 commodities,” Leal said.
“One of the great growth opportunities in Ontario is providing specific crops for new Canadians.”
Toronto chef Bashir Munye is taking that message public with an effort to empower multi-ethnic Afri- can communities by increasing their local food literacy. He is teaching classes this summer at George Brown College and with local food advocacy group FoodShare.
“As a child growing up in Somalia and in Italy, I mostly ate local and seasonal produce,” Munye said.
“It is so important to me to cook and eat fruits and vegetables that are seasonal.”
Munye says most Torontonians understand and appreciate the diversity of foods available. “But most of them are not aware that here in Ontario we grow ginger, turmeric, peanuts, bitter melon, Chinese broccoli, callaloo, okra, bok choy, a variety of hot peppers.”
Leal points out the world-class research at the University of Guelph and the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, which receive support to help identify how to grow more world foods in Ontario.
“The United Nations tells us that by 2050, there will be 9.2 billion mouths to feed globally,” Leal said.
“And Canada, particularly Ontario, will be called on to meet that challenge.”
“It’s important that our municipal partners across Ontario and particularly in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton area have a solid commitment to preserve farmland,” he said.
“The last crop can’t be houses.”