Individuals and organizations concerned with where our food comes from will meet next week

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by Hanne Armstrong
This Week Staff

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"Food security contributes to the physical mental, cultural, spiritual and emotional well being of our Province's residents."

So reads part of a background document put out by the New Brunswick Food Security Network, in promotion of their upcoming Food Security conference. In simple terms, food security means food for all, and good food for all. Which leads naturally to where and how food is produced, distributed and prepared.

So far the NB Food Security Network, established three years ago, is 18 members strong. It includes people from several sectors, including agriculture, health and wellness, social justice, and interested non-profit organizations. They're holding a conference in Moncton on Oct. 16 at l'Université de Moncton.

"We know how important nutrition is for all stages of human growth and development," says Network member Micha Fardy.

"We hope that at our conference, which representatives of diverse groups will be attending, we'll be able to identify and explore things the groups have in common, and to talk about how to integrate these groups in ways that will make reliable links between production, distribution and consumption of food for the people of New Brunswick."

Everyone is invited to attend the event, and invitations have been sent to provincial, municipal, corporate and community representatives, and social justice and environmental organizations.

"We want to increase the number of New Brunswickers who have access to nutritious food," explains Micha, "with the emphasis on local food and a related increase in economic viability for local farms."

That means building on the services provided by food banks, soup kitchens and schools. It means community gardens, fresh food box programmes and collective kitchens. It also means more local and environmentally safe foods in grocery stores and New Brunswick food producers being a bigger part of the provincial food chain.

"Hopefully one of the things that will come out of the conference is the development of partnerships between some of the groups who will be attending," says Micha. "We want to establish a communication network, something we can build from."

One of the speakers at the conference will be Senator Marylin Trenholm Counsell, long-time advocate for family health and literacy, originally from Sackville. Another is Dr. Patty Williams, Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Policy Change and Associate Professor at Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax.

The conference is being made possible through the support of the NB Departments of Wellness, Culture and Sport, Health, and Agriculture and Aquaculture, as well as the United Way of Greater Moncton and Southeast New Brunswick.

If nutritional food, reliably available, is on your mind, plan to attend the day-long 'Connecting for Food Security' on Oct. 16, in the Taillon Building of l'Université de Moncton. Space is limited, though, so call 858-8600, Ext. 67 to register or for more information.