On April 13, 2016, a diverse group of people will gather at a forum to examine priorities established by players in Niagara’s agri-food continuum. Together they will identify opportunities to strengthen our food assets, to help boost Niagara’s vitality.

Forum participants will advance building blocks already gathered to describe Niagara’s food systems, including:

  • Getting Curious about Niagara’s Food System: A Preliminary Exploration of Potential Opportunities, Next Steps and Future Directions – FINAL REPORT, November, 2013
  • Niagara Food Systems: Who is Doing What in Food Systems in Niagara and Beyond – FINAL REPORT, 2014 | Twelve (12) Food Systems Categories and people and organizations working within them are identified in this report.
  • Visualizing Connectivity in Food Systems in Niagara – In 2015, Niagara Connects engaged a core group to build Network Maps for the purpose of visualizing connections and communication lines between people and organizations working in the 12 Food Systems Categories in Niagara. The maps show an emerging network with rich opportunities for strengthening connections.
  • Niagara Region Agri-Food Strategy (2015) – The draft strategy was presented to the Niagara Region Agricultural Policy & Action Committee in April of 2015, and is now being finalized.
  • Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Action Plan – Niagara’s agri-food strategy intentionally links with broader work of the Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance. The cluster includes Niagara, Hamilton, GTA municipalities and the Holland Marsh.
  • Food Security in Niagara – In recent months, Greening Niagara has gathered community partners to take a collective look at food security in Niagara, through the lens of climate impacts and the environment. Preliminary results of this work show that access to enough (adequate) local, sustainable and healthy food in Niagara is at the centre of food security. Opportunities identified for action centre around: collaboration; education at all levels; building food production capacity in both rural and urban settings; and valuing farms and farmers of all types. This work is supported by funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

If you are interested in learning more about food systems work in Niagara, and helping to identify ways our food assets can lead to a more vibrant future, please reach out to us!

Mary Wiley
Executive Director
Niagara Connects
ed@niagaraconnects.ca