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sound bitsInternet Newsletter
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Let's Savour Summer!
SSFPA News: Message from the Board of Directors The AGM has come and gone with some very concrete directives from the membership. The SSFPA was incorporated in 2002, with a strategic direction and subsequent five year strategic plan embraced by all participants. We are encouraged to report to the membership that this five year plan has been achieved in four years. The initial strategic plan called for a cooperative approach to attain economies of scale in order to stay competitive in the market economy. For more information on this initiative, contact Local Flavours Products and Services Cooperative at: info@localflavours.coop. Now it is time to reassess the needs of the members and what activities the SSFPA should undertake to best serve the identified needs. A survey of the membership will commence shortly. Over the past four years, issues and opportunities in the agri-food sector have been consistently evolving, with Canadians taking a keen interest in nutritional quality and the methods utilized by the industry. Opportunities for small scale food processors and producers continue to increase as these trends gain momentum. Reflecting this, the SSFPA has completed two projects over the past twelve months.
You can read the entire message
from our Board of Directors in our most recent Sound
Bites publication. We encourage you to have a voice
in the advancement of the small scale food sector and invite you
to participate in the Small Scale Food Processor Association. For
more information and membership application, email: info@ssfpa.net. BC
Specialty Foods Directory: Get
listed! This new, web-based specialty foods directory, organized by SSFPA, is now on-line. The goal is to provide small scale producers and processors with greater access to alternative sales channels and a simpler, faster and more convenient way for the food service industry to source local foods. If you would like to be included in the BC Specialty Foods Directory, complete the on-line application. There are no costs associated for being listed
in the Directory. However eligibility criteria do exist, as listed
in the application form. If you have
questions regarding this initiative, please email
or call SSFPA at our toll-free number, 1-866-54-SSFPA (1-866-547-7372). Members Corner:
For the past three years, Philip has represented the SSFPA in a technical capacity on several federal-provincial food safety initiatives. On the advisory committee for the BC Food Quality and Safety Initiative (an Investment Agriculture AFFF fund), he helped disburse matching funds for BC food industry food safety efforts. For information, go to http://www.iafbc.ca/fqs/index.htm. . Most recently he has brought a small-scale perspective to the development of the Food Safety Initiative (FSI), a food safety education and outreach program that will be delivered this fall by the BCCDC and BC Ministry of Health to every food processor in the province. For information, go to http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/foodsafety/fsi.htm. Currently Philip Watney is negotiating on behalf of the SSFPA for an additional implementation element to this FSI program that would reimburse individual processors for their food safety expenses.
The end of history was bad enough, but now the end of food? A book, written by Canadian author Thomas Pawlick, describes how and why corporate-produced food becomes increasingly non nourishing and even toxic. SSFPA member D'Arcy McCrea of Pepperheads Canada recommends The End of Food and has found the author's promotional interviews provocative as well, especially his story about the Italian tomato that provided him with a food epiphany. [We have another "End of ...." item in this issue of sound bits. Check out the article below on local foods and the (gasp!) End of Wal-Mart.]
Can the presentation of your product be enhanced by a high-quality, long-necked bottle like this? This 200 ml glass container has a cork finish and is flint (clear) coloured. Robertson Estates has a supply of 2,400 of these bottles in 12-pack cases. The price is $0.56 each. To
order some bottles - or to get more information - email Pat
Robertson or call him at (250) 423-3441 Let's Get to Know You and Your Business We at sound bits encourage
any and all SSFPA members to submit a brief biography and description
of your product or service. We will include an item, based on
your submission, in our "Members' Corner" section
and, if you have a website, we'll add a link to it. Other News and Views Investment Agriculture Foundation News BC's Investment Agriculture Foundation has a new website, a new executive board and, after a successful pilot year, an expanded small projects program. The program addresses the needs of smaller industry organizations undertaking lower cost projects. Due to reduced paperwork at both the application and report stages of the project, it has been successful in offering efficient access to funding. Twenty five small projects have been successfully funded to date. Projects funded during the first year of the program include demonstration projects, applied research, speaker costs, marketing plans and educational projects. InfoBasket: An Agri-Food Portal
The people at InfoBasket encourage other organizations and businesses to link to their website as a means of providing easy and mutual access to agricultural business information. For more information on linking to InfoBasket, visit its contact page.
Food
Secure Canada (FSC) is a recently-formed Canadian organization
which unites people and organizations working for food security
nationally and globally. In conjunction with the Community
Food Security Coalition, the FSC will be hosting its Fourth
Annual Conference, "Bridging Borders Toward Food Security”
in Vancouver, October 7-11, 2006 at the Sheraton Wall Centre (1088
Burrard Street). Conference themes include: Food Secure Communities,
Food and Institutions, Food and Cities, and Global Food Issues. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada: A User-Friendly Approach This federal government department "provides information, research and technology, and policies and programs to achieve security of the food system, health of the environment and innovation for growth." It has re-designed its website, making it more accessible to busy food producers and processors. It also maintains a toll-free number (1-866-452-5558) to answer questions about its services. We dialed it recently and a person answered! Then we were transferred quickly to a knowledgeable individual within this department. Personal service from real people...quite an innovation!
This initiative is designed to help take Canada’s positive international image and leverage it to increase the profile and sales of Canadian food and agriculture products abroad. Branding Canada's new website is filled with tips on building the Canada brand, consumer and buyer market research in Canada’s key export markets, suggestions for co-branding, professional photographs, Canada brand graphics in different file and colour formats, and much more. This initiative is designed to help take Canada’s positive international image and leverage it to increase the profile and sales of Canadian food and agriculture products abroad. For further information, or to
gain access to all the tools on the Branding Canada Web Site,
email Renee Umezuki or
phone him at 604-666-3686.
The ActNow BC initiative funded the development of the Guidelines for BC Food Producers and Processors on Selling to Food Service Distributors. The guide is a valuable resource to those mid-sized companies who wish to expand their business into the commercial foodservice business.
Farm Folk/City Folk's annual
fundraising events will have three venues this years: in Whistler,
the Lower Mainland, and Vancouver Island. Come and taste the best
of BC chefs, vintners, brewers, food artisans, and producers.
More details are available at Farm Folk/City Folks website. Vancouver Island Feast of
Fields: Glendale Gardens & Woodland, Sunday, September
17. Tickets went on sale August 1.
University of Victoria Graduate student Jessica Duncan is working on an MA thesis that examines the relationship between small-scale egg producers (unregistered, with under 99 layers), inspections and marketing boards. Her research question emerged from Saltspring Island's recent “egg wars” and moves through an examination of egg production in BC, from the standpoint of a small-scale producer. The goal is to highlight current contradictions and problems with the system and to make recommendations. Another goal is to produce a map of the egg production system from the farmer up through the health authorities, the province, the federal government and up to mediating international economic agencies and agreements. She plans to distribute this map to producers and others interested in how the system works. Jessica would like to hear from you if you have an anecdote or story that outlines your experience with inspectors, the marketing boards - or any other egg story you'd like to share. Email Jessica or call her at (250) 380-1967 or (604) 880-8562 (her cell number).
Be careful if you purchase so-called organic dairy products in the United States. While government bureaucrats delay closing key loopholes in national organic standards, retailers, wholesalers and major “organic” producers are continuing to sell suspect brands of milk and dairy products labeled as "USDA Organic." This milk comes from factory farm feedlots where the animals have been brought in from conventional farms and are kept in intensive confinement, with little or no access to pasture. Imported soy milks, originating in places where environmental standards and workers' rights are ignored, are also coming under boycott pressure. The original boycott, organized
by the Organic Consumers Association, focused on the Horizon and
Aurora brands. It is now being expanded
to include five national "private label" organic milk
brands supplied by Aurora, as well as two leading organic soy
products, Silk and White Wave, owned by Horizon's parent company,
Dean Foods. The campaign against the "Shameless Seven"
has been joined by thousands of organic consumers and a number
of natural food stores and co-operatives. However major national
grocery retailers in the US have largely ignored the boycott. How Local Food Goes Forth and Multiplies (The End of Wal-Mart?) This article by Canadian food analyst Wayne Roberts was adapted from NOW Magazine and sent to us from the Toronto Food Policy Council: If hometown business enthusiast
Michael Shuman has his crystal ball in working order, we now know
where global insecurities about pandemics, terrorism and scarcity
lead.
We've been following the "local eating sojourn" of B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith in Tyee Magazine for the past year, as they stick to an evolving diet of food produced within 100 miles of their Lower Mainland home. Read about its lasting and rippling impacts in the final installment and check out the entire series on the 100 Mile Diet website.
Meet the Editor  Mary
Murphy has been producing sound bits since 2003,
when she began her work for the Small Scale Food Processor Association.
"It was a good way to connect with our expanding membership
and to link the organization with other groups and individuals
working in the small scale food sector," explains Mary. "It
started as a simple emailed list of short news items and now is
a two-page 'website within a website.'"
The on-line newsletter goes out to several hundred subscribers
eight or more times per year.
Mary lives in Port Alice in Northern Vancouver Island. Her small business specializes in website design and training, internet marketing, and on-line newsletter publication.
Information from Health
Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Quick
Bits ... Quick Clicks: Short items from and about the small-scale
food sector
Coming Events SSFPA Reports, Publications, and Documents Links to Related Sites sound bits Archives You can find all the past issues of sound bits (along with other archived material) at the Archives section of the web site. Some documents referred to may no longer have active links. If there is a document or other information that isn't available, please contact us. Join Our Newsletter Network If you'd like a monthly e-mail update of sound bits, contact us and we'll put your name on our list serve. It's a quick and easy way to find out what's happening in the "small-scale" food world. Small Scale Food Processor Association |
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SSFPA
Member Philip Watney, B. Sc., brings over a dozen years experience
in food processing, microbiology, quality control and certified
organic manufacturing in the BC food and beverage industries.
As an independent consultant, he provides practical technical
assistance and helps clarify requirements for food safety and
organic certification. He also represents a leading supplier
of low-cost temperature monitoring devices for companies with
temperature sensitive products. For more information, visit
his 
A Deal
on 200 Ml Bottles 
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