THE TORONTO AND GREATER GOLDEN HORSESHOE CITY REGION FOOD SYSTEM -WEBS AND FLOWS Author: S. Miller, 2016 Prepared for the RUAF Foundation In collaboration with: With the support from: Published by: RUAF Foundation – Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems in collaboration with the Wilfrid Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems. This present report was developed within the framework of the RUAF CITYFOODTOOLS project, in partnership with the FAO Food for the Cities Programme. The CITYFOODTOOLS project has been coordinated by the RUAF Foundation with the financial support from the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation. The Food for the Cities Programme is coordinated by UN FAO with financial support from the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. RUAF Foundation PO Box 357, 3830 AK, Leusden, The Netherlands E [email protected] I www.ruaf.org Acknowledgements This report was drafted by S. Miller with supporting work by A. Blay-Palmer at the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems as well as M. Dubbeling and H. Renting from the RUAF Foundation. Research support was provided by N. Godfrey. Input and support was also provided by the Toronto City Region Food System Task Force: L. Baker (Toronto Food Policy Council), B. Emanuel (Toronto Food Strategy), M. Flaherty (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)), H. Friedmann, J. Horner (Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance (GHFFA)), J. James (OMAFRA), R. MacRae (York University), R. Martin (University of Guelph), J. Reeve (Toronto Food Policy Council), M. Wolfson (City of Toronto, Food and Beverage Sector Specialist), F. Yeudall (Ryerson University) and A. Blay-Palmer (Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at Wilfrid Laurier University). Thanks to L. J. Roche (Toronto Public Health) for managing logistics and careful note-taking for Task Force meetings. Thanks to Toronto Public Health for hosting the Task Force meetings. The author and research team acknowledge with gratitude the generous time and thought that stakeholders have invested in this project. The authors acknowledges the project partner FAO for their overall technical support. The authors would like to thank the Carrasso Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture for providing financial support for the implementation of the overall Programme and for supporting the implementation of the city region food system assessment in Toronto. 2 Contents Acronyms ....................................................................................................................................... 7 Executive summary ....................................................................................................................... 8 Overview of research area ................................................................................................. 8 Phase 1: The Greater Golden Horseshoe: A conjunction of stakeholder interests ....... 11 Table1: The Greater Golden Horseshoe City Region Food System ......................................... 15 Phase 2 overview and introduction .................................................................................. 16 Section 1. Food flows in the Greater Golden Horseshoe for four commodities ........ 16 Table 2: Total production by region in the Greater Golden Horseshoe for key commodities in 2014 (pounds)................................................................................................................................. 17 Section 2: Place-based food system analysis ................................................................. 17 Section 3: Review of critical themes ................................................................................ 18 Section 4: Compilation of complex indicator set .......................................................... 19 Table 3: Phase 2 set of complex indicators .................................................................................. 19 Section 5: Assessment of collaborations and networks ................................................ 21 Section 6: Policy recommendations ................................................................................ 21 Table 4: Priority policy recommendations from Phase 2 CRFS Toronto research .................. 22 Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 22 Phase 2 report summary .................................................................................................... 23 Food Flows in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Food Systems ................................................. 26 Production .......................................................................................................................... 26 Land use planning issues ................................................................................................... 27 Pressure from non-farming interests ................................................................................. 28 Land Use Issues in the Holland Marsh and Greater Golden Horseshoe ........................ 28 Environmental issues ........................................................................................................... 33 Networks .............................................................................................................................. 34 Packing/ processing/ distribution .................................................................................... 35 Packing ................................................................................................................................ 35 Distribution ........................................................................................................................... 37 Food Service Distribution .................................................................................................................. 39 Processing ............................................................................................................................ 40 Markets (including export, mass market, food terminal, direct, distributor and donations) .......................................................................................................................... 42 Direct sales from farmer to consumer ............................................................................. 45 Institutional Procurement ................................................................................................... 45 Retail markets ...................................................................................................................... 46 Table 8: Ontario food retail sales (dollars) .................................................................................... 46 Consumption ...................................................................................................................... 47 Table 9: Household expenditures on key foods in Ontario ........................................................ 47 Food and Health................................................................................................................. 47 Table 10: Incidence of some food-related health issues ........................................................... 48 Table 11,12: Percentage and number of people in study area who consume at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily .......................................................................................... 49 3 Table 13: Change between 2010 and 2014 of fruit and vegetable consumption as reported by study area public health units .................................................................................. 50 Public health and nutrition programs .............................................................................. 51 Availability of key foods sourced regionally ................................................................... 51 Table 14: Amount of key foods available in Canada ................................................................ 51 Table 15: Current and optimal intake of key foods .................................................................... 51 Regional sourcing, optimal diets ...................................................................................... 52 Waste .................................................................................................................................. 52 Table 16: Waste by supply chain sub-sector ................................................................................ 53 A Tangled Web: The Flow of Carrots in the GGH.................................................................. 54 Table 6: Carrot production in the Greater Golden Horseshoe ................................................. 55 Table 5: Flow of carrots in domestic, import and export markets in Canada ....................... 55 Table 7: Carrot production and markets (Canada) ................................................................... 56 Networks .............................................................................................................................. 56 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 57 Apples: Commodities for Health and Profit ............................................................................. 58 Table 17: Apple production (marketed lbs.) ...............................................................................