Thunder Bay needs more farmers.
"We have the market now and we have the land," said Raili Roy, spokesperson for the Thunder Bay Country Market.
Area farmers are barely meeting the demand for local food and with the passing of Ontario’s Local Food Act at Queen's Park on Tuesday, Roy said that demand is only going to rise.
The Local Food Act is part of a strategy to make more local food available in Ontario through various initiatives, including a local food week.
And it offers a 25 per cent non-refundable tax credit for farmers who donate surplus produce to food banks.
It also encourages the use of local food by public sector organizations like schools, hospitals and senior homes.
It also defines local food as food produced in Ontario.
"Instead of competing with people from China and California for business, our local producers here in Thunder Bay are only competing against the people in Ontario," said Roy.
"If you can factor transportation out of the equation, suddenly it becomes a much more feasible proposition for our local producers to get that food into the institutions."
Thunder Bay producers currently sell most of their food from the farm gate or through organizations like the Country Market and the True North Community Cooperative.
"The problem with what's going on in Thunder Bay is we have just enough farmers right now producing just enough food to pretty much meet the demand that exists. We've got this monstrous demand that's going to arise in the institutions and we don't have enough farmers," Roy said.
The Local Food Act also requires the province to produce an annual report on its activities to support local food.
