THUNDER BAY — A website dedicated to Northern Ontario food production — "identifying who is producing what and where" — could help link up local growers with large-scale consumers like hospitals and schools, says a northern agricultural think-tank.
"We have unique products to offer in Northern Ontario, and it's easy to find farmers who want to supply local food and institutions who want to buy those products," said a report released this week by the Northern Ontario Farm Innovation Alliance.
But how to do that "is where it becomes difficult," the alliance adds.
The report says the goal is to make it "easier for farmers and businesses to come together and be able to supply institutions in the north directly."
The alliance, which is based in Temiskaming Shores northeast of Sudbury, says what's also needed is a "connecting" agency that can oversee the transportation of Northern Ontario-produced farm goods across the region at competitive rates.
"How can we, for example, chain together [transportation] links from Thunder Bay to Manitoulin (Island) to drive down costs?" food consultant and Manitoulin Island-based chef Genevieve Sartor, the report's lead writer, said in an alliance news release.
"Is that through a series of transfer stations, for example?"
The alliance says its report was an opportunity to "delve more deeply" into Northern Ontario's food system.
"Previously, much of the information available around food-value chains focused on examples from southern Ontario or the United States," the alliance said.
The Chronicle Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
