Tonight's Special: Toronto, Ontario
I love the city; the culture, it’s pace, and of course, the food. Toronto can easily be recognized as one of the most multicultural cities in the world, in fact around half of those who live there have immigrated from another country (City of Toronto, 2014). If you really want to get the perfect snapshot of how diverse Toronto is, all you need to do is stroll down the street for a place to grab some lunch.
Recently, I was having this very conversation about food with someone. She described restaurants I should try, and how fusion cuisines bring together the best tastes around the world to Toronto. It
challenged me to think about how far our food has wandered to get to our tastebuds. The recipes for the dishes are carried by mouth across the world, but the actual physical food that fills our plates; where does it come from?
As much as I would love to take credit for being smart enough to initially ponder this quesion, it was after attending a panel discussion at Humber College about food security that it started to inflitrate my thoughts. It is no secret that a majority of the
world suffers from food scarcity. But then, living in one of the coldest places on Earth, why can I purchase banana’s at 90 cents for a pound when I am pretty sure they are not a native Ontario species. Why does it seem our weather doesn't have as much of an effect on the types of food we purchase or the amount?
This raised many more questions that couldn’t all be answered in a short blog post. Instead, this is to get you to ask yourself, “where does my food come from?”. Whether it is the wheat driven across the plains of Alberta baked into your loaf of bread, or the coffee beans flown from Ethiopia and being steeped in your coffee pot; get to know your food. “It isn’t only that our food is travelling great differences to reach us; we, too, have moved a great distance from our food,” states J.B. MacKinnon in the book The 100 Mile Diet A Year of Local Eating.
So why is this even a thought we should consider? Because when our food travels, it takes energy to get it to where we want it. Yes, a lot the foods we purchase from other countries support their economies, but don’t you think it is a little unusual to buy cherries from Chile during early summer when the trees are heavy with fruit in Niagara?
This is a challenge for those who live away from the farm and live by the markets; to discover where your food comes from, to make more environmentally conscious purchases, and get in touch with your dinner. In a city that brings together the best palettes of the world, how can we integrate what Ontario has to offer? Purchase local produce!
Did you know that Toronto is home to the largest commercial city farm in Canada (Fresh City Farms, 2014)? Located at Downsview park, six acres of greenhouse farm set with an aquaponics system you can find out what good really does grow in Ontario. Farmer’s markets also litter the city including the world famous St. Lawrence Market.
When you buy local, you eliminate the emissions caused with transportation. You support local economies, and you find out not only how much you love the city, but how much it loves you.
Lainey Oleka
3rd Year International Development Student, Humber College
References
City of Toronto. (2014). Diversity. Retrieved from http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=dbe867b42d853410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD&vgnextchannel=57a12cc817453410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD
Fresh City Farms. (2014). Our Farms. Retrieved from https://www.freshcityfarms.com/#our-farms
Smith, A., MacKinnon, J.B. (2007). The 100 - Mile Diet A Year of Local Eating. Toronto, Canada: Vintage Canada.
