[BCFSN] Request for BCFSN sign-on to Farm Renewal submission - deadline Nov 30 (tomorrow)

Tue Nov 29 13:08:24 EST 2016

Greetings

A rush request for BCFSN sign-on just came in.  This relates to work by colleagues at FarmStart and Food Secure Canada on the next national Agricultural Policy Framework that is currently being negotiated.  They are recommending that the Framework be restructured to have a section (pillar) dedicated to farm renewal, business development and labour.  They are asking the BC Food Systems Network to sign on in support.  Two documents are attached with more information.

>From Linda’s and my knowledge of the proponents and the content of this request, we have no hesitation in recommending it.

Our process for sign-ons is to let our members and allies know of the request before we sign, in case there are any substantive reasons why we should NOT sign on.  We go ahead if we hear no objection.

Given the deadline of tomorrow (which means noon to get it to folks in the east), we will sign the BCFSN on to this tomorrow morning, unless we hear substantive objections by email by 5 pm today.

Please forward this to other organizations you are associated with if there is time for them to sign on as well!

Thanks

Linda Geggie

Kathleen Gibson

BCFSN Co-Chairs

From: christie young [mailto:christie at farmstart.ca] 
Sent: November 29, 2016 8:37 AM
Cc: Amanda Wilson <newfarmerinitiative at gmail.com>; Genevieve Grossenbacher <genevieve at usc-canada.org>
Subject: NPF Farm Renewal Brief - PLS READ! and support if you can! 
Importance: High

Hi you all, 

Hope this finds you well at the end of the season. I have included you here as you either work for organizations that support new farmers  / farm renewal etc or are connected to organizations who do. 

This fall I have been involved in the national level consultations for the Next Ag Policy Framework(2018), on behalf of FarmStart.  There is a distinct and hopeful difference in these negotiations this year, compared to the last 2 conservative GFF ‘consultations’.  And there is also an increased interest and acknowledgement by a variety of groups across the sector for the need for focus on farm renewal, labour and business development.  

I along with others involved in this consultation feel there is a very real opportunity for us to push for a Farm Renewal, Business development and labour Pillar (so that we could see specific dollars and attention paid to these issues rather than being small points in the other funding pillars).   With this in mind, we think there is value in one last effort to push for this at this stage of the consultation process and have created a joint document -  the doc attached called FarmRenewal Brief FINAL - that we hope to submit tomorrow (November 30)! We know this is VERY LAST MINUTE! - it has been a long process to get to this. 

Genevieve from USC Canada has been leading the charge in Ottawa, as she has been spending a lot of time at the consultations and presenting to the Standing Committee, and developing contacts in AAFC.  Amanda Wilson working for the New Farmers Initiative at FSC right now has supported the development of this high level Policy Brief (collecting input from a range of partners in the New Farmers Init).   

We are hoping to have as many groups as we can in the next day to sign on to this document  (submissions are due Nov 30th!)  We know that many organizations can not necessarily sign something with review by a board etc. but if you can support the principle or are already doing this kind of thing and can add your name please do!!   It is a very high level common ask-  with the understanding that the devil will be in the details -  but for now we feel that at the very least we need to make an effort to have a something like a Pillar created so that we can all then begin to work out those details both nationally and at each provincial level.  We do hope you might be interested to support this effort! 

Please -  if you have a moment today to read the attached document - let Amanda Wilson (cced here, at newfarmerinitiative at gmail.com <mailto:newfarmerinitiative at gmail.com> ) know if you are willing to add your organizations name (see logo or name if you can).   And please pass this onto any other organizations who might be interested to support this effort. The more the better! 

(PS-  I have also attached FarmStart’s own submission that we have prepared - just as an FYI.  FarmStart also have a more specific version for our provincial level too. We hope some of you are all able to send comments and information and your own asks to your MPS and ministry contacts etc as well ! Please share them with Amanda at FSC too if you are willing.  The more we are all asking for similar things the more they will hear us!!) 

Thanks for your consideration of this.  We hope this might end up benefiting us all.  All the best, Christie 

_____________

Christie Young
Founder and ED 

FarmStart
(519) 836-7046 x 101
www.farmstart.ca <http://www.farmstart.ca> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bcfsn.org/pipermail/food_bcfsn.org/attachments/20161129/d8783b15/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: FarmRenewal Brief FINAL.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 252756 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://bcfsn.org/pipermail/food_bcfsn.org/attachments/20161129/d8783b15/attachment-0002.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: NATIONAL FARM RENEWAL INIT_Oct 2016.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 2327520 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://bcfsn.org/pipermail/food_bcfsn.org/attachments/20161129/d8783b15/attachment-0003.pdf>