Canadian MPP tackles high food costs on James Bay Coast
Last week, he met with representatives from the Canadian Produce Marketing Association in Ottawa, a not-for-profit organization that represents companies that market of fresh fruits and vegetables.
The purpose of the meeting was to determine whether it would be possible to implement a program to help First Nations communities in the far North grow their own food and, if so, what it would take to make that a reality.
“It started as an idea: Can I bring together the people necessary to bring both the money and technical expertise to look at if there are ways to grow some of our own food in Northern Ontario, specifically, for the James Bay communities?” Bisson said. “They are landlocked and as we know, there’s huge problems with diabetes on the coast and a large part of that is diet and not having access to affordable, fresh produce.”
“It’s picking up steam, I’ve gotten a lot of inquires and it looks like people are interested,” he said, noting that he’s also been in talks with the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers Association and organizational representatives from some of the coastal communities.
“My goal is not for me to build a greenhouse,” he stressed, “but for me to find someone who is interested in taking on such projects in communities on the James Bay and across the North. I’ll also be looking at whether we can we get some money from the provincial government to put together the people that would be responsible for helping to pull all of this together.”
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