Hello everybody! Sorry about the delays with Friday MashUp; the internet at the office is slightly dodgy today and I’m having difficulties updating wordpress. So hopefully you all won’t have any trouble seeing this!
Let’s get started with this week’s Friday MashUp for April 26-30, 2010.
Liberals put National Food Policy on the Table
The federal Liberals announced this week that they are creating a 5 point National Food Policy to encourage healthy, local eating to help a) farmers markets and b) school children. These 5 points are:
- Healthy living, including an $80-million Buy Local Fund to promote farmers’ markets and home-grown foods, a $40-million Healthy Start program to help 250,000 low-income children access healthy foods, introducing progressive health labelling and tough standards on trans fats, and launching a Healthy Choices program to help Canadians make informed eating decisions;
- Safe food, by implementing all of the Weatherill Report recommendations and investing $50 million in improving food inspections and ensuring imported foods meet our tough domestic standards;
- Sustainable farm incomes, with a Clean Slate Commitment to build practical, bankable farm programs in partnership with farmers and restore AgriFlex to offer regionally flexible programs that help meet the costs of production;
- Environmental farmland stewardship, by strengthening Environmental Farm Plans, improving fertilizer and pesticide management, and rewarding farmers for their role in clean energy production and protecting wildlife habitat; and
- International leadership, to promote Canadian food internationally and expand Canada’s share of high-value export markets while also fostering food security in Africa and the world’s poorest nations.
This looks promising. The buy-organic, buy-local food debates are currently very popular (and dare I say it, trendy!) with governments as evidenced by Mrs Obama’s campaigns and of course, Jamie Oliver’s very excellent Food Revolution and it’s worth looking into as we consider the importance of water and food security. Actually, if we were to even take away the great big global implications, a Food Policy makes sense as Westerners continue to get fatter (which puts undue strain on health care systems, etc). So while we have yet to see what this Food Policy will actually do (look like, achieve, etc), at least there will be something to watch out for.
Far-sighted program brings vision back to Boyle Street
A great story about the hard work of volunteers who is running the Boyle Street Eye Care Program that assists high-needs people with getting prescription glasses. There isn’t much to say about this but it’s a good story highlighting the hard work of the Boyle Street Community Services and we want to give them a great shout-out for all their hard work.
Kids Aware of Racism by the Age of 9, Study Finds
And this is one of the reasons why the John Humphrey Centre focuses on youth as a key priority demographic. According to this new study, kids understand what racism is or can identify stereotypes by the age of 9. The article is careful to state that the study does not measure the children’s “own prejudices but rather their stereotype-consciousness or awareness of other people’s views”.
Moreover, apparently knowledge of these stereotypes can affect achievement:
When black and Latino children were given a memory task and told it would measure their abilities, they did more poorly on it than others who were told it was simply a problem-solving exercise, which McKown says is the result of fear that they would live down to stereotypes about the lesser academic abilities of their race.
It’s never too early to talk about racism and stereotypes with kids–they’re not stupid, after all. If you’re concerned about this, here’s a friendly reminder that the JHC does have teaching resources and workshops for parents, teachers and youth mentors that can help talk about racism and discrimination for children.
Go ahead. Use us. We don’t mind.
*Dr McKown is with the Rush NeuroBehavioural Centre which the Edmonton Journal identifies as the group that produced this study. However, for some reason, I can’t seem to find a direct link to the study itself so feel free to peruse their site in search of it. This doesn’t necessarily undermine the validity of this study but if the Journal got anything out context or missed other interesting bits, well…caveat emptor.
Edmonton Homelessness Plan Exceeds Goal
The plan was slated to produce 150 supported-housing units in its initial year, but actually secured 424 units that provide homes for 546 people, according to an update released Thursday.
A year ago the City of Edmonton initiated an ambitious plan to end homelessness by 2019. So far so good. 
That’s it for this week’s Friday MashUp. Hope you all have a great weekend!
