Government of Canada strengthens food security in Indigenous, remote and Northern communities across the country

Dec 16, 2022

OTTAWA, ON,- The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced support for up to 79 new projects across Canada that promote food security in Indigenous, remote and Northern communities under the fourth phase of the Local Food Infrastructure Fund (LFIF).

These community-led projects aim to have an immediate and long-lasting impact on food systems in communities that are experiencing the highest food insecurity, by improving processing, production and distribution capacity at the local level.

In total, up to $19.5 million will be invested, with between $100,000 and $500,000 per project. Of the 79 projects announced today, 56 are Indigenous-led, totaling up to $15.1 million.

In Morley, Alberta, for example, Stoney Nakoda Nations will receive up to $216,593 to purchase mobile food preparation equipment and infrastructure for raising chickens, gardening and fishing. This project will allow the community to create workshops to teach members about traditional food preparation and food waste reduction.

In Quesnel, British Columbia, Nazko First Nation will receive up to $260,746 to purchase a new greenhouse and canning equipment, create new garden beds, and install a new community kitchen and an outdoor smokehouse. This project will enhance community food production and serve as a teaching space for community members to learn traditional preservation methods to pass on for generations.

The Government of Canada is committed to working with local organizations to provide communities with access to tools that help them meet the immediate and growing needs of people experiencing food insecurity in Canada.

Source : Newswire.ca

Video: Wheat Yields in USA and China Threatened by Heat Waves Breaking Enzymes

A new peer reviewed study looks at the generally unrecognized risk of heat waves surpassing the threshold for enzyme damage in wheat.

Most studies that look at crop failure in the main food growing regions (breadbaskets of the planet) look at temperatures and droughts in the historical records to assess present day risk. Since the climate system has changed, these historical based risk analysis studies underestimate the present-day risks.

What this new research study does is generate an ensemble of plausible scenarios for the present climate in terms of temperatures and precipitation, and looks at how many of these plausible scenarios exceed the enzyme-breaking temperature of 32.8 C for wheat, and exceed the high stress yield reducing temperature of 27.8 C for wheat. Also, the study considers the possibility of a compounded failure with heat waves in both regions simultaneously, this greatly reducing global wheat supply and causing severe shortages.

Results show that the likelihood (risk) of wheat crop failure with a one-in-hundred likelihood in 1981 has in today’s climate become increased by 16x in the USA winter wheat crop (to one-in-six) and by 6x in northeast China (to one-in-sixteen).

The risks determined in this new paper are much greater than that obtained in previous work that determines risk by analyzing historical climate patterns.

Clearly, since the climate system is rapidly changing, we cannot assume stationarity and calculate risk probabilities like we did traditionally before.

We are essentially on a new planet, with a new climate regime, and have to understand that everything is different now.