Québec Fruits and Vegetables: Part of our Culinary Traditions

Nov 29, 2024

MONTRÉAL, :- The I Love Fruits and Veggies Movement is proud to launch Coming soon to your plate, a brand new multilingual platform showcasing the ease and affordability of incorporating locally-grown Québec fruits and vegetables into traditional meals and recipes for newcomers. This project was made possible through the financial support of the ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation, and the ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux.

In collaboration with Marianne Lefebvre, nutritionist, speaker, and international nutrition expert, and the Atypic marketing agency, the I Love Fruits and Veggies Movement brought together representatives from the Haitian, Arab, Asian and Latin American communities in August to gain a better understanding of their reality. As a result of these meetings, educational tools were developed in five languages to provide them with tips and practical advice on incorporating local fruits and vegetables into their daily eating habits.

"Upon arriving in Québec, immigrants often face the challenge of adapting to a new dietary landscape in an unfamiliar environment. Balancing personal and family needs can make it difficult to maintain a culturally familiar and healthy diet. This innovative platform is designed to support and empower newcomers as they navigate through the new local food culture," said Marianne Lefebvre, nutritionist, speaker, and international nutrition expert.

"Coming soon to your plate helps newcomers, especially those in vulnerable situations, preserve their culinary heritage while enhancing it with Québec fruits and vegetables. Our goal is to give them insights on the best times to purchase specific produce and offer tips on getting the best value for their money. Interestingly, community representatives who participated in the focus groups revealed limited awareness of Québec fruits and vegetables, whether fresh, canned, or frozen," added Mario Lalancette, Executive Director of the Québec Produce Marketing Association (QPMA).

In Québec, only 35% of the population eats five portions of fruit and vegetables daily, and there is still a significant gap between low-income and wealthier households.

Source : Newswire.ca

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators