Slow Food Vancouver AGM

The AGM for the Slow Food Vancouver Convivium was held at the Italian Cultural Centre on September 25th. 

A very special Thank You to Donna Wadsworth of Savoury City Catering for providing the complimentary punch and hors d’oeuvres and to Kim Sutherland, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands for the guest presentation on farming in the Fraser Valley.
New members and volunteers are welcome.

Slow Food Vancouver
AGM
September 25, 2007
Italian Cultural Centre, Vancouver

22 Members were present and 4 Non-Members

1. Introductions
Jim Pearce, Vancouver Convivium Leader provided introductions and background. The objective of the AGM is to provide members and interested individuals on a report on what is happening, our financial status, to elect the new Convivium Executive and Leader, have a guest speaker and than a chat with hors d’oeuvres. 
As Jim has accepted the position of Slow Food Canada President, he is stepping down in his role as Vancouver Convivium Leader, a position he has held for over 4 years. He will continue his involvement locally. 
Jim explained that only paid up members are eligible to vote and have been provided with a yellow card. 

2. Election of Convivium Executive
Jim reviewed the volunteer positions and the individuals who have expressed interest in accepting those positions.  Nominees from the floor were welcomed.  The Convivium Executive meets approximately every 6 weeks over a potluck dinner, with wine etc. 
The position of Newsletter Coordinator will be co-shared by Mary Ellen Belfiore and Zshu-Zshu Mark; and the position of Community Outreach Liaison with Karen Rideout were the additions to the slate. 
The Slate is:
• Convivium Leader:  Christina Beaudoins
• Assistant Leader:  Zshu-Zshu Mark
• Community Liaison/Outreach:  Karen Rideout
• Newsletter Coordinator:  Zshu-Zshu Mark and Mary Ellen Belfiore
• Youth Coordinator: Bryanna Thiel
• Sponsorship/Fundraising:  Orazio Scaldeferri
• Webmaster:  Giovanni Piovesan
• Communications:  Joanne MacKinnon
• Graphics and Visual Designer:  Zshu-Zshu Mark
• Membership:  Billy Ellis
• Treasurer:  George Xuereb
• Events and Tastings:  Vacant
Anyone interested in volunteering or helping out please contact a member of your Vancouver Convivium.

Move to accept the slate.
Chris Shelton moved to adopt the slate.
Kim Sutherland seconded.
All in favour. 
Carried.

3.  Business Meeting:  Financials
Jim reviewed the financials providing a month by month revenue/expense/net.  The balance in 2007 is the same as in 2006.  The account balance has remained stable over the past 3 years.  Bosa Foods made a donation of $1,000 which offset the costs for the 1st Annual Slow Food Cycle Tour Agassiz. 
The membership fee was discussed and noted that Slow Food Vancouver receives $30 of the membership fee and Italy keeps the balance. 
Move to accept the financials.
Chris Shelton moved to accept the financials.
Orazio Scaldaferri seconded.
All in favour
Carried.

4.  Updates: 
Edible School Gardens Project – Christina Beaudoins.  Christina is spearheading this effort and provided background on the project.  It is a collaborative effort involving other individuals and organizations in the food community.  Windermere Secondary School in east Vancouver has enthusiastically committed to being the pilot project for growing food at high schools.  Three teachers and the principal at the school are very active in the project.  The plan is for the enclosed inner courtyard of the school to contain a greenhouse and raised beds.  Some of the food grown will be used in the cafeteria.  The Vancouver School Board is supporting the pilot project and will use the lessons learned from this experience to revise the existing school garden policy.  Funding will then be secured to expand the project to other schools.
A copy of the project proposal is available upon request from Christina.  Email: 

5. Upcoming Events
The Calendar of Events is to be confirmed.  A few activities include:
• Thursday, October 18 – Britannia Community Wellness Lecture Series Talk by Christina
• Saturday, November 3 – Green Church, Green Homes Talk by Christina
• TBC – 2008 Conference of Chef Educators, Abbotsford – have requested a guest speaker from Slow Food Vancouver
• April 2008 (TBC) – “Bike the Blossoms” in partnership with the Cherry Blossom Festival

There was a request for Tasting Event ideas.  Ideas from the floor included:
• Pies – the Hazelnut Farm is interested in hosting this event.
• Cheese – Farm House Cheese is interested in hosting this event.
Tasting events require advance notice of approximately 6 -8 weeks. Costs are reimbursed.

A question raised and discussion on if we should charge non-members to attend tastings.  Comments included that tastings at no charge for members and a small fee for non-members may be a value-add to become a member.  Options included:
• securing a Friend of Slow Food to cover the costs,
• fundraising (raise funds) to have producers who may not be able to afford to attend the opportunity to participate,
• fundraising to cover the costs for events as we move forward in hosting larger events (same and bigger than the Slow Food Cycle Tour Agassiz),
• asking for a volunteer donation to cover the costs,
• fundraising specifically for larger events and not for smaller tastings.

It was mentioned that other Conviviums will have a fee to participate in events such as the Tomato Picnic. This is at the discretion of the local Convivium to charge or not. 
A vote was taken:
Status Quo (no charge for tastings):  16
Donation Basket:  2
Charge for non-members: 0
Moved to keep tastings at no charge

Other Business:
• Kim Sutherland mentioned that the farmers who participated in the Slow Food Cycle Tour Agassiz provided gifts for the organizing committee.  The tour had approximately 350-400 participants despite the rainy weather.  A special thanks to Bosa Foods for their sponsorship. 

• Chris Shelton presented an idea to start a seed exchange of endangered Aboriginal Produce. There are many items on the endangered list. The idea is to collect and to distribute seeds that have a story behind them.

• Heather Pritchard of Farm Folk City Folk feels a need to develop a Manifesto for the Land that would provide the means for new farmers to secure land.

• Based on Heather’s promotion of Terra Madre it was suggested to host an Event on this theme.  Karen Rideout expressed interested in helping Heather with this event.

• Orazio would like to see our membership increase by next year to 200. It is currently around 140.  He is challenging all members to secure new members. 

The meeting was adjourned.
Kim Sutherland did a 30 minute presentation on Farming in the Fraser Valley. 
The following are highlights from her presentation:

The Slow Food Bike tour was possible partly because of the Circle Farm Tour agri-tourism initiative that is in place in many municipalities in the Lower Mainland. Most of the farms visited engage in direct marketing their product.  In addition, the Bike Tour visited a commercial dairy farm open on the day of the event, as well as a great example of an ethnic niche market specialty crop--the Pea Sprout Farm.
The value of local farmland cannot be underestimated for large urban areas, in my opinion.  However, the Fraser Valley is far more than just local farmland; it is one of the best agriculture zones in North America and has great soil, climate and water resources.  It will likely remain a great agriculture zone, even with the full impacts of climate change and peak oil.  This is because it has great groundwater storage in its aquifers--so it can rain more in the winters and be drier in the summer, and there is a lot of water in its excellent aquifers.  The temperature is moderated somewhat by the ocean, and because, even if fuel for machinery, fertilizers, etc. becomes very expensive, this area will produce a large amount in a small area, and it is close to the urban market.
As for cost--yes food grown in the Fraser Valley usually costs more and is of higher quality and better taste.  This makes it hard for Fraser Valley farmers to complete with areas where there is a larger land base over-all and where labour is cheaper and where chemical use is more liberal so that farmers can produce the produce at a lower cost.  So Fraser Valley farmers compete on the basis of quality and supplying their customers with what they want.  One thing to note with cost--we have had very cheap food for some while now, but there is no guarantee that will continue as we continue to see global stresses with climate and North American stresses on development of prime farmland.  If we have a good local supply, it will buffer us against extreme price hikes--as we have to eat and we will pay what it takes for food.  In North America, California continues to supply us with much of our produce, however, they are developing farmland very rapidly (urban development), and many climate change models indicate that California will get drier and hotter--and there are already water stresses in the region.  There is no guarantee that they will continue to export if their food production becomes stressed due to water shortages.
Our farmland is currently supplying us with 53% of what we eat, including fish, and 61% if we take out the obvious foods we import and sugar (bananas, grapefruit, etc.).  But if we eat healthier, it supplies only 34% of what we need. 
These numbers can be increased if we work harder at creating a local food infrastructure, which will take investment from both the urban side as well as the farmer.  However, if local processors, for example, push their producers to supply them with their product at a lower price, then it will not be of benefit to gaining access to local food.  I have visited several local processors, who challenge their producers to meet the price of product coming from somewhere else, like China and Alberta, and almost never is the competing product produced with the quality standards of BC.  Labelling does not compel local processors to declare where the product is coming from--are the raspberries in the jam local or from China--is the goat milk local or from Alberta?
As for economic gain--the 2006 census figures showed the Fraser Valley at 1.65 billion dollars in farm gate receipts—a basic economic measure.  The real economic benefit would be a multiple of that number which would very conservatively be four, but likely around 8 or 9.