Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network lands funding from trio of municipalities | Nation Valley News

Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network lands funding from trio of municipalities | Nation Valley News

L’ORIGNAL —  For the first time in its 10-year history, the Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network (EOAN) has funding commitments from three municipalities in the region. This year the United Counties of SDG and the City of Cornwall have joined with the United Counties of Prescott and Russell in making substantial financial  commitments to the network to expand existing marketing activities and member services and develop new  programs.

“We have been working closely with the EOAN since 2011, and we are proudly joining the City of Cornwall as well as the United Counties of SDG in continuing to support the regional agri-food sector,” said Stéphane Sarrazin, Warden of the UCPR.

“The City of Cornwall and SDG have each decided to also fund the EOAN at a rate of $25,000 each per year, and to each send a delegate to our board of directors,” said EOAN executive director Tom Manley, who added UCPR’s funding commitment of $40,000 remains in place. “That gives the EOAN a starting budget of $90,000  this year, plus various membership revenues and fees for services delivered. It will be a great year for local food  in eastern Ontario.”

Local governments realize that a successful grassroots food movement must be sustained with multi-year core funding that can leverage further grants and sector assets, said Manley.

“Agri-food is the number one economic sector in Canada,” he said. “Twelve per cent of farmers in SDG sell directly to consumers and 44 per cent of the farms have farm sales of less than $55,000.”

Outside of Ottawa, Eastern Ontario is a mixed geography of rural communities, farming, and small cities. Given the economic importance of agri-food, municipalities see local food as an economic development engine.

“Municipalities are responsible for regional economic development. Together, we see the EOAN as a partner in  the local food sector. Cornwall and its neighbours look forward to witnessing the EOAN in action,” said Cornwall Mayor Bernadette Clement.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer demand for local food is more obvious. At the same time, international  trade and tourism are negatively affected. Therefore, the municipalities recognize that a post-COVID economic  revitalization in a largely rural area will depend heavily on local food.

“Given the pandemic’s impact on long-distance tourism, local communities recognize that their tourists will be  local or a few hours away. Therefore, agritourism and culinary tourism are critical elements in the rural economic  recovery,” said SDG Warden Frank Prevost.

In this economic context and with this new funding, the EOAN will develop new programs: capacity building,  operator training, food asset mapping and directories, regional agri-food branding, a regional e-commerce  program focused on local food, locally-themed agri-tourism, expanded farmers’ markets, collaborations with other  tourism networks and assets, and many more initiatives.

Published at Tue, 09 Mar 2021 22:20:53 +0000