ECV ever present at OFT

Ontario Food Terminal (OFT) is easily Toronto’s vegetable and fruit hub. This hub is strategically adjacent to the 401 on the south-eastern rim of the city. It is a contemporary marketplace pulling buyers and sellers of fresh produce, which provides the city and province with a yearlong supply of fruits and vegetables. Every day it receives fresh produce from all over the world, which is then distributed nationwide.

The terminal is strictly a wholesale market and it has every facility to handle efficient operations. OFT is thorough in its operations, strictly observing health and safety procedures at all times. Regular inspections are carried out to make sure safe foods arrive at the market. All the sanitary measures and correct temperatures are maintained to preserve the fresh produce. Records of every consignment sold and received are also well kept. Some of the wholesalers have integrated backwards or/and forwards in the supply chain and have diversified their businesses. For instance, some have their own farms, storage, processing and packing facilities including transportation logistics, outside the terminal.

OFT is home to many large-scale fruit and vegetable importers as well as local suppliers. There are 21 large-scale warehouse tenants and 50 office tenants who are engaged in the wholesale of fresh vegetables and fruits. The average daily volume of fresh produce traded in this facility is about 5.1 million pounds per day. The average imported produce at the OFT varies from 65-75%, where local produce varies from 25-35% yearly. In summer months, there is a rise in the traded volume of local produce.

OFT is compromised of two major sections, the warehouse and the farmers market. The warehouse includes tenants who are registered wholesalers that import and source locally.  The farmers’ market on the other hand houses Ontario farmers, who sell their produce to retailers. Wholesalers operate year round selling large quantities of fresh produce, whilst the farmers market is open in the spring, summer and early part of fall. The local produce sold at the market mainly comes from Ontario and Quebec.

The farmers market is just as outfitted as the wholesale tenants. However, selling imported produce is a serious offence. There are more than 550 spaces allotted to farmers based on lease agreements. Currently there about 400 farmers registered at the OFT farmers market.

Retailers, the buyers at the OFT, provide a critical role in the foods market by bridging the gap between farmers, wholesalers and consumers. There are more than 5000 registered local buyers at OFT, which include supermarket chains and ethnic stores all over Canada, but mainly in Ontario. Buyers are provided with the opportunity to see and compare both local and imported vegetables and fruits before the purchase of any produce.  OFT is opened for 24 hours to the registered buyers, it is not opened to general public, because of the large volumes traded.

Most of the fruits and vegetables, including ECV imported to Canada, are from the United States, largely California, and Central and South America. Nations such as Mexico, Dominican Republic, Peru, Guatemala and Colombia, contribute the bulk of Latin Americas produce.  There are also products from Europe and Asia and even as far as New Zealand. The sourcing process depends on the availability, cost and demand in the global as well as local economy.

During the last two decades there has been an increasing trend of more ECV in the OFT. According to a senior officer, changes in the demographic makeup of the GTA could be seen through the produce available and the buyers at OFT. In earlier years, Italian traders were the anomaly but as time passed they became the norm. As other cultures such as the Chinese, Korean, Iraqis, and South Asian integrates into the GTA landscape, there seems to be a need for ECV at the OFT.

According to the senior manager, local ECV growers sell their produce at the farmers market, in a special section called the “Chinese row”. Farmers have the opportunity to sell and compete with imported ECV produce in terms of price and quality. These Ontario growers have the advantage of proximity to market.  Most of the farmer’s that sell at the OFT are medium/large-scale farmers with experience and haggling is also allowed at the farmers market.

Similarly buyers have the freedom to choose their suppliers. Competition remains the highest in the summer time, which is the peak supply season. During spring, flowers and planting materials are also sold. Products vary from one season to the next. On any given day, farmers from different ethnic backgrounds can be observed, carefully negotiating, selecting and ordering produce, to cater to a growing nation rich in ethnic and cultural diversity.

By Steven Gitu & Yasantha Nawaratne  

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Farmers Markets As Exclusionary Spaces

 This semester, as part of my work with ECVOntario, I have been analyzing the data I gathered in summer on the availability of ECV at farmers markets. In addition to this work, I have also been reviewing related literature. As the research evolves, I have come to focus on the question: what determines what is sold at farmers’ markets. Although some external factors such as climate or rules imposed by farmers’ markets play partial roles in shaping what is sold at markets, in general, it can be assumed that the types of vegetables sold at farmers markets are determined by farmers’ choices. Although extensive literature exists to explain farmers’ choices, as of yet, little or no literature exists to explain farmers’ choices for what products to sell at farmers’ markets. Considering that farmers selling at farmers’ markets are in direct contact with consumers, one important factor influencing farmers decisions is likely consumer demand.

As indicated by my previous blog Farmers Markets: Are they for the Upper-Crust?, through my research, I found a very limited availability of ECV at farmers’ markets. One factor of interest that has come up through my research, which may, in part, explain the relative lack of ECV being sold at farmers markets, is the demand for particular crops. An emergent literature has started to explore the prevalent whiteness of alternative food movements such as farmers markets (Alkon & McCullen, 2011; Guthman 2008a, Guthman 2008b; and Slocum 2007). 

 

Through their studies of different alternative food movements and farmers’ markets, these authors have uncovered a number of ways in which the discourses of these movements may be working to exclude people from certain cultural groups. Alkon and McCullen (2011), for example, conducted an ethnographic study at two farmers’ markets in northern California. Their study sought to understand how whiteness is both performed and perpetuated at farmers’ markets. From their study, Alkon and McCullen (2011) identified a number of ways they saw whiteness working in the farmers markets’ they studied. To start, Alkon and McCullen (2011) identified the “romantic imagery surrounding small farmers as well as the imperative to buy directly from them” (p. 950). The article challenged this imagery and asserted that it ignored the historical role of race in American agriculture and “leads us to believe that the whites we see selling at the farmers market, rather than their mostly Latino/a employees, are those who presently grow our food” (p. 950). An additional way in which Alkon and McCullen (2011) perceive alternative food movements to be perpetuating whiteness is through discourses, which “paint alternative food choice as a moral rather than economic decision and normalizes affluence.” (p. 950).

Guthman (2008b), in a study of farmers’ market and community shared agriculture (CSA) managers,  identified similar ways in which discourses of alternative agricultural movements may be responsible for the prevalent whiteness of such movements. Guthman (2008b) found that the language used by several managers interviewed provided important examples of two manifestations of whiteness. The first is that for many managers interviewed, “color blindness or the absence of racial identifiers in language are seen as nonracist” (Guthman, 2008b, p. 390). As Guthman (2008b) asserts, this colour blindness “does its own violence by erasing the violence that the social construct of race has wrought in the form of racism” (p. 391). The second manifestation of whiteness identified by the study is universalism. For Guthman (2008), this universalism is represented by the assumption that values held predominantly by white people are the standard and it demonizes or downplays values held by others (Guthman, 2008b). This can be seen in discourses, which support farmers markets and alternative food movements unwaveringly and disregard anyone who may not find the same value from the movement. The aforementioned authors are careful to emphasize that they are not asserting that particular foods or alternative food practices are inherently white. That being said, these studies do indicate that there are a number of practices, which exclude non-white individuals from participating or wanting to participate in farmers’ markets and other alternative food movements. As I certainly cannot hope to do these authors justice in a short blog I recommend that anyone interested in this topic take a look at these important papers.

 

 

Frances Dietrich-O’Connor, MSc Candidate

ECVOntario

SEDRD, University of Guelph

 

Alkon, A.H. & McCullen, C. G. (2011). Whiteness and Farmers Markets: Performances, Perpetuations . . . Contestations? Antipode, 43(4) 937–959. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00818.x

Guthman, J. (2008a). Bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food practice. Cultural Geographies 15 p. 431-447. doi: 10.1177/1474474008094315

Guthman J. (2008b) “If They Only Knew”: Color Blindness and Universalism in California Alternative Food Institutions. The Professional Geographer, 60(3) 387-297 DOI: 10.1080/00330120802013679

Slocum, R. (2007). Whiteness, space and alternative food practice Geoforum, 38, 520–533. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.10.006

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atguelph article on ECV

A key component of knowledge translation and transfer is the creation of awareness. Atguelph just created public awareness about the fact that the demand for ECV exceeds supply: http://atguelph.uoguelph.ca/2011/11/demand-for-ethnocultural-vegetables-far-exceeds-supply/ .

ECVOntario

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Acculturation and Consumption............

People of Afro-Caribbean descent in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are willing to substitute other closely related varieties for their ethnic vegetables when they are scarce. Their acculturation level also indicates that these Canadians assimilate and accept the values of other ethnic groups while they retain their own identity. As consumption of ethnocultural vegetables is part of their identity, among GTA Afro-Caribbean Canadians there is a very large unmet demand for ethnocultural vegetables, which is likely to be true throughout the country.

http://www.agdevjournal.com/attachments/article/202/JAFSCD_Consumption_Behaviors_Afro-Caribbeans_Canada_Sept-2011.pdf

ECVOntario

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Bitter Melon - No Ordinary Vegetable

            Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) plant, also known as bitter gourd or balsam pear is a vine that grows in tropical areas and produces edible vegetables, recognized for being one of if not the most bitter vegetable found anywhere on Earth. To those unfamiliar with bitter melon, as I was before joining the ECVOntario research team this summer, this blog is for you.

            When I first encountered bitter melon, it was completely alien and new to me. I had no idea where it came from, what it uses were, or how to prepare it. I asked myself why anyone would want to consume a bitter vegetable, and especially one that looked like a small cucumber covered in warts. But, I thought surely this vegetable must have some redeeming qualities that I had yet to discover. After doing a little research, I learned that bitter melon has been consumed as food for centuries in tropical places like Asia, Africa, and South America, due to its wide-ranging medicinal properties, which distinguish it from most vegetables. For instance, bitter melon has been found to be effective in preventing and treating type I and type II diabetes, which is a major health concern right now in North America. Moreover, it has proven beneficial as a preventative measure and treatment against respiratory illnesses like asthma and bronchitis, digestive disorders, even cancers, and possibly HIV/AIDS. The list goes on and on.

A few days ago, I decided to give bitter melon a try and went looking for some in my home town of Guelph, Ontario. I searched the produce sections of the local Zehrs, No Frills, and Foods Basics, and was disappointed to find that not one of these supermarkets carried a bitter melon. Finally, as luck would have it, I was able to locate a few of the Indian variety from a small Indian food store in town. I brought them home and began searching for recipes. Irrespective of the variety one uses, there are several recipes for bitter melon. Since the melons that I grabbed were of the Indian kind (known as karella), that made narrowing down my decision a little easier. Finally, I decided on a simple Indian recipe I had discovered earlier while searching the internet. The photo below shows the end result of that recipe.

After great anticipation I finally got to taste the bitter melon. The bitterness was quite evident on my first bite, but I think the spices and salt did a pretty good job of masking the bitterness. One thing I forgot to do was remove the seeds, which should further help in alleviating the bitterness, so I’ll remember to do that the next time. What I can say about bitter melon is that it’s an acquired taste. If you are someone who has difficulty trying new foods, bitter melon probably isn’t for you. If however you are someone looking to expand your taste pallet and eat healthier, then I definitely recommend trying bitter melon. If anything, at least your body will thank you for incorporating this healthy vegetable into your diet. 

Andrew Filson – Undergraduate Research Assistant, ECVOntario team 2011, University of Guelph

For other bitter melon recipes, check out the links below:

Indian Deep Fried Bitter Gourd Recipe: http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/deep-fried-bitter-gourd

Chinese Stir Fried Bitter Melon Recipe: http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/sitr-fried-bitter-melon-0

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Farmers Markets : Are they for the Upper-Crust?

In past decade, farmers markets have grown significantly both in number of markets and consumer attendance. Many factors have caused this growth, however some main causes include growth in consumer interest in local, sustainable and/or organic foods, an effort to directly support local producers and a growth in appreciation of the community connection, which grows out of farmers markets and our relation to food.

Recognizing the growing importance of farmers markets as sources of food for many consumers, this summer I have had the opportunity to visit a number of farmers markets on behalf of ECV Ontario. Through these visits I have gained insight into the availability and feasibility of ethno-cultural vegetables (ECV) production for farmers markets. During my visits to the farmers markets, I looked at the availability of 26 preferred ethno-cultural vegetables (ECV) as well as a number of ECV that were identified by Growing International: Exploring the Demand for Culturally Appropriate Foods, as often lacking in availability.

During these visits, I found that most of the vegetables available at the markets I visited were mainstream vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, potatoes, corn, etc. The only somewhat uncommon ECV that I found regularly at the markets I visited was bok choy, which may reflect the growing mainstream popularity of the vegetable. Interestingly enough, during my visits to the markets I regularly found one of the vegetables (snowpeas), which an ECV survey found to be “often lacking in availability.”

Through conversations with farmers, I found that some of them had grown more ECV in the past. However, now a number of barriers have led them to scale back their production. The biggest challenge seemed to be access to markets. For the farmers I spoke to, the farmers markets did not provide sufficient demand to sell ECV at a profit. One farmer, for example, told me that he used to sell amaranth but he found that to sell on a larger scale it was a very difficult market to get into, and that at the price point it was difficult to make a profit. It is worth noting that, from my observations, the farmers markets I visited did not seem to be attended by large numbers of ethnic minorities, which may limit the demand for ECV at these markets.

For now it seems that the market for ECV at farmers markets is more driven by mainstream demand for new, healthy or different vegetables and less by large demand from ethno-cultural communities. That being said, the natural progression seems to be towards greater integration of different vegetables into the Canadian diet. As mainstream interest in ECV grows, probably so will the market and potentially the profit margin for local farmers.

Frances Dietrich-O’Connor, MSc Candidate

ECVOntario

SEDRD, University of Guelph

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Ontario Food Terminal: A Place to Explore

Ontario Food Terminal (OFT) is a structure that some stakeholders in the fruits and vegetables market  are skeptical about it's contribution to the marketing and distribution of locally produced crops. The video below shows that the OFT can be instrumental to reducing the challenges in the ECV market.

 Eat Local, Taste Global!

ECVOntario, SEDRD, University of Guelph.

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