Citing a lack of information, the Manitoba Women’s Institute (MWI) voted overwelmingly against signing the Manitoba Food Charter at the group’s annual convention in Brandon last week.
The resolution, seconded by Jan McIntyre, a delegate from Clearwater, Man., followed other motions urging action to promote earlier diagnosis of breast cancer, support for women’s rights in the violence-wracked Darfur region of Sudan, and a pledge to plant trees to fight global warming.
In her comments in support of the resolution, McIntyre noted that the food charter’s goal of ensuring fairness and food security for all within the province addresses many areas of concern that the MWI has been involved in throughout its history, such as social, health and agricultural issues.
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“The Manitoba Food Charter defines food security as, I quote, ‘a situation in which all community residents obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes self-reliance and social justice,’ ” said McIntyre, who is also one of four rural members on the food charter’s 12 member board.
“Food security is more than just about making sure that people have enough food to eat. It is also about things such as healthy families and rural, northern and urban communities taking the time to cook and eat well, making healthy food choices available in all communities and schools, and keeping Manitoba farmers and producers on the land.”
Enid Clark, MWI president, opposed the resolution, particularly the pledge to “ensure” that farmers, fishers, harvesters, processors and distributors can generate adequate incomes while using ecologically sustainable practices, on the grounds that it was beyond the organization’s scope.
She also took issue with the charter’s position of seeking a sustainable balance between fair international agricultural trade and diverse vibrant production for the local market, while ensuring availability of affordable, nutritious food for all Manitobans through accessible retail outlets and food services operations.
“How do we ensure that? How do we do that? These are real, serious concerns that I have with this resolution if you’re expecting me to sign my name to it,” said Clark.
Another delegate noted that she had visited the charter’s website and found on the sign-up page a requirement that signatories identify the steps they will take in their own lives, or as a group, toward achieving food security in Manitoba and how they would follow through on their commitment.
“I think we need a lot of discussion and decisions made first before we can ask our president to sign on our behalf,” she said.
Past-president Joyce Johnson, who also spoke against becoming a signatory to the food charter on the grounds that the implications were unknown, compared it to signing a blank cheque.
“It came out of the blue. What’s this food charter? We’ve never heard of it before,” said Johnson.
“If we’re the largest rural women’s organization in the province and Western Canada, why haven’t they contacted us?”
She added that MWI takes its resolutions seriously and could not commit to supporting any cause without adequate information.
As proof of the group’s dedication to action, she cited the resolution to plant trees to fight global warming, which had been unanimously accepted by the membership earlier in the meeting.
“We’re all going to have to go home and plant a tree. If we weren’t planning to, we’re going to have to plant one now,” said Johnson.
Jill Falloon, a family living specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, who is also the department’s liaison with MWI and the Manitoba Farm and Rural Stress Line, noted that the department is studying the legal implications of signing the charter.
“We have lawyers looking at that. But at the same time, our government has supported some of their programs and initiatives through funding,” said Falloon.
She added that there may be other ways for the MWI to support the charter’s aims without “signing a blank cheque.”
In comments following the vote, McIntyre noted that the food charter urges people to think about where their food comes from, a point that has become especially poignant in recent months, with some prominent economists predicting oil at $200 per barrel and gasoline hitting $2.25 per litre as soon as six months from now.
Given the circumstances, relying on a food distribution system in which the average item travels 2,000 kilometres to the dinner table may not be sustainable indefinitely.
While urban and northern consumers have already widely embraced the charter and its vision of a just and sustainable food system, she said that rural areas have been the “slowest to come on board.”
Calling the MWI an “honourable organization,” McIntyre said that the decision of the membership must be respected, but added that lack of information about the food charter was likely at the root of the group’s strong opposition to the resolution.
The charter’s founders believe that a holistic view, which incorporates the needs of all stakeholders in the food chain, is necessary to achieve food security, she said.
“You don’t get a healthy, nutritious diet if all the farmers go broke, or if we show no regard for the care of our environment and the soil will no longer grow a crop,” said McIntyre.
“You don’t get healthy nutritious food if the storekeeper doesn’t have a dollar in it, or if you don’t have a hot clue how to cook and prepare it. It encompasses all of those things.”
