Wendy Holm to speak at UFV on Food, Farming, and Public Policy

Local food is a trendy phrase and concept, but without Canadian farmers to provide food to our cities, food security is off the table. We “get” this as Canadians, but do we really understand what it means?

Award-winning agrologist Wendy Holm will speak on this topic at the University of the Fraser Valley’s Abbotsford campus on Thurs, March 28, at 1:30 pm in Room B121.

“Treating farmers like dirt undermines our future. It will take years to fully understand the effects of Ottawa’s dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board. In the media today, right wing pundits with more ink than think are quick to offer up Canada’s supply management policies on the altar of yet another trade ‘deal,’” contends Holm. “Meanwhile, foreign investors are buying up vast tracts of Canadian farmland. What does this mean for food sovereignty, food security, food safety and food sustainability? How can we rescue our future as a food sovereign nation?”

Wendy Holm is an award-winning Canadian agrologist, columnist, author and professional speaker. Her outspoken columns in defense of Canada’s farmers and sustainable public policy for our farm sector have won her seven national journalism awards since 2002. Wendy holds an honours BSc in Business Administration, an MSc in Agricultural Economics, and is currently a third-year honours graduate student in the Master of Management, Cooperatives and Credit Unions program, Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax. Editor and contributing author of the book Water and Free Trade (1988), Holm was named a Distinguished Alumni of UBC in 2008, received two Queens Medals for her contribution to community and was named Agrologist of the Year 2000. For seven years, as a UBC lecturer, Holm has brought students to Cuba for three weeks in May to study sustainable agriculture. In the past 15 years, she has taken 32 delegations of Canadian farmers to Cuba and has raised over $200,000 to support an award-winning cooperative dairy project. More recently, Holm has been supporting Cuba in its move to a cooperative economy. Holm also served for 10 years as an elected Director of Vancity. In 2008, she was the Western Canada recipient of Farm Credit Canada’s Rosemary Davis Award for passion and commitment to farming.
This Go Ag event is presented Agriculture Student Association and sponsored by Farm Credit Canada. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

UFV offers several agriculture-related programs of study, encompassing both horticulture and livestock. For more information, see www.ufv.ca/agriculture .

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