Minutes for the Growers of Organic Food Yukon meeting April 9,2006

In Attendance: Tom, Simone, Allan, Joan, Joanne, Shiela, Ruth, Andy, Heidi, Susan, Brian, Andrea Fischer

Meeting was called to order by Joanne shortly after 1pm. Reading of the minutes of the last meeting was passed as everyone felt they had read them previously. No errors or omissions were added.

Discussion was held on who should get the emails of the minutes. Tom has said his list only includes those that are registered with COG. Brian suggested we cast the net wide and feel free to include as many as possible or who would care to be included. Simone mentioned that all the minutes are currently posted on the web for the world to see anyway. Until a later date it was left as is. Tom will only email to those who are registered with COG as being members of GoOFY If other people would care to see the minutes they can be directed to our website. Anyone wanting to forward minutes can do so.

Correspondence: none

Reports:

• Simone said there is currently $140 in the bank.

• Brian will contact COG to obtain more COG information brochures for the Fireweed Community Markets.

• Brian moved, Shiela seconded that Claire Desmarais be recommended as a representative for the new Canadian Organic Standards committee and it is understood that GoOFY cannot provide travel/committee expenses. Passed.

• Shiela reported that no APF meeting has been held yet to report on anything. Discussion was held on what would be coming up and the YAA proposal for land was mentioned. At this point Shiela said she hasn’t had any information passed to her on what this is all about exactly. Tom gave a brief outline from what he has heard. Members would appreciate it if someone from YAA could attend a meeting to lay out what exactly the proposal is about so we might have a better idea on what to say in a letter of support to them. Tom said he would pass this onto someone at YAA.

Old Business:

306.1 Legume study. The continuation of the legume project has been approved. Brian is awaiting the letter of confirmation that also contains the conditions imposed for this next year.

• Next year we apply for remainder of study all at one time. Garrett has been contacted to obtain amendments for the study.

306.2 Education project is recognized as “Food from the Yukon for the Yukon”

April 26 and May 3 Ruth has appointments with Whitehorse Elementary School. Hidden Valley school has a lunch program. Andrea Fischer, a mother from Hidden Valley School, will be organizing a lunch a month from October to April next year featuring wholesome food. She’s got a $400 budget to make it happen. She can be contacted by email: Andrea.fischer@northwest.net . Ruth will contact the day-cares closer to summertime. July 13 will be the Market Day for children contacted through Ruth’s project.

306.3 There’s approximately $700 from last year that will be entered into this year’s allocation for Organic certification costs.

306.4 Possible funding for the Fireweed Market Manager’s position will be decided within the next few days.

306.5 The Ball Mill proposal has been submitted to the APF committee.

306.6 Heidi attended the COABC conference and enjoyed the conference and all the material covered. Several of the more important topics covered included small scale processors and the need to promote and protect them. Heidi passed around information on Market conferences and also spoke highly of Ted Leischner and innovative ways to fertilize the soil.

306.7 Joanne went to a Soil Web workshop in Edmonton. Topics included soil compaction and how detrimental its affects are. Salinity, Ph, microorganisms, availability of nutrients and composting were also covered. Discussion was good on how it would be beneficial to have more of this sort of information up here. There is a weeklong soil course being held in the fall.

306.8 Tom attended the Council of Canadians conference in Vancouver. Some of the most lively discussion was about the new direction the council is taking. Most of the concern revolves around Deep Integration and how the US is beginning to grasp onto Canadian resources such as fuel, hydro, water mining etc. Public-Private-partnerships (P-3’s) were also talked about at length and how it has been proven time and again in the UK how these do work and end up costing the public far more. The GEFree campaign has been discontinued due to this new direction however there is a large renewed interest within BC on this and how the Yukon is progressing with it. There is a new Coalition in Ottawa called Gene Allies who are going to move forward with international initiatives sorting out the good and bad in biotechnology.

306.9 Simone’s visit to the Food Development Center in Portage La Prairie Manitoba, went really well. The center helps from the initial idea of a product to its final fruition. The help with all facets of business plans and marketing plans. They also have test facilities that can provide a lot of nutritional data on products. They have a program/database that is required for the Nutritional Facts on the back of food products. Simone is going to see if there can be some sort of assistance to set up such a center here in the Yukon. At some point a proposal will be put forward.

306.10 Tom reported that the ban terminator program worked well. The international body looking into this has agreed to keep the wording that all testing must still be kept in the labs. They will not support open field testing of these crops. This is not to say however the Agri-corporations won’t continue to press to have them tested open field. So the postcard campaign was successful along with the strength of the Southern countries.

306.11 Tom is putting together a list of nominations to submit for Terra Madre 2006 in Italy. He’s also taking samples of Yukon products to the meeting in Calgary of convivium leaders. He’s hoping to find more information on school projects and food ideas to submit to the Ark of taste and possibly presia projects.

New Business:

406.1 The Yukon Agricultural Association had their AGM. Joanne outlined her nomination of Brian for a director where upon Brian then outlined how he forwarded Tom’s name as a director instead because he really doesn’t have the time to fully commit to the position.

406.2 The agricultural conference in the fall requires a theme. Discussion was held on this and talk of what types of speakers would be good to have. This led to the idea of having our own conference sometime. Ideas on this should be gathered and discussed further.

Items 406.3 Infarmation articles, 406.4 chickens, feeding organically, 406.5 Up here articles-Tom and 406.6 summertime help-Tom will be carried to the next meeting.

Meeting adjourned

Andy Lera gave an excellent presentation on the Bubble Greenhouse trip. A lot of discussion was held with the idea holding a lot of merit. The greatest drawbacks would be the cost of the actual bubble generator itself. If this idea is to be expanded upon here, it would need to be carefully monitored to prevent damage to the greenhouse in a public space. Most likely it would work better under private land with agreement for public viewing. No doubt there will be more on this in the future although any immediate project is not in mind.

Next Meeting: Joanne Jackson Johnson’s May 14, 2006. at 1pm bring snacks.

Updated email list of members