Tuesday, October 29, 2013

CFFO presents ideas on Local Food Act


The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario appeared before a legislative committee at Queen’s Park in Toronto this week, suggesting that the proposed Local Food Act could be improved by enabling farmers who make donations to food banks to claim a receipt for a charitable-donations tax break.

The CFFO also recommended that the legislation provide for “aggregators,” meaning operations that collect food from a number of farms into volumes that are suitable for local retailers.

The CFFO said some customers may want to feature locally-produced food, but aren’t prepared to collect it from dozens of local farms to achieve the volume they require.

The charitable-donations proposal has been brought forward several times in the legislature by Tory Bob Bailey of the Sarnia area as a private-member bill.

It is sitting in the backlog now as Bill 104.