Why Should I Care?

Food Waste: A $31 Billion Problem

Post Date May 05, 2017

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Category Economy, Environment

By Anastasia Gal

In Indonesia, there is a legend about crying rice. A rice farmer was harvesting her crop and heard someone crying. She looked around and saw no one. She then realized that the crying noises were coming from a handful of rice she left behind in the field. This story, says Tammara Soma, a Ph.D Candidate at Food Systems Lab, is about the importance of not to wasting farmers’ labour and the natural resources. “As a kid, I was told that I must eat …

Support local farmers every meal

Post Date October 14, 2016

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Category Civic Engagement, Economy, Environment, Rural Communities

Why is local food so expensive? On September 19th we had a discussion about the Economics of Local Food, featuring special guests Cookie Roscoe, Wychwood Barns farmers’ market manager, and Carolyn Young, lead consultant at Organic Council of Ontario.

Roscoe started by recalling that when she was a kid in the 1960s, her father would drive around town every Saturday morning with the grocery flyers, looking for bargains and buying loss leader products. While it used up gas to drive from store to store, savvy shoppers …

Carbon Tax vs Fee and Dividend

Post Date August 27, 2015

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Category Economy, Environment

On Monday August 17th, WSIC explored the topic of carbon pricing and the benefits and risks to Canadians associated with these measures. With Federal elections fast approaching, the environment is an increasingly important subject being tackled, and one with a broad impact. WSIC was pleased to host two qualified speakers to go through the issues: Brian Foody, CEO of Iogen – a leader in developing technology making clean burning, renewable biofuels from agricultural residues and organic waste – and Yannick Trottier, co-founder of Spectral Applied …

The Energy From Waste debate needs to be had

Post Date April 09, 2015

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Category Environment, Government, Municipalities

As cities grow and demands on our time increase, invariably, we opt for convenience when available. This applies to waste and usually means an increase in single use disposable items such as prepared food containers, packaged chemical cleaning solutions and other such functional products. Most of our materials can’t be recycled and a great deal ends up in the great Pacific garbage patch as shipping containers fall off ships with our plastic “recycling” bound for China. Many countries in the world have already led the …

Canada’s Role on the World Stage

Post Date February 24, 2015

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Category Economy, Environment, Government

Canada’s role on the world stage was the topic of discussion on January 26 at The Pilot Tavern. We heard from Dr. Alan Chapnick, Associate Professor at the Canadian Forces College, and Paul Kirkconnell, Managing Direct at The Kirchner Group as they covered a broad set of topics on the issue of the evening.

Both Dr. Chapnick and Mr. Kirkconnell delivered succinct summaries of their views. Alan summarized his thoughts saying that on a macro level there has been no major change in Canada’s foreign policies, though …

Canada as an Arctic Nation

Post Date December 14, 2014

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Category Environment, Foreign Affairs, Government, Rural Communities, Science

On November 17th, WSIC hosted our final event for the 2014 calendar year. Our guest speaker for the evening was Professor Franklyn Griffiths, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, who led an engaging discussion on the topic of Canada’s Future as an Artic Nation.

With the Harper government emphasizing Canada’s sovereignty over areas in the Artic, the question we need to ask is what rights we have as a country over this region, and what impact the environment plays in enforcing these rights in the …

Know where the Environmental Puck is headed

Post Date May 02, 2014

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Category Civic Engagement, Economy, Environment, Government

This past Monday, April 28th, our WSIC audience benefitted from Gord Miller, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, and Debbie de Lange, Business Strategy Advisor and professor at Ryerson University provide an outlook on Ontario’s Green Economy, why it’s important, and where it is headed.

Mr. Milller began the evening by addressing the key dominant environmental factors we should be aware of today, and which will affect us going forwards:

(i) Burning of fossil fuels and climate change. Weather events in Toronto have become more severe recently and will …

The complexities of expanding Toronto’s Island Airport

Post Date March 28, 2014

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Category Cities, Civic Engagement, Economy, Environment, Transportation

On Monday, March 24th, a large WSIC audience participated in an unconventional discussion on the pros and cons of expanding the Toronto Island airport. The event was unusual because only one guest speaker presented the topic, instead of our customary two or three hosts. As a testament to the sensitivity of our topic, only one qualified expert was willing to field questions before a large gathering of concerned citizens on a subject so personal to so many people. Thankfully, our guest speaker did not disappoint. …

Profitably Sustainable – By Michael

Post Date June 28, 2013

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Category Economy, Environment

Sustainability or going green is economically beneficial. It is not just about saving whales and polar bears. There exists huge business opportunities. Jim Harris, former leader of the federal Green party, thinks going green can be economically beneficial. For him it’s not just about saving the planet it can save businesses. Energy efficiency creates many times more jobs than the existing ways of doing business. Typically, those companies that realize and implement sustainability programs first are those that survive and thrive. When the price of …

Get back to evidence-based policy: let government scientists off the leash

Post Date June 09, 2013

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Category Civic Engagement, Environment, Science

At WSIC’s last event, two speakers persuasively made the point that preventing government scientists from sharing their advice with the public is foolish policy. Professor Jeffrey Hutchings, Professor of Biology at Dalhousie, criticized the Conservatives, but also offered a first-hand account of how such policy affected the Eastern fishery under the Liberals. Around 1992, the Cod fishery was collapsing, and Liberal government permission for fishing was at odds with scientific evidence. Now, it may be fair to have policy that is contrary to science, but …

Food Waste: A $31 Billion Problem

Support local farmers every meal

Carbon Tax vs Fee and Dividend

The Energy From Waste debate needs to be had

Canada’s Role on the World Stage

Canada as an Arctic Nation

Know where the Environmental Puck is headed

The complexities of expanding Toronto’s Island Airport

Profitably Sustainable – By Michael

Get back to evidence-based policy: let government scientists off the leash

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