Food policy the focus for one of the final local election events

One of the final election events with the local candidates involved federal food policy and how it affects residents.

The Nipissing Area Food Roundtable hosted the ‘Eat, Think, Vote’ event Wednesday night.

Erin Reyce is a Public Health Dietitian with the Health Unit and member of the roundtable.

“I think we had really good discussions about some different key issues and we heard the passion come through from all the candidates about the importance about good food in the community and supporting small farms,” she tells BayToday.

Reyce says there are different views within the food community, but they looked to keep the event non-partisan.

Local farmer Markus Wand tells BayToday he asked the candidates how their government plans to support agriculture and larger family-run operations and local food producers.

“Some of the candidates tried touching on the answer I was looking for, but some focused on harping on certain points of the platform and didn’t really get into how they plan to support agriculture, so in general, it was disappointing,” he says.

Wand says he was hoping the candidates would be more specific with what programs their government would fund and roll out to support farmers.

Federal election day is coming up on Monday.

(File photo by station staff)