Wayne Roberts

Rethinking revolution on the centenary of the Russian Revolution

Wayne Roberts — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 22:27:24 +0000

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, and about a hundred real, existing socialists turned up at Toronto's Lula Lounge to celebrate the launch of this year's issue of Socialist Register, dedicated to critical but positive reflections on the significance of the processes unleashed by that historic event.

Peasants are making a comeback

Wayne Roberts — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 16:56:30 +0000

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Peasants have flagrantly defied the laws of history over a dozen times to become leading actors in socialist and anti-colonial revolutions around the world.

As with marijuana laws, when any law is defied so often and so brazenly, there comes a time to repeal the law and the theory behind it.

Tougher laws won't stop drunk driving. We need to tackle Canada's drinking problem.

Wayne Roberts — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 18:24:27 +0000

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Thanks to a report this month from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the news has gone global on Canada having the worst record in the industrialized world for traffic deaths linked to drunk driving.

Trudeau's government to grab right end of the food stick

Wayne Roberts — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 19:14:45 +0000

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If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's instructions to his new Minister of Agriculture are followed, Canada will soon lead the pack of G20 economically powerful countries when it comes to food policy.

Don't jump to rasher conclusions. Pigs offer bacon of hope to sustainable food systems.

Wayne Roberts — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 17:47:27 +0000

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Bacon may not be all it's sizzled up to be, but it does explain a whole rasher of things about today's food scene.

I got to experience the bacon back story on August 8, as one of four judges at a BaconFest2015 celebration at east-end Toronto's neighbourhood-based Leslieville Farmers Market.

'Ugly fruit' finally breaks through to supermarket shelves

Wayne Roberts — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 19:35:19 +0000

There's a lot to learn from Loblaws decision to sell less attractively shaped fruit and vegetables for 30 per cent less than their more stylish counterparts on the other side of the produce runway.

Loblaws is not only the leading supermarket in Canada. It's also a retailing pioneer that draws on the marketing knowhow of a multi-billion dollar global empire of trend-setting products in parent company Weston's stable of brands, retailers and processors -- one of which is French Intermarché, who successfully launched the whole trend of selling disfigured food a year ago.

Africa's women-driven agriculture movement a blueprint for a brighter future

Wayne Roberts — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 20:42:26 +0000

Few areas of the world live up to this year's International Women's Day theme to "Make it Happen" as well as the isolated villages of eastern Africa -- where most women grow, process and cook food, often as the sole head of the family.

This may surprise people who think of the women's rights movement as an urban trend based in the more affluent and liberal Global North. But the fact is that rural African women, who shoulder most of the work in all stages of a food system -- seed selection, farming, processing, selling, meal preparation and composting -- are fashioning a food system based on principles of what's called "agro-ecology."

Five more global food trends for 2015

rabble staff — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 20:10:18 +0000

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Look out here's what's coming in global food megatrends including a new one: urbiculture.

This is going to be the busiest year ever for global food movements. Ten issues are ready for prime time.

I already reviewed five of these -- the rebellion of underpaid food producers, empathy for livestock animals, appreciation for the life-force and probiotics behind food, the central role of youth in food movements and a rising swell of food politics.

Today, I rush through the last five.

Five global food trends for 2015

rabble staff — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 18:31:48 +0000

Monday, January 12, 2015

Food trends in 2015 are bigger than the battle between kale and cauliflower. We're talking labour, information and industry.

I have no idea whether cauliflower will send kale back to the farm leagues this year, or if Greek yoghurt is doomed to eat the dust of customers rushing away to kefir, or whether harissa will redefine cool and sriracha will be yesterday's hot sauce.

But I can see some clear trends arising from deep-going changes within our global food system. We are in a moment of greater shift disturbing than any since the modern food movement emerged full-blown from distinct social, cultural, spiritual, ecological and public health organizations during the 1990s.

The Brazil Food Guide: Look at food differently in 2015

rabble staff — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 20:00:42 +0000

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

The Brazil food guide puts social equity and the social value of food on the menu with a new classification system.

This is the year we can all look to Brazil's Food Guide for tips on how to consider what we eat in a new light.

The holiday and feasting season in December is the hardest time of the year to be counting calories on a diet. January is a different story as many of us turn to food as a source of our resolutions. This January is probably the easiest time to try out Brazil’s bold dietary guidelines, issued this year and recently made available in English.

Take on global warming from your dinner table

meagan perry — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:08:22 +0000

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Suppose they held a climate action and everybody came. Everyone can participate in climate action every day. Here's how.

Every time the most everyday kind of people make the most modest kind of change for the better in their food habits, they have a triple-whammy effect that the cognoscenti of global warming are unaware of.

The Annual Trudeau Foundation Conference on weathering the change of impending climate chaos, held in Toronto from November 20-22, distinguished itself by defining food as a crucial factor in global warming.

That represents progress in a field dominated by organizations -- be it Greenpeace or Intergovernmental Panels on Climate Change or be they organizations promoting left-wing analysis -- who talk almost exclusively about greenhouse gases coming from car-based transportation and inefficiently-designed buildings.

Food activists celebrate gains at Halifax conference

rabble staff — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 19:22:31 +0000

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

500 food advocates gathered in Halifax to talk about what the food movement has achieved and what their powerhouse can accomplish next.

One of the oldest of essential human needs, food energizes Canada's newest social movement, which entered the scene long after the labour, human rights and women's movements -- all of which predated the global rise of neoliberalism.

If the 500 food advocates attending six plenaries and 50 workshops at the Halifax conference of Food Secure Canada are any indication, the poorly resourced movement is also among the youngest (me being about the only exception), most excited and accomplished of new social movements.

Major, albeit unsung, victories are being scored in school and health fields -- long the most debated, progressive and impactful bastions of Canadian public policy .

Billions of kilograms of food waste? Now that should have been an election issue!

rabble staff — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 20:10:40 +0000

Monday, November 10, 2014

67 billion kilograms of food waste heads for the landfill every year. It's a big issue. Why aren't our politicians making a plan for all that food waste?

Suppose they called an election, and not one candidate wasted their breath talking about the 67 billion kilograms of North America food that ends up in landfill, at a yearly cost to Canadian and U.S. taxpayers of $192 billion -- before even getting to impacts that rank food waste as the third-largest source of destructive global warming gases, just behind all the emissions from the U.S. and China.

That just happened in Ontario-wide municipal and in U.S. mid-term elections.

Rejoice! Toronto's civic system may yet save the city from itself

rabble staff — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 18:20:27 +0000

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Whoever the mayor may be, progressives can continue to work for positive change thanks to Toronto's civic system.

On October 27, Toronto voters reverted to type by electing one middle-of-the-road (or is it subway?) mayor, and a grand total of seven fresh faces on a City Council of 44 members.

Some candidates lose elections, but the government always wins, cynics may be tempted to say.

But the deeper causes of such political stability deserve scrutiny they never received over the last four years. The glare of international infamy shone on former mayor Rob Ford. But glare blocks the view of other factors, especially among political pundits drawn to the light.

35:6 Work - Part 1: Wayne Roberts

altrpn — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:46:36 +0000

WR long solo version 49m13.mp3

Wayne Roberts' article in this issue of Alternatives is titled "Eat this Recession" and in it he describes an inventive plan for pulling ourselves up by our own economic bootstraps.

He says that if three million Canadians shifted $100 from buying imported food to buying local food, the economic impetus of all that local money sloshing around our economy would inevitably create the jobs we are so lacking.

There are some wiggles -- like the 10% credit he's asking the government to kick in to cover the extra cost of local food.