George Brown College Becomes the First Post-secondary Institution in Canada to Achieve COTA’s Gold Organic Campus Designation

Written by Dr. Lori Stahlbrand

In April 2023, George Brown College in Toronto became the first post-secondary institution in Canada to achieve the Canada Organic Trade Association’s (COTA) Gold Organic Campus Designation. George Brown is home to the largest Chef School in Canada, offering more than 350 culinary classes each week. The Gold Organic Campus Designation means that the school must purchase at least 15 certified organic products on a regular basis. As of April 2024, George Brown’s purchasing department, the Inventory Control Centre (ICC), is purchasing about 70 items regularly, adding up to more than $35,000 in purchases to date.

Second-year students in a new degree program — the Honours Bachelor of Food Studies — led the way to this achievement as part of a course called Food Movements. Students worked with ICC staff, as well as faculty, administrators, and other students to meet COTA’s requirements. For its part, COTA provided a well-designed step-by-step guide for the students.

Pfennings Organic Vegetables Inc. was chosen as the distributor. Based in New Hamburg, Ontario, Pfennings Farm has a long history of ethically producing organic vegetables. Pfennings distribution arm sells produce from Pfennings and other Ontario farmers, but also purchases from like-minded farmers in other regions during the off-season. This was important to the George Brown Chef School, which runs classes all year round and must have a reliable and consistent supply of food.

Creating change in a post-secondary setting requires knowledge and commitment, combined with some luck and good timing. Students were justifiably proud when they won an Innovative Leadership Award from George Brown College, and were asked to contribute a chapter to an upcoming book on campus food systems.

There is increasing evidence that young people are experiencing high levels of eco-anxiety, defined as “anxiety experienced in response to the ecological crisis”.i  A 2021 study published in The Lancet of young people aged 16-25 around the world indicated that 59% were very or extremely worried and 84% were moderately worried about climate change.ii  The Food Movements course in the Honours Bachelor of Food Studies at George Brown College is designed to give students hope and a sense of agency in a time of climate chaos, without sugar-coating the challenges.

The food sector is at the heart of the climate crisis. More than a third of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) are connected to the food system — from fossil fuel-based pesticides and fertilizers to the GHGs from processing, transportation, refrigeration, and waste disposal.iii  In 2022, COP27, the United Nations climate conference, recognized for the first time that we cannot address climate change without addressing the food system.iv

But food can also point the way forward, and changes in the food system can have a major impact on climate change. George Brown College has a role to play in training the next generation of food leaders about sustainability. The college also recognizes that it must take action to become more sustainable in its own policies and practices. To this end, each year students in the Food Movements course will be choosing a new project to move the sustainability needle at George Brown, while learning what it means to be agents of change. Meanwhile, the college is committed to maintaining the Gold Organic Camus Designation, as well as educating incoming students about the value of certified organic food.

 

Food Movements 2023 Class Photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author: Dr. Lori Stahlbrand is an award-winning Professor at George Brown College. She co-developed, teaches, and coordinates the Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Food Studies – the first degree of its kind in Canada. She also developed and teaches the Food Movements course. Students from the first cohort to take the course helped the George Brown Chef School achieve COTA’s Gold Organic Campus Designation. Prior to joining George Brown in 2019, Lori was a food policy specialist with the City of Toronto, a nonprofit leader and a professor at the University of Toronto. She was also a well-known CBC broadcaster for many years.

 

 

[i] Coffey, Y., Bhullar, N., Durkin, J., Islam, M. S., & Usher, K. (2021). Understanding Eco-anxiety: A Systematic Scoping Review of Current Literature and Identified Knowledge Gaps. The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 3, 100047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2021.100047.
[ii] Hickman, C., Marks, E., Pihkala, P., Clayton, S., Lewandowski, R. E., Mayall, E. E., Wray, B., Mellor, C., & Susteren, L. van. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: A global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(12), e863–e873. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3
[iii] Crippa, M., Solazzo, E., Guizzardi, D., Monforti-Ferrario, F., Tubiello, F. N., & Leip, A. (2021). Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nature Food, 2(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00225-9
[iv] UNFCC. (2022, December 5). Governments Step Up Action on Agriculture and Food Security at COP27. https://unfccc.int/news/governments-step-up-action-on-agriculture-and-food-security-at-cop27.