Wayne Roberts (activist)

Wayne Roberts
Born(1944-09-30)September 30, 1944
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DiedJanuary 20, 2021(2021-01-20) (aged 76)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupation(s)Food policy analyst and writer, Rabble.ca columnist, food activist and public speaker
Known forFood policy
AwardsQueen's Diamond Jubilee Medal[1]
Food Secure Canada's Lifetime Achievement Award

Wayne Roberts (30 September 1944 – 20 January 2021) was a Canadian food policy analyst and writer. He was known for his role as the manager of the Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC) from 2000-2010. The TFPC, a citizen body of thirty food activists, is responsible for generating food policy for the City of Toronto government.[2]

As a leading member of the City of Toronto government's Environmental Task Force, Roberts helped develop a number of official plans for the city, including its Environmental Plan Clean, Green and Healthy: A Plan for an Environmentally Sustainable Toronto and Toronto's Food Charter. These were adopted by Toronto City Council in 2000 and 2001 respectively.[3] His manual, based on Toronto's experiences, is called, Food for City Building: a Field Guide for Planners, Actionists and Entrepreneurs.[4]

Roberts included many ideas and projects of the TFPC in his book, The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food (2013).[5]

In April 2009, under Roberts's leadership, the TFPC received the Bob Hunter Environmental Achievement Award for its efforts to make food an action item on the environmental agenda.[6] The TFPC also won honorary mention for a major award from the Community Food Security Coalition that honors exceptional work to promote food sovereignty in October 2009.

Roberts died on 20 January 2021 at the age of 76.[7]

  1. ^ "A genuine 'thank you' to community builders". Beach Metro Community News. 19 February 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  2. ^ See, for example, Harriet Friedmann,"Bringing public institutions and food service companies into the project for a local, sustainable food system in Ontario," Agriculture and Human Values, 24,3, March, 2007
  3. ^ Clean, Green and Healthy: A Plan for an Environmentally Sustainable Toronto (City of Toronto, February 2000) [1], Toronto's Food Charter (City of Toronto, February 2000) [2]
  4. ^ Food for City Building: A Field Guide for Planners, Actionists & Entrepreneurs [Kindle Edition]. 13 March 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2015 – via www.amazon.com.
  5. ^ No-Nonsense Guide to World Food, by Wayne Roberts, New Internationalist Publications, 2013
  6. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2009-05-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^ Sheinfeld, Madeleine (January 2021). "Remembering Wayne Roberts: Advocate for Sustainable Food Systems". Foodtank.com.