MPP Laura Albanese, GHFFA Executive Director Janet Horner, and GHFFA Chair Bill Hodgson
The Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance (GHFFA) is honoured to have been presented with a Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence this year for our Asset Mapping Project.
The award was presented to GHFFA Chair Bill Hodgson and Executive Director Janet Horner at a ceremony held in Toronto last week alongside 6 other agri-food innovators in the area.
“We were thrilled to be among the other worthy recipients in the Toronto area,” Horner shares. “Our thanks go to the many individuals and committee municipal partners who have helped make this award a reality, without whom none of this would be possible.”
The asset mapping project was initiated to establish an understanding of agri-food assets in the area, and to help municipalities gather data on the agri-food value chain in their respective areas.
The OMAFRA website further details:
“Could Hamilton benefit from more food warehousing facilities? How can Halton Region best support its rural economy? Across the Greater Golden Horseshoe and eastern Ontario, municipal planners and economic development officers are now able to answer these types of questions with greater access to solutions at their fingertips. In 2013, the Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance hired a data consultant to develop an agri-food mapping tool. It began with just seven municipalities and has grown to include 42 with 80,000+ data points. Users can search and create maps, making it easy to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of agri-food assets, reveal trends, and identify gaps and emerging economic opportunities. The platform is also designed to be expandable — not just to other regions but to other sectors as well.”
To learn more about our asset mapping work, be sure to check out the Research section of our website. Thank you to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for recognizing this important work, and congratulations to all the other innovative recipients!