Article featured in the Guelph Mercury

Being named the University of Guelph’s — and evidently the world’s — first food laureate is like the cherry on top of a fabulous year for Elora food and culinary activist Anita Stewart, who in May became a member of the Order of Canada.

And Stewart knows about cherries, especially world class ones like the Tehranivee, named in honour of researcher Gus Tehrani, who developed the cherished large, mahogany-coloured fruit at the U of G’s Vineland Research Station.

The story of the Tehranivee is one of the many tales told in the University of Guelph’s “food inventory,” which Stewart helped develop back in 1999. Updating and refining that inventory, which showcases foods that have been developed and enhanced by researchers such as Tehrani at the U of G and its affiliates across Ontario, will be part of her duties as the university’s honorary food ambassador.

Other duties to be undertaken during her two-year stint will include developing public awareness campaigns, organizing events such as tours for visitors looking for information on food-related matters and strengthening connections between producers and consumers.

A regular voice on CBC Radio, Stewart has authored or co-authored 14 cookbooks; founded Cuisine Canada, which promotes the growth and study of Canadian food culture; and created the annual Food Day Canada.

The last was an outcropping of her World’s Largest Barbecue event in 2003, which showed solidarity with Canadian farmers and promoted Canadian beef during the mad cow disease crisis. It’s little wonder that she’s been called, among other things, the “Wonder Woman of Canadian cuisine,” and she’s eminently worthy of the food laureate honour bestowed upon her by the University of Guelph, “Canada’s food university.”

There couldn’t be a better time for the establishment of the food laureate position. It comes at a time when Canadians are concerned about food in myriad ways, from its nutritional value (weighed in the context of burgeoning obesity rates), to food safety (witness the recent massive beef recall in Alberta), to the local food movement.

Canadians are also concerned about the disturbing proliferation of food banks and the growing hunger rates in this country, signalling that while we have become more sophisticated as food connoisseurs, we should also be mindful that not all are sharing in this abundance.

The U of G, like other universities, has been a strong supporter of the food bank cause, and the larger cause of addressing world hunger.

Being the creative activist and advocate that Stewart is, lending part of her time as food laureate to highlighting these great causes would only help to raise their profile.