Without national strategy, local food producers struggle to stem Canada’s growing hunger problem

Canada trails other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in developing a “joined-up” national food policy that recognizes food as a biological and cultural necessity rather than a product to be bought and sold, said Rod McRae, a professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, in The Globe and Mail Oct. 8. Calls for a national food policy in Canada are part of a broader, global debate around food and how it is produced and sold. Read full story.

Foreign doctors face identity crisis
“Recent policy changes on removing the ‘Canadian experience’ barrier and some successful initiatives by organizations such as the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council have helped address the problem of underemployment among immigrant professionals,” wrote York University Professor Jelena Zikic in The Filipino Post Oct. 7. “However, there is still a lot more work to be done on this front. In particular, little is known about the intricate identity transitions that migrant professionals experience once they are faced with the inability to be ‘who they are.’ ” Read full story.

How to succeed at e-commerce: Own your lane
A narrow focus is crucial for successful online businesses, said Alan Middleton, professor of marketing at York University’s Schulich School of Business, in Maclean’s Oct. 7. “The way to battle with what’s called the first movers who are broad in their reach is to go for very specific parts of that broad territory. It’s a combination of attracting people who have a shared interest in a topic and providing information about it.” Read full story.

Could Doug Ford really sell city real estate to fund his subway plan?
If history is anything to go by, the odds aren’t good. So far this year, Build Toronto has only sold one property, for $3.7 million. In 2013, it didn’t sell anything at all, and actually lost $2.1 million. “There’s absolutely no record of achievement,” says Schulich School of Business real estate Professor James McKellar, who attributes Build’s underwhelming performance to political interference. The organization, he said, in Toronto Life Oct. 7, is not arm’s-length, as it claims to be. Read full story.

3 Nova Scotia writers nominated for Governor General’s Awards
Halifax-born Maria Mutch, who lives in North Kingstown, R.I., is a non-fiction finalist for her first book, Know the Night: A Memoir of Survival in the Small Hours (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, a division of Random House of Canada)…. Mutch, who moved with her husband from Burlington, Ont., to Rhode Island in 2000, grew up in Kentville and wrote stories from girlhood but studied visual arts at York University in Toronto, reported The Chronicle Herald Oct. 7. Read full story.