Executive Director of Food and Beverage Manitoba
The Local food movement has been driven by many goals, ranging from increasing food security, reducing food miles (and therefore green house gas emissions), and supporting local economic development. Canadian’s have responded to the Trump trade war with an unusual level of patriotism and have been focused on “buying Canadian.” What can we learn from the trade war when it comes to the importance of local and regional food systems, and what have we been getting wrong about it all along?
Michael Mikulak (PhD) has spent two decades obsessed with how we grow, cook, transport, consume and celebrate food and the potential to leverage food systems to solve some of the biggest problems facing humanity: climate change, inequality, and biodiversity loss. What began as a PhD thesis on the 100-mile diet and the locavore movement, took him through different parts of the food system. Michael has spent over a decade teaching as an adjunct professor at McMaster, University of Guelph and Laurier. He has written numerous articles and the book “The Politics of the Pantry: Stories, Food and Social Change and is the founder and owner of Common Ground Teaching Farm, an environmentally focused micro-farm that teaches people how to grow, cook, and sustain themselves and the planet through nourishing food. After almost two decades away from Winnipeg, Michael has returned to the city he grew up in and has taken on the role of Executive Director of Food and Beverage Manitoba, where he leads a team that is supporting the food and beverage industry through advocacy, training, government relations, and capacity building. In his spare time, Michael loves to run, cook, camp, and otherwise spend as much time outside with his family and dogs.
