Article: Bread, Not Garbage: Candidate Fights Hunger, Adams Mine

Toronto Sun, Sharon Lem, Monday, Oct. 16, 2000.

Nooo-body should be hungry in Toronto, says fringe mayoral candidate Tooker Gomberg.

The 45-year-old environmental activist, who baked bread in an outdoor oven yesterday, launched his campaign platform to battle hunger in Toronto to coincide with World Food Day today.

“All people in Toronto should have an adequate supply of safe, nutritious, affordable and appropriate food,” Gomberg said, as he bit into bread freshly baked at the community oven at Dufferin Grove Park.

ONE-TIME COUNCILLOR

Gomberg, who served on Edmonton city council 1992 to 1995, says the city needs to take measures to restrict urban sprawl and promote land preservation, so there will be more space for growing crops.

Toronto has about 100 community gardens used by 4,500 people. Each plot produces $200 to $300 worth of fresh produce per year.

“We could use that land to grow food and protect green space. We often forget we have the power to feed ourselves. Right here in Toronto we could set up food gardens in every park,” he said.

‘HUGE MISTAKE’

Gomberg, who moved to Toronto last year to take a job with Greenpeace and now works for Stop Considering the Adams Mine (SCAM), said 62,000 hectares of land were lost in the GTA between 1976 and 1996.

Gomberg said if he’s elected mayor on Nov. 13, that he will do everything in his power to reverse the Adams Mine decision to use an abandoned iron ore pit near Kirkland Lake and come up with approaches that are sustainable and ecologically sensitive.

“Adams Mine was a huge mistake and I’m going to do everything in my power to undo the decision,” Gomberg said.

He also wants to see food organic waste diverted from the garbage-collection stream and transformed into compost and biogas for electrical generation.