In these early days of the new year, I thought it may be a good idea to reach out to our pool of Good Food Revolution writers and creators to see what their hopes were for the coming 12 months.
From the curiously succinct to the slightly more verbose, here’s what some of them had to say for themselves…
The GFR team 2024 L-R, by row: Beverly Crandon, Anya Spethmann, Nabilah Rawji, Olivia Siu, Aryn Pepper, Christopher Wilton, Lindsay Groves, Megha Jandhyla, Jacky Blisson MW, Richard Snyder, Heather Heagney, Robert Geringer-Jones, Jordan St. John, Robin LeBlanc, Nicholas Pashley, Lorette C. Luzajic, Christopher Sealy (not pictured), and Mariko Tajiri (not pictured).
“I hope that we don’t lose too many breweries. The situation is pretty heavily stacked against them at the moment with input costs, the inflation the audience for their product has been suffering under, the age of some of the companies and the necessity of either closure or expansion in the face of new leases, and the excise tax situation federally and provincially. We will definitely lose some breweries, but since I’m in charge of the spreadsheet I have grown a little tired of using the red highlighter function.”
“Peace, pizza, and Pinot Noir.”
“My hope for 2024 is that everyone can be seen.
Seen for who they uniquely are so as to go beyond preconceived notions, rhetoric from others, and the simplicity shared in the subliminal.
My hope for 2024 is that by allowing everyone to be seen for who they are, who they truly are; pains, celebrations, and vulnerabilities that humanity triumphs over baseless thoughts.
There is such beauty in individualism and uniqueness – we need to take the time to truly see it.”“Black Squares of 2020.
That the 2020 dreams of a new vision of hospitality will come to fruition.Regenerative Restauranting
To look inward and see true recognition of the bounty that this land has to offer – from farming perspective and being connected to our food supply.Prioritizing Wellness”
“In 2024 I hope to be granted the serenity to accept that I will never mend my vast collection of holey socks, and the courage to throw them out.
More kindness and empathy in the world would also be great.”
“My personal hope is to make time to read books for fun again. Its been a long time since I’ve had that as a part of my routine.
More universally, my hope is that we are all a little more accepting of nuance in our political conversations with each other.”
“The past few years have been really tough on all sectors, the beer industry included. Due to several factors including pandemic loan payments being due, oversaturation of the market, and a general settling of craft beer in the minds of the consumer, 2023 saw the closure of quite a number of breweries. Sadly, there’s currently no signs of that stopping anytime soon.
For those that remain (gah, that sounds grim to write), my hope is that in 2024 we see a more thoughtful business and marketing approach paired more meaningfully with the product of a good brewer. If a brewery wants to stick out, simply showing up, brewing the trends, and occasionally posting on Instagram isn’t going to cut it anymore. A business has a chance to create a story for themselves and determine what role they want to play in the community. Here’s hoping we see more people take on that challenge.”
“My hopes for 2024? Get back to writing poetry. Have you send me to Alsace. France or Germany. Make a TikTok where I explain simple wine things, like how to open a bottle of sparkling.”
“In 2024, I look forward to prioritizing health, balance, and boundaries, by making sure our love for wine will continue to add to –– instead of removing from –– our physical and emotional wellbeing.”
“My hopes for 2024 are many. I’ve never been in a beauty pageant, but the tried and true answer of”world peace” seems glaringly obvious and appropriate. I truly and sincerely hope that all people can learn to listen to each other, respect each other, and put down their weapons to create a more peaceful world. When it comes to my personal hopes, they’re more like plans — to read more, write more, move more, get outside more, and work with more amazing people!
When it comes to the hospitality industry, although my interactions these days are mostly as a guest, I still very much feel part of the industry and I hope that owners, managers, and staff will avail of and engage with excellent resources like Not 9 to 5 and The Burnt Chef Project — and that the people with the money and the power will take note and generously grant funding to organizations like these. As I’ve said before, “food is everything” – I mean many things by that – one of which is that “everything” = people. I hope that everyone from the local farmer who plants the seeds to the dishwasher who cleans the plates will be appreciated, respected, compensated fairly, and shown more kindness. I also hope food prices go down (a girl can hope) and that more households include CSAs and farmers’ markets when planning their food shopping.
Before this starts to become a socio-political manifesto, I’ll round out my hopes for 2024 with something a bit more light-hearted: I hope to learn how to properly bake my own bread this year (I know, so 2020 of me). I also hope to try as many flavours of gelato as possible in Italy when I go there with my family in May! Finally, I hope Season 3 of The Bear comes out soon — I need to see what Cousin is up to since we last left him.”
“Personally, I hope to start a cute wine club that supports small winemakers.
Universally? More hybrid wines on the stage! ;)”
“All right, I hope that someone opens a decent pub within a 20-minute walk of my front door in midtown Toronto. I begin to see why the Globe and Mail recently calculated that Toronto is the 64th most livable city in Canada. Mind you, I’m spending a lot less money in pubs these days, so I shouldn’t complain. It’s just that, well, pubs…”
“That’s a tough one. I think my hope for this year is that even more of us start to think about what we drink in terms of sustainability, both in terms of the environment and the people who make our wine.”
“I hope I can get the chance to do some international work this year, with my sights set on Austria.
Universally Im always hoping more people get exposed to Canadian sparkling wines, and more and more producers gain the sales to fund really impressive traditional method programs.
Finally, I’d like to write a lot more articles for GFR 😉.”
