Published in Far West Almanac, November 2009.

I recently attended a Food Justice Forum geared to generate a variety of solutions to the issues of getting nourishing food to the lowest income groups in the downtown Vancouver, BC area, while still paying the farmers a living wage. This is an issue that cities around the world have been working to overcome. Belo Horizonte in Brazil is one outstanding example that has established a Zero Hunger program by subsidizing local farmers to come into the city and sell their food at affordable prices. This is in contrast to Slow Food movements and farmers markets all over North America which have been criticized for being priced out of range for the average person.

One of the things mentioned at this forum was that food banks and other institutions are being used as tax write-offs for large corporations to dump their surplus of unhealthy highly processed food items that are often nearing or past expiration. Highly processed foods of these types are to blame for the epidemics of heart attacks, diabetes and obesity that are characteristic of developed countries. Up to this point I have avoided entering the health reform debate raging in the US of A, as I have been fortunate to escape from my previously uninsured status by fleeing to Canada (which still costs around $50 per month whereas in New Zealand basic health is completely covered). Nevertheless it is truly shocking that the US is so backward in this area, but there are many false underlying assumptions that sideline the debate before it even gets started. When looking at the issue from a holistic perspective and combining it with the food justice issue what has happened to the US health care system can be viewed realistically. From this perspective we can no longer waste energy discussing bandages or how to set up another centralized institution where all money gets tied up in red-tape and unnecessary executives, and we start talking about how we can prevent obesity in the first place so that we don’t also waste money on triple bypass surgery for twelve year olds.

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Published in Far West Almanac, September 2009.

Perhaps I have been watching too much Al Jazeera, but that, along with the film Blue Gold: World Water Wars, has got me worrying about folks down in LA. I honestly still can’t believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger is really the governor of California—I keep wondering when I will wake up and find that I have somehow gotten stuck in a chapter from Robert A. Heinlein’s book Job: A Comedy of Justice. In a parallel universe this must be a big joke. It seems that Los Angeles in particular is at the forefront in showing the world how the United States of America handles our economic difficulties. I have recently rediscovered long lost friends from my high school days in Pasadena via facebook, and I wish I had more answers for establishing sustainable community under the difficult conditions of LA.

The summer has been hot and dry in Vancouver, BC and I have enjoyed the ritual of nightly excursions to water my little garden under the sky-train, which unfortunately recently got mowed. Hauling water under the constantly changing moon gives me time to think and I wonder how different it would be to be doing this in LA. The documentary Blue Gold also highlighted the issues around water that LA faces. We talk about sustainable living and eating locally until all they are is buzz words, and once again we find we are just frantically putting bandages onto something we know is built on a corrupt foundation.

To the extent that people separate themselves from nature, they spin out further and further from the center. At the same time, a centripetal effect asserts itself and the desire to return to nature arises. But if people merely become caught up in reacting moving to the left or to the right, depending on condition the result is only more activity. I believe that even “returning-to-nature” and anti-pollution activities, no matter how commendable, are not moving toward a genuine solution if they are carried out solely in reaction to the over-development of the present age.

Masanobu Fukuoka

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FOOD FIGHT was the message we got in our mailboxes as an invitation from Libby Davies and NDP Agriculture Critic, MP Alex Atamanenko to attend the Food Security Forum on July 9th, 2009 at St. Patrick Parish Hall, 2881 Main Street, Vancouver BC.

I was very glad to go and hear about this issue, I recently got residency so I can finally let my roots down into this rich Canadian soil, and get involved in my new community.

Alex Atamanenko is on a Food Security Tour to hear concerns and to look into the gaps in Canada’s food systems, he will put together a proposal for a long-term food security strategy to deal with climate change, global energy insecurity and the world economic crisis. The sooner we see more systems for this being put into place the better we will all be and the more hope our children have. If you have anything you would like to add to this report please go to his website and submit your comments.

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Food Security & Sustainability: For The Times Ahead by Harvest McCampbell, published by Bio Diverse Press in May 2008 arrived just in time.

This book is a level headed and comprehensive look at what is coming our way. Without fear-mongering and trying to get rich off of your fears, Harvest McCampbell provides a wealth of resources and practical steps that you can take to prepare for the transition that our world is gearing up for.

Harvest shares her vision of a Green World that her Grandmother passed down to her, and makes us consider how we would survive if we woke up one day in a world without asphalt or cars. In this book Harvest shares her answers to the question her Gram used to ask her when they were out in the woods gathering wild food and herbs.

“Maybe today, maybe when we get back to where we left the car, there will be no car, there will be no roads. Then what will we do Little One?”

In a few simple paragraphs, Harvest McCampbell filled my head with visions of the Green World her Gram spoke of and my heart with a secure feeling of hope. This book points to how we can each help each other to find our way through the mess we have made of things by working together with respect and confidence.

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The Stone Soup Festival at Britannia on Commercial Drive, Vancouver BC fell on Mother’s Day weekend this year. We arrived at the festival just as the jolly Carnival Band was rambling around the park and were soon planting pumpkin and sunflower seeds, feeding the chickens at the Backyard Chicken information desk and munching on a bowl of hearty FREE stone soup.

This was my first time at the festival and I was really impressed and surprised that although there were a few vendors selling honey, dehydrated vegetable crackers, pottery, gourmet foods and plants, the main content of the festival was information.

I stopped at a mason bee exhibition and was impressed to discover that even though I could buy a very affordable bee home and bees, I could actually make the same thing myself from bamboo and just put it in a sunny spot and let some prayers drift on the wind in hopes that some mason bees will make it their home. I felt no pressure to spend money, but I did get a great mug for my mother while there.

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Consumption of refined sugar is the most pleasant means of gradual suicide.

On Easter Monday (April 13, 2009) we finally stepped out of the house and went on an excursion. The cherry blossoms are out in Vancouver and Spring is finally in the air. We hadn’t been out in months. We decided to head down to False Creek and check out how the building of the Olympic Village was going.

Along the walk I kept getting Midnight Oil’s song Blue Sky Mine popping into my head. To be honest I am not sure if this happened before or after I took the photos of the old Canadian Sugar Refinery Building, but it probably doesn’t really matter. I found it interesting that this song kept nagging at me as it has been a very long time since I have heard music in my head like this.

Vancouver’s sugar refinery was established in 1890, by B. T. Rogers and was the beginning of Rogers Sugar. It was:

Ideally located to receive shipments of raw cane sugar from Pacific regions and to access Canada’s rapidly developing western markets.source

The refinery was Vancouver’s first major industry not based on logging or fishing. The Vancouver refinery is an efficient, productive facility to this day, and $1 million is invested annually in this plant. source

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FOODDECLARATION.ORG

You know that passionate feeling that wells up inside you? The sort of feeling of pride and hope and love and excitement and connection all melted and molten together? This is the feeling that has often been used by dictators by calling it patriotism and is a feeling I am generally wary of. I remember the last time I felt it so strongly. I was on the banks of a river in Oregon, it was summer and it was so beautiful. The feeling bubbled up from the earth, the flora and the river and I felt so amazed at the beauty. It was the first time that I felt really excited to be a part of this country and I thought about all the various landscapes and wished that we hadn’t covered much of them with monoculture crops.

At Slow Food Nation, the largest celebration of American food in history, a Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture was signed on 25 August, 2008 to help accelerate the transformation of the present industrialized agricultural system in the US.

Endorsed by academics, students, agricultural institutes, writers, farmers, filmmakers and chefs, the declaration emerged as the movement to establish better food and farming in the US gains continued strength and support from all sectors of society.

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GOOD FOOD: Film by Moving Images

“I hope the film will help generate grass-roots solutions.” -Producer Melissa Young

As the world breaks into rioting from hunger, Moving Images appears with the film, GOOD FOOD and puts the spotlight on the tip of a different kind of iceberg. Producers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin bring the personal stories of a variety of local farmers, organizations and restaurants into direct communication with urban foodies. The film breaks apart the illusion, cast by corporate controlled media, that there is any benefit to the centralized, industrial food system. GOOD FOOD highlights the ingenuity, integrity and respect of the sustainable food movement in the Pacific Northwest.

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This article was originally published in Far West Almanac July 2008.

Last month we witnessed events such as the immense destruction from Cyclone Nargis which continues to kill people in Burma/Myanmar, the earthquakes in China and Peru, and continuing food riots around the world. Food and fuel prices have risen drastically with more price hikes to come. Major banks are no longer eager to give loans to students; and Cleveland, one of the foreclosure hot-beds of the United States, is struggling to continue flights to and from their airport.

Crazier and wilder information continues to come to light charting the depths that greed and power can take. We hear about HAARP: the weather-control project in Alaska, about the Farm Bill 2008 which was finally passed after being vetoed by our ‘President’ yet still doesn’t do what it should to support local small scale food networks, of the Codex Alimentarius which threatens our local food security by claiming to protect our health through centralized factory farms, while there are widespread salmonella outbreaks from tomatoes. Tomatoes!

MUST WATCH FILM:: OUR DAILY FOOD :: Absolutely stunning images of our industrial food system

The more we find out about the various methods multi-national corporations (and the individuals behind them) have used to gain control over our food and health, the more depressed and confused we can become. Who to believe? Is it more naive to believe what the conspiracy theorists and the corporations are saying or to disbelieve both? Is there really a coordinated effort to poison and dull our brains or is this all somehow just a big accident? And always, the supremely depressing thought — what is the point of worrying about it all if ‘they’ already have such deep, far reaching tentacles which obviously extend to every aspect of society? What can we do anyway? Maybe we should just make the best of what we have and thank our lucky stars….

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Article published in the Far West Almanac May 2008. Inspired by the book SELU: Seeking the Corn-Mother’s Wisdom by Marilou Awiakta

Lately when I find myself thinking about roots, it isn’t long until I start thinking about corn. Edible corn originated in Central America, a gift of the creator in the form of a “catastrophic sexual mutation” about 7,000 years ago. Now it is prevalent all over the world. Chinese are using it to make cheap alcohol and Italians for creamy polenta. Corn is in nearly every processed food item in the supermarket either as corn syrup or corn starch, and is being used to make ethanol for bio-fuel.

Corn was given to the Europeans as a gift, our stories tell us, when they were on the brink of starvation in a new land. Although we celebrate Thanksgiving every year in communion with family to remember those great gifts we were given, the gift of corn has ultimately been disrespected and violated by the “gift” the Europeans gave back to the Americas. This “gift” is a mentality that is ultimately self-serving and greedy — entirely against the spirit of corn.

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