Powell River Food Security Project

Are we a bioregion yet?

November 24, 2009 in Lund to Langdale, Powell River, Sunshine Coast, bioregionalism, food security, local food economy | by David Parkinson | Leave a comment

Cross-posted from Slow Coast.

A bioregional collage of hopes and dreams

What I really want is for people to think for themselves and feel for themselves and to listen to their own land base and to ask that land base, “What must we do?” Start a relationship with the land where you live. Ask that land what it needs from you. Because the truth is the land is the basis for everything. It’s embarrassing to even have to say that, but — and this is something else I think is really important — the only measure by which we will be judged by the people who come after is the health of the land base, because that is what is going to support them.
(Derrick Jensen)

Bioregionalism seems to be in the air lately. The theme of the BC Food Systems Network’s annual gathering back in late September was bioregionalism, and this theme recurred just last week at an event that I helped to organize. So, what is bioregionalism, anyway? Wikipedia offers the following:

Bioregionalism is a political, cultural, and environmental system based on naturally-defined areas called bioregions, or ecoregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics. Bioregionalism stresses that the determination of a bioregion is also a cultural phenomenon, and emphasizes local populations, knowledge, and solutions.

This sounds an awful lot like the kind of economic and social relocalization that various groups and initiatives are working towards (e.g., Transition Town Powell River, the 50-mile eat-local challenge, GreenSteps Solutions, Powell River Sustainability Stakeholders). But the concept of a bioregion really gets to the heart of the matter: how do we define the geographical area whose boundaries define what is ‘local’? Are we closer to Vancouver Island or to the Sunshine Coast? Are we our own bioregion? How can we answer these questions?

Powell River’s first ever Edible Garden Tour

August 6, 2009 in 50-mile diet, eat-local challenge, food garden tour, gardening | by David Parkinson | 5 comments

The fourth annual Powell River 50-Mile Eat Local Challenge starts on Sunday August 9, 2009, and goes for 50 days until Sunday September 27, which is the second day of our two-day Fall Fair.

This year, the organizers of the Eat-Local Challenge decided to kick off with an event of some kind, and the popular choice was an idea that has been floating around for some time: a tour of food-producing gardens. And so the Edible Garden Tour was born. This tour of local gardens is going to be a great way to see how other people in the region are producing some of their own food, which is one good way to provide plenty of fresh local food during the eat-local challenge (and throughout the year).

I know from personal experience, and from talking to plenty of people, that one of the highest barriers to growing more food is the feeling that it is all very complicated and too difficult for most people. So traveling around and seeing the creative ways that people are growing food in backyards, sideyards, and frontyards should be enough to inspire almost anyone to think about doing something similar where they live.

The gardens are split up into two sets:

a morning set to the north of Powell River, and in Wildwood, Townsite, and Cranberry; and
an afternoon set in Westview and Lang Bay (south of Powell River).

There is no fixed order for the gardens, but you might want to start in Lund (Nancy’s Bakery opens early, so you can start with a (non-local!) coffee there) and work your way down through Wildwood into Townsite and then Cranberry in the morning. The neighbourhood of Cranberry is having Cranberry Days in Lindsay Park on Sunday, so you can stop there for lunch and a midday break. Or head over to the Open Air Market. Then in the afternoon you can see the gardens in Westview and travel down to Lang Bay to finish off. Take a snack and spend some time on the beach south of town! The order in which the gardens are described here is a suggested order only. See the map on the last page for the overall layout of the tour.

If you are looking for a guide and map, you can pick one up in Powell River at Breakwater Books, Kingfisher Used Books, the Powell River Public Library, and at the Community Resource Centre. Or click on this link to see a printable or downloadable PDF version.

Thank you to all the volunteers, to the gardeners who have graciously opened their gardens up for the public, and to you for coming out. If you would like any more information about the Edible Garden Tour, the 50-Mile Eat-Local Challenge, or any other projects of the Powell River Food Security Project, please contact David Parkinson at (604) 485-2004 or david@prfoodsecurity.org.

Thank you for supporting local food!

By their fruits ye shall know them

June 23, 2009 in Dmitry Orlov, Fruit Tree Project, James Howard Kunstler, John Michael Greer, Richard Heinberg, Rob Hopkins, Sharon Astyk, food security, gleaning, local food economy | by David Parkinson | 2 comments

[Cross-posted from Slow Coast.]

Almost ready to be picked and savoured...

Anyone who accepts that the threats posed by peak oil (and general resource depletion), climate chaos, and economic meltdown are threats to be taken seriously must wonder how we’re supposed to get from here to there. Here means a society deeply dependent on fossil fuels and committed to endless economic growth. There means… well, that’s the big question, right? Anything other than the status quo — or the status quo only more of it — is hard for us to imagine. Much of the long and complicated work of our local Transition effort will revolve around the re-imagining of the future of this region; and to make that re-imagining happen, we first need to understand that we have the power as citizens to design the future we want to see and then work together to build it.

This is a massive task, and in order to be successful it will require collaboration and the creation of many new projects designed to strengthen our ability to provide food, affordable shelter, water, jobs, education, medical services, and all of the other goods and services which support the life of our region. To the extent that providing these goods and services now depends on excessive use of fossil fuels or other scarce materials, to the extent that they create excessive atmospheric pollutants, and to the extent that they actually undermine the local economy, we will want to create alternatives out from under the current system.

I admit that it’s hard to know what this is even going to look like. And my reading of many of the leading ‘post-peak’ thinkers (e.g., Sharon Astyk, John Michael Greer, Richard Heinberg, Rob Hopkins, James Howard Kunstler, Dmitry Orlov, among others) tells me that none of them knows much more about what to expect than I do. The solutions they are advocating are all about preparing for as much as possible, given some reasonable assumptions about what we can expect to be coming at us. The idea is not to prepare for this or that specific thing so much as it is to become resilient in the face of whatever might be headed our way. And much of that preparation is pretty basic stuff, good common sense, and falls into what Sharon Astyk has written about under the name of “The Theory of Anyway“, which is to say: the things we should be doing anyway, whether or not there are crises forcing us to change our behaviour.

One of the very basic things which we should be doing anyway is being good stewards of all of the assets in our community. That we are not succeeding at this is obvious in every clearcut, every polluted waterway, every improvised roadside dump. We are going to have to reduce the amount and impact of our wasteful and environmentally destructive behaviour as resources become scarcer and more valuable.

One community asset which is currently being wasted more than it ought to be is fruit. There are countless abundant fruit trees throughout the region, and many of them drop their fruit each year because no one cares enough for the fruit to gather it and preserve it. After all, apples, pears, and other fruits are easily available year-round in our grocery stores, and cheap — especially when you consider that often they come from halfway around the world — so there is no huge impetus to make sure that we scavenge every last fruit from every last tree in the area.

But it is sad to see good food wasted, especially when people are going hungry around us. So for the last four years the Powell River Fruit Tree Project, a small but scrappy community initiative, has been working on a next-to-zero budget to see that as much fruit gets saved and used as possible.

Here’s how it works: the owner of fruit (or nut) tree who wants the fruit harvested contacts the coordinator of the Fruit Tree Project, Anne Michaels. Anne arranges for a team of volunteer pickers to go to the property and pick the fruit. The standard arrangement for distributing the fruit is that one-third goes to the pickers, one-third to the owner of the tree, and one-third to a local food pantry or other charitable organization to be distributed to those in need. But that arrangement is flexible, since sometimes the owner of the tree is happy simply to have the fruit picked and taken away, if only to reduce the risk of having a bear come and do it.

Anne is working hard to see this project expand. She is hoping that the Community Resource Centre in Powell River will be home to some fruit-preserving workshops and work parties this year. One of the difficulties in past years has been that the charitable organizations struggle to give away fresh fruit during the summer months, and there has been no way in previous years to can, freeze, or dry the harvested fruit so that it can be stored and distributed year-round. Now that the Community Resource Centre has a fully operational and inspected kitchen, the Fruit Tree Project can use that kitchen to preserve fruit for later use. Anne is planning to dehydrate a lot of the harvested fruit, in the hopes that dried fruit and fruit leather will be a product that can bring a little money into this perpetually cash-strapped project.

Anne also talks about expanding the project to take in more than just tree crops. What if we could arrange for crews of gleaners to swoop in when homeowners have more lettuce, beans, or (most likely) zucchini than they know what to do with? What if those crews could be sure that this fresh local food could get to those in need, via local soup kitchens or food pantries? And what if enough money (or another form of exchange) could flow through this project to pay for a coordinator, for some equipment, or for the use of the kitchen facilities?

What if there were a whole regional network of gardens producing food which could be assured of not going to waste, because all homeowners knew that the community gleaning team were just a phone call away? If the volunteers could be paid either in gathered food or in some other form, such as a local food-backed currency which could be exchanged at any time and not just during the time of harvest? What if more people in the community were able to learn the skills involved in safely preparing and preserving the summer harvest against the long cold wet winter months?

And what if all of this activity were generating true economic value? How could it not? This would be food produced in the region by people who live here, harvested and shared among other people in the region, producing jobs and stores of food for anyone willing to work.

Somehow we have to get from here to there. And the only way to do that is to start with what’s here, now, and try to make it get a little bigger and a little better each time around. So if you’re interested in getting more involved with the Powell River Fruit Tree Project, feel free to contact Anne Michaels at prfruittreeproject@shaw.ca or (604) 485-4366. If you have fruit or not trees which you anticipate needing to have picked this year, let her know. If you would be willing to go out into the community as a volunteer picker, let her know. And if you have ideas about how to make this project even better, Anne is looking for a committee of supporters to brainstorm and work on expanding the project. Let her know if you’re interested in being involved.

Getting ready for the fourth annual Powell River 50-mile eat-local challenge

June 16, 2009 in 50-mile diet, Powell River, eat-local challenge | by David Parkinson | Leave a comment

[This is a truncated version of a post from the Slow Coast blog, a fairly new regional blog.]

This year, we will be celebrating the fourth annual Powell River eat-local challenge, also known as the “50-mile diet”. This event is our very own regional spin on the 100-mile diet, which started out with two Vancouverites named Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, who decided to try to spend an entire year eating only food from within 100 miles of where they lived.

The idea is simple: anyone who wants to participate is welcome to do so at their chosen level of participation. The usual ‘entry level’ is 50%, meaning that you will attempt to get half of the food you eat from sources within 50 miles of where you live. Some participants go for 75%, some for 95%, and the real hardcore cases might go for 100%, although that level of commitment is not for the faint of heart. Like most diets, it works better if you can convince the other people in your household to go along with it — no one wants to be eating local potatoes and kale while surrounded by others eating Chilean grapes, Thai mangosteens, and Turkish taffy. That’s just not fair.

The period of the eat-local challenge has traditionally been six weeks, but this year we have decided to step it up a little bit in the interest of getting the numbers to line up. So we’re proposing a 50-day stretch to go with the 50 miles. Right now it looks as though the challenge will begin on Saturday August 9, 2009 and will end on Sunday September 27, 2009, which is the second day of Powell River’s annual Fall Fair.

The eat-local challenge is all about:

educating individuals about where their food comes from;
bringing families and households together in a common project;
getting the community thinking and talking about its food production, present and future;
creating positive connections in the community among food producers and food consumers, and among people sharing ideas, recipes, and (above all) food;
demonstrating to ourselves and to our politicians that there is public interest in eating more local food.

This year I will be part of a team of eager organizers. If you would like to get involved with the fourth annual eat-local challenge, please contact me. We are hoping to kick things off this year with a tour of local productive food gardens, in the hopes that that might inspire people to start growing more food. We have all kinds of ideas about involving local restaurants and grocery stores. We would like to have lots of information going around the community about where the eat-local challengers can find food: weekly emails, blog posts, possibly even a podcast! Potlucks and other opportunities to get together and compare notes and progress. T-shirts. Local art from local artists. Maybe some kind of a celebration at the end, with prizes and a final local food banquet.

We’re blogging! We’re on Facebook! We’re on Twitter! The sky’s the limit, so if you would like to help us celebrate local food and the joys of the relocalized palate, we can use your help.

And if you simply would like to participate, you can sign up here. Once you’re on our email list, stay tuned for updates and information as we get closer to the challenge. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell the neighbours! Let’s make this year’s eat-local challenge the biggest and best yet!

Jason Bradford: “Ecological Economics and the Food System”

May 22, 2009 in Jason Bradford, The Oil Drum, agriculture, backyard gardening, food crisis, gardening, local food economy, pesticides, relocalization, resilience, urban farming | by David Parkinson | Leave a comment

The Oil Drum is one of the best internet sources for information about peak oil and resource depletion in general, as well as some of the very creative ways that people are planning to cope in a world with declining sources of fossil fuels.

Some of the posts on the Oil Drum are very complex and detailed and may contain too much math and too many graphs for the average reader. (Although the quality of information and discussion that you will find at TOD is as high as anywhere I know of on the internet.) Recognizing this, back in December the editors of the site started up a new department of The Oil Drum, which they called The Oil Drum: Campfire. Here is some of what they said about this new forum:

We intend this forum to be akin to a summer night sitting around a campfire, dreaming, hoping, and tossing around ideas that might bring about positive change. The types of discussions we would like to foster are where there are no right or wrong answers, just shared experiences, advice and wisdom. Topics will relate to wide boundary issues surrounding energy descent, including local food production, small scale energy production, experiments in living with less, or just general information and ideas to be shared with the online community.

On May 20, 2009, Jason Bradford published a Campfire post titled “Ecological Economics and the Food System“, which looks hard at the fossil-fuel consumption of the present system of industrial agriculture. There are some very interesting statistics on the relative levels of carbon-dioxide emission stemming from various food sources (meat, fruits/vegetables, chicken/fish/eggs, etc.) and lots of information about how the various parts of the industrial food system contribute to energy consumption. Here are some of Bradford’s conclusions:

The bottom line is that every measure must be taken to rapidly eliminate fossil fuel consumption and dependency in every component of our lives. The key word is “rapidly.” Don’t passively assume inexpensive alternative energy substitutes will arrive to replace fossil fuels-we may have waited too long to respond to have a smooth transition. Therefore, focus most attention on reducing energy demand rather than substituting a new energy supply. And finally, in the context of ecological economics, fossil fuel depletion and climate change, ask whether what you do in your life, vocation, hobbies, and habits, contributes to the long-term function (or dysfunction) of society.

Here are some of the things we should be doing, or agitating for in our food system, according to “Energy Use in the U.S. Food System: a summary of existing research and analysis”, a paper by John Hendrickson cited by Bradford:

It appears that some of the greatest saving can be realized by:

reduced use of petroleum-based fertilizers and fuel on farms,

a decline in the consumption of highly processed foods, meat, and sugar,

a reduction in excessive and energy intensive packaging,

more efficient practices by consumers in shopping and cooking at home,

and a shift toward the production of some foods (such as fruits and vegetables) closer to their point of consumption.

All of this meshes nicely with many efforts underway on the Upper Sunshine Coast. The eat-local movement; workshops on growing, preserving, and preparing healthy local food; preservation of our lands in the Agricultural Land Reserve; Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) and other small-scale urban farming projects such as the various community gardens; the Open Air Market and other markets to give small producers a place to sell their goods — these are all beginning steps towards a local food economy which serves the needs of local producers and consumers and also helps us move towards a radically lower regional carbon footprint.

Bradford moves on to a discussion of Brookside Farm, a one-acre farm in Willits, California, which functions as a working farm with a fifteen-share CSA and strong connections to a local elementary school and the wider community. Here are some of the ways that Brookside confronts the challenge of reducing fossil-fuel inputs and overall energy consumption, conveniently broken down into the various areas in which energy consumption occurs “from farm to fork”:

Type of Work	Common Fossil-Fuel Inputs	Alternatives Implemented

Soil cultivation	Gasoline or diesel powered rototiller or small tractor	Low-wheel cultivator, broadfork, adze or grub hoe, rake and human labor

Soil fertility	In-organic or imported organic fertilizer	Growing of highly productive, nitrogen and biomass crop (banner fava beans), making aerobic compost piles sufficient to build soil carbon and nitrogen fertility, re-introducing micro-nutrients by importing locally generated food waste and processing in a worm bin, and application of compost teas for microbiology enhancement.

Pest and weed management	Herbicide and pesticide applications, flame weeder, tractor cultivation	Companion planting, crop rotation, crop diversity and spatial heterogeneity, beneficial predator attraction through landscape plantings, emphasis on soil and plant health, and manual removal with efficient human-scaled tools

Seed sourcing	Bulk ordering of a few varieties through centralized seed development and distribution outlets	Sourcing seeds from local supplier, developing a seed saving and local production and distribution plan using open pollinated varieties

Food distribution	Produce trucks, refrigeration, long-distance transport, eating out of season	Produce only sold locally, direct from farm or hauled to local restaurants or grocers using bicycles or electric vehicles, produce grown with year-round consumption in mind with farm delivering large quantities of food in winter months

Storage and processing at production end	Preparation of food for long distance transport, storage and retailing requiring energy intensive cooling, drying, food grade wax and packaging	Passive evaporative cooling, solar dehydrating, root cellaring and re-usable storage baskets and bags

Home and institutional storage and cooking	Natural gas, propane or electric fired stoves and ovens, electric freezers and refrigerators	Solar ovens, promotion of eating fresh and seasonal foods, home-scale evaporative cooling for summer preservation and “root cellaring” techniques for winter storage

There’s more to the article, including a slightly cheeky demonstration that Americans could spare some of their average daily viewing time of four hours and thirty-five minutes (!) to tend a productive home garden and become more self-reliant. Go read the whole thing.

Powell River’s first ever Food Skills Weekend

April 27, 2009 in Community Resource Centre, Robin Wheeler, backyard gardening, canning, edible landscaping, foraging, workshop, workshops | by David Parkinson | 1 comment

Fri. May 1

6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Breakwater Books (Alberni St. at Marine)

Robin Wheeler – Food Security Workshop

Hour One – Personal food security. In this hour we’ll look at the ins and outs of stocking up and buying on a budget, learn about our local food supply, and figure out natural food cycles.
Hour Two – Creating Community. How to create a local network for exchanging information, borrowing equipment, or working as a group. We will consider our resistance to sharing, and play with a mapping system that could help us create connections for our mutual benefit.

Cost: $5.00

Sat. May 2

9:00 AM to 11:00 AM (Location to be determined; contact David for details)

Robin Wheeler – Edible Landscape Workshop

We’ll analyze the strengths and drawbacks of our properties, get tips for using space well, learn how to “microclimate” a space, discover appropriate plants for the best place, and begin a garden map of our own and a list of where to start.

Cost: $20.00 (Space is limited; contact David to reserve a spot)

11:30 AM to 1:00 PM at the Four Square Church (Manson Ave. at Barnet St.)

From Garden to Pantry… or In a Pickle

Will & Nicole of Skeena Street in Wildwood will demonstrate preserving fruits and vegetables in jars. Session includes some hands-on as well as a tasting session and take-away recipes.

Cost: $5.00 (Space is limited; contact David to reserve a spot)

1:00 PM to 2:30 PM at the Four Square Church (Manson Ave. at Barnet St.)

Basics of Pressure Canning with Peggy Fedor

Local experienced canner Peggy Fedor will teach about pressure canning meats and fish, soups, beans, and other low-acid foods.

Cost: $5.00 (Space is limited; contact David to reserve a spot)

3:00 PM to 4:30 PM at the Powell River Public Library (Michigan Ave. at Duncan)

Robin Wheeler – Analyzing Barriers to Local Food Security

Robin will talk about our potential for expanding food security, describe ideas from other communities, and then will facilitate a discussion on making progress.

Free, thanks to the Powell River Public Library

Sun. May 3

9:00 AM to 12:00 noon (meet @ the Community Resource Centre, Joyce & Alberni)

Brian Lee – Wild Plant Walk

Join local ‘Bush Man’ Brian Lee on a walk through the woods to see what sort of wild edibles are available at this time of year.

Cost: $15.00

All workshops are on a sliding scale for low-income, underemployed, etc.

For more information, contact David Parkinson at (604) 485-2004 or at david@prfoodsecurity.org

Thank you to our friends and supporters at Breakwater Books, the Four Square Church, and the Powell River Public Library!

The elements of resilience

April 15, 2009 in local food economy, resilience | by David Parkinson | Leave a comment

[Cross-posted from Slow Coast]

Those interested in local food security and developing a more resilient local food economy might want to head over to Slow Coast, the new collaborative online source for news and opinion on the Upper Sunshine Coast and environs. The post takes a look at some of the elements of a resilient system, using a local food economy as a source of some examples. I plan to dive into the details in future posts.

Food Security hero: Michael Ableman

March 29, 2009 in Deconstructing Dinner, Michael Ableman, food policy, food-security hero | by David Parkinson | 2 comments

Ornamental cherry blossoms, a sure sign of springtime

Michael Ableman is a farmer and food activist based on Salt Spring Island, so he’s like a neighbour to us folks here on the Sunshine Coast. His farm is called Foxglove Farm, and Ableman is creating an educational centre there. From the website:

The Center for Art, Ecology & Agriculture was established to demonstrate and interpret the vital connections between farming, land stewardship, food, the arts, and community well being; to model the economic possibilities for small and medium scale sustainable agricultural and forestry projects, and to nurture the human spirit through public programs, classes, and events.

For a really wonderful introduction to Michael Ableman’s thoughts on food, agriculture, urban farming, and the need to inspire many more people to take up food production, tune in to this recent issue of Deconstructing Dinner, the weekly radio show out of the Kootenays. I found it very inspiring. I particularly liked Ableman’s policy recommendations (starting at the 23 min. 50 sec. mark):

Every urban area should have an urban agricultural centre, offering practical assistance in urban food production and support for making these activities economically viable;
- These centres should support urban agriculture on all scales, from containers to rooftops to acreages, with a particular focus on fundamental sources of protein and carbohydrates (i.e., grains, beans, eggs, dairy);
Urban areas should have agricultural extension agents on their staffs offering workshops, classes, and on-site technical support and help in agricultural marketing;
Organic waste should be returned to farms via large-scale composting operations;
All permits for new housing developments should require that space be set aside for food production;
All new office, retail, and warehouse projects must contain a rooftop farming component, with greenhouses that use the building’s spent heat;
All municipalities should immediately phase out lawns (this suggestion got a big round of applause from Ableman’s audience);
All existing schools, churches, and sports facilities should provide cooperative neighbourhood canning, freezing, and dehydration services to the community;
All real estate transactions should include a 1% farmland preservation tax and the lands preserved should be put under covenants which protect their status as agricultural land;
Municipalities should offer property tax credits for landowners who turn their property over to long-term food-growing initiatives.

These all strike me as pretty sensible proposals. But we’re not yet at the point where these ideas will get much political traction. Nonetheless, we need to start engaging with local politics as much as we can to look for opportunities to promote the idea of greater self-reliance and resilience in the region. Every town, city, and region should be thinking about how to support its population as times become tougher.

So does anyone want to start a working group to develop a local food policy charter?

Seedy Saturday IV a smashing success!

March 16, 2009 in Seedy Saturday, food garden tour, seeds, workshop | by David Parkinson | Leave a comment

I just posted something about Seedy Saturday over at the new Slow Coast blog. That post is really about community development and about how Seedy Saturday is a good example of a community-building initiative which is relatively inexpensive, popular, and fun. Check it out.

Well, now that we’re past Seedy Saturday we’re well and truly into the early stages of the growing season. I’m hoping to have some workshops organized, so if anyone out there has some suggestions let me know.

Also, I am trying to organize a food garden tour this summer, so if you have some thoughts about that — or (even better) you’d be willing to put your garden on public display — then email me.

And now, for anyone who missed Seedy Saturday 2009, here are some photos (click on the thumbnails to see larger versions):

A new blog on the block

March 11, 2009 in Slow Coast | by David Parkinson | 2 comments

Because I don’t have enough on my plate, I decided to start a little inependent online news and opinion blog with a strong regional focus. I named it “Slow Coast”, which is a name we came up around our house for this lovely part of the world where things move a little slower than other places we’ve lived in. I wanted a place where we can carry on conversations that might not otherwise find a home in the other media, for whatever reason.

This here blog is very much about the work of the Powell River Food Security Project and all of the many community projects that have to do with making sure that people can get enough to eat. But there is so much more going on here and out there in the wide world, and I felt that we needed a place to talk about some of that. Hence Slow Coast.

It’s only been online since February 22, 2009, and already there are a few contributors. And we can certainly use more.

Take a look. Send feedback and ideas.

Check out this recent report on our visit to the Comox Valley Seedy Saturday, last weekend in Courtenay. And Tom Read’s latest post from Texada. And my most recent post about community development and how we’re all going to have to start doing more of it.