FALL SEMESTER November 25

November 25

Kootenay and Boundary Food Producers’ Co-operative

There's a new and exiting initiative taking place in the hub of all co-op initiatives, the Kootenays. 

In June 2013 a group of “Food Activists” from that region set the Kootenay and Boundary Food Producers’ Co-operative project in motion with the intention to to increase agricultural production and consumer access to healthy local food in Southeastern British Columbia. 

Since then, they have been connecting with as many of the already established organizations in the region to develop partnerships and ensure no duplication of energy or activities. Their partners include:

• West Kootenay Permaculture Co-op (particularly around coordination and value added processing facility)
• Kootenay Local Agriculture Society (KLAS) (Marvin Work is both on our steering committee and this year’s chair for KLAS’s Board)
• Kootenay Organic Growers Society (KOGS)
• Creston Valley Food Action Coalition
• North Kootenay Lake Community Services & the Kaslo Food Hub
• Grand Forks and Boundary Agricultural Society
• Kettle Valley Co-op
• Old Firehall Collective Society (Nakusp)
• Naturally Grown Herb and Spice Producers Co-op (Herb-Pro)
• Kootenay Co-op
• Young Agrarians

In 2014, after years of research, the Co-op released their Feasibility Study Report, which explores the viability of proposed business models that develop services and infrastructure to streamline transactions between growers and customers, in an effort to fuel agricultural production and economic activity in the region.

http://kbfpc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/KBFPC-Feasibility-Study-Final.pdf

On November 30, 2015 they also launched their Crowdfunding Indiegogo Campaign to help raise start up Capital for next years operations.

It is remarkable that this Co-op has a business plan in place to apply for capital finance.

The best luck to them, we need more of this kind of initiatives to build our Food systems!

FALL SEMESTER November 4

November 4

Water Quality in Agriculture: Why it matters

In his book "Plan b 2.0", dr. letter Brown describes water as a limited but renewable resource on which we are placing untenable demand. How is agriculture impacting water use and quality and how will water availability affect our food system in the future?

According to Brown, the world is facing a vast water deficit.  Because much of the deficit comes from aquifer over pumping, it is often not apparent. The drilling of millions of irrigation wells has pushed water withdrawals beyond the recharge of many aquifers all over the globe.  Among the more visible manifestations of water scarcity are rivers running dry and lakes disappearing. According to Brown, the link between water and agriculture is strong. It is estimated that the water required to produce our daily food totals at least 70% of all water use, mainly in the form of irrigation.

Agriculture is also a major cause of degradation of surface and groundwater resources through erosion and chemical runoff. Agriculture overuse of water is responsible for the discharge of pollutants and sediment to surface and groundwater, through the net loss of soil by poor agriculture practices, and through salinizations and waterlogging of irrigated land. In addition, the downstream degradation of water quality by salts, agrochemicals and toxic leachates is a serious environmental problem. Agricultural pollution also has negative effects on human health. Nitrogen, arsenic and hydrocarbon levels in groundwater have severely affected the health of many communities around d the world. 

According to a quote by David Seckler from the International Water Management Institute, the penalty for mismanagement of this valuable resource could be catastrophic, for the world as a whole.

Some had proposed as an important first step to find out what is the long term rate of recharge for every groundwater basin or aquifer. This would help establishing the limit of sustainable use. The second step, she suggests, is for all concern parties to devise a plan for balancing pumping with recharge. If current pumping exceeds the sustainable limit, achieving this goal will involve some mix of pumping reductions and artificial recharge by applying the process of channeling rainfall or surplus river water into the underground aquifer, where it is possible. The implementation of this plan will need to be accompanied by legal principles that elevate the public interest over private rights.

This would address several issues at a time, however it is going to take some time to bring this plan into practice, in the mean time, prevention is better than cure, and prevention can be achieved by the implementation of sustainable agricultural practices, and public awareness campaigns on the imminent deficit of water.

FALL SEMESTER November 18

November 8

We heard a very inspiring and educational presentation from Liza about Food Waste.


Diet for a Small Planet by Moore-Lappe

In her ground breaking book, Diet for a Small Planet, Moore-Lappe, contrast the terms starvation and food insecurity.

Moore-Lappe attributes world starvation and food insecurity to the existing of a the long historical processes of colonialism that has destroyed a traditional social system, and is responsible for the global scarcity of democracy. She points out that democracy carries within the principles of accountability, where people have a say in decisions that affect their well being. In a democratic state, leaders are kept accountable to the needs of the majority. Democracy protects its citizens’ most fundamental rights. She smartly points out that as long as this fundamental concept of democracy is absent from a countries economic life, people will continue to be powerless. Antidemocratic structures are those in which power is so tightly concentrated that the majority of the people are left without a saying, and leaders are only accountable to the powerful minorities.  These structures rob their people of power over their lives.

Her concept can be extended to other aspects of our current industrialized, global agri-food system and larger economy. Moore-Lappe outlines four main levels where democracy is scarcer by the day: at the family level, the food providers, mostly women, are losing authority over land use; at the village level, fewer and fewer people control more and more farm and pasture land; at the national level, nations are not owners of their own destiny in this global market economy, they are ruled by antidemocratic governments that answer only to wealthy elites; and last democracy is scarce at the international arena, where a handful of corporations dominate the world trade in those commodities that are the lifeblood of third world economies.