Food Security
Recently there has been a lot of talk about food security….what is that anyways? One definition is that is refers to the availability to food and one’s access to it. Basically when a home is secure when food is not scarce and there is no threat of starvation. I have heard in recent times the trend of local food with the the 100 mile diet and what not, and I always thought that was what food security was. And I guess it is, yet a better definition for that type of local scale security would be Community Food Security. This would be where a community is provided food through sustainable fashion that supports community reliance, social considerations as well as environmental concerns.
I really appreciate and like the concept of local agriculture. When people know where there food is coming from and the possible effects their consuming may have, they gain a knowledge that hopefully makes them appreciate the importance of such a fundamental source of life. When did we lose the appreciation and reliance on providing for our needs through local scale means? I guess it could be attributed to the industrial revolution and the resulting age of commodification. More on that later............
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Life in a Northern Community Part II
Having lived up north for almost ten years before coming to Victoria to attend RRU, the past few years I had been thinking more about sustainability in a northern community. Life in the north is pretty harsh and many people who live there now have it easy compared to those who came before us. Whitehorse especially has become like any other city in Canada, full of box stores and giant houses in large subdivisions. I often wonder if the people that live there now could even survive if it wasn't for their oil burning stoves or hydroelectric heaters (we have no access to natural gas so you have three options for heating your home : oil, wood or electricity.). More and more I get the sense that life in the north is a false reality, where our reliance on fossil fuels for survival is extreme.
When I would look out my window in Dawson City on a cold winter day of -50 Celsius and for as far as I could see (which isn't very far at that temperature) is stacks of clouds of fuel exhaust and stove exhaust, I would think to myself, "Why on earth would anyone want to live here, and even if they were raised here why did they stay and not move on to warmer climes?". In those cold moments it really doesn't seem like a very sustainable place to live. People are leaving their cars running due to the cold and buildings use very large amount of fuel to heat them. The food in the grocery store gets trucked up thousands of miles to arrive within a day or so of spoiling. There are a smalll number of people, mostly of First Nation descent, who do embrace the hunting of moose and caribou and trapping of fish to sustain their families. Traditional hunts are how the First Nation people, who have a long history in the Yukon, lived sustainably. They gathered and preserved food in the short 4 month summer and hunted moose and caribou in the fall. This sustenance would last them throughout the long, cold winter.
How far we have come from those days. Since then resource recovery has been the livelihood of the Yukon. Gold was discovered in 1898 changing Dawson City forever, and the talk of a pipeline going through th Yukon has been going on for nearly 30 years. These types of industries brought many people to the Yukon hoping to stike it rich and make a life on the last frontier. Many were dissapointed with their prospects and yet stayed and now make the community we have today. Whitehorse, and many of the small communities of the Yukon, were established at a time when oil was cheap and resources were plentiful. We have since come to realize that this is not true anymore and new ways to live sustainably in the north need to be adopted. Maybe we have to go back somewhat to the ways of those who came before us and maybe we need to embrace the technologies of the future. I think a sustainable path is one that is a combination of the two, one that learns from our past and embraces the place we live in; yet is also willing to accept the technology of the future and accept the fact that change is upon us.
When I would look out my window in Dawson City on a cold winter day of -50 Celsius and for as far as I could see (which isn't very far at that temperature) is stacks of clouds of fuel exhaust and stove exhaust, I would think to myself, "Why on earth would anyone want to live here, and even if they were raised here why did they stay and not move on to warmer climes?". In those cold moments it really doesn't seem like a very sustainable place to live. People are leaving their cars running due to the cold and buildings use very large amount of fuel to heat them. The food in the grocery store gets trucked up thousands of miles to arrive within a day or so of spoiling. There are a smalll number of people, mostly of First Nation descent, who do embrace the hunting of moose and caribou and trapping of fish to sustain their families. Traditional hunts are how the First Nation people, who have a long history in the Yukon, lived sustainably. They gathered and preserved food in the short 4 month summer and hunted moose and caribou in the fall. This sustenance would last them throughout the long, cold winter.
How far we have come from those days. Since then resource recovery has been the livelihood of the Yukon. Gold was discovered in 1898 changing Dawson City forever, and the talk of a pipeline going through th Yukon has been going on for nearly 30 years. These types of industries brought many people to the Yukon hoping to stike it rich and make a life on the last frontier. Many were dissapointed with their prospects and yet stayed and now make the community we have today. Whitehorse, and many of the small communities of the Yukon, were established at a time when oil was cheap and resources were plentiful. We have since come to realize that this is not true anymore and new ways to live sustainably in the north need to be adopted. Maybe we have to go back somewhat to the ways of those who came before us and maybe we need to embrace the technologies of the future. I think a sustainable path is one that is a combination of the two, one that learns from our past and embraces the place we live in; yet is also willing to accept the technology of the future and accept the fact that change is upon us.
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