Today in class we received presentations from Gene Miller, Jennifer Gerard, and Cindy Moyer to continue with our sustainability and community’s class. Gene brought a harsher outlook on climate change, sustainability and what we can expect. Personally it seemed surreal in a way; to hear negativity about these concepts whereas all the other presenters we have been exposed to seem to praise their own ideals into this big concept of sustainability. According to Gene, a full scale apocalypse is sitting at our doorsteps. Capitalism has created a situation where full scale growth is occurring at all levels of production, industry and resource use. These unsustainable practices have brought forward a scenario that people think we can escape from which is climate change. However, there is such a divided line between climate change and society that creates a never ending cycle for our planet. Some think climate change will not happen whereas others exclaim the presence of it. It has left our world in an unusual balance that seems like disaster will occur far before proper action has commenced. This disaster threshold will sneak upon us and will cause very drastic changes in which we may not have the ability to adapt to. A quote that Gene said sums climate change very appropriately; “The metabolism of our economy is on a collision course with the metabolism of our planet”. I don’t think it could be stated any better than this. Approximately 2 centuries of population and industrial expansion are causing major changes that our planet has never been exposed to before. Ecosystems are being disrupted and the exponential extraction of non-renewable resources has created a hell on earth for civilization. We are truly living up to another quote that Gene said which is “borrowing our planet from our grandchildren”.
Now to stray away from going on a rant about the doom and gloom scenario that Gene instilled upon us, we were then introduced to Jennifer Gerard. Jennifer is a representative for the West Shore Harvest group that resides on Vancouver Island. She brought another take to the food aspect and shared the techniques and methods that have been introduced by her group to communities. Initially, she shared a video with us regarding local foods and commercially produced food which motivated us to produce a “mind map” which we have been exposed to before as a cohort, but the topic to brainstorm was food security. Our class came up with a lot of different ideas on food security and they expanded from concepts such as government subsidizing, competition, and going local. I felt that this exercise was fitting and got us thinking with the proper mindset relating to her topic which revolved around locally produced food.
Jennifer’s organization brings forward many projects that are being introduced to the public in order to create a sense of connectedness with food as well as promote the concept of practicing in local foodstuffs. One concept was the gardening universe project that teaches individuals the concepts of being able to grow food in their backyard, provide the necessary supplies and act as a mentor to the person. Gardens in motion consists of a flatbed trailer that has housed on it many planters and displays showing local goods which travels to various events in the West Shore. This provides an interaction between communities as well as between children and food. The hands on contact and communication allow conversations to develop resulting in a connectedness between individuals. The fruit tree project allows community members that have fruit trees in their backyard to supply and provide the excess of them to local food banks. They also have a publication of a food guide that shows local markets, eateries, and restaurants that support locally produced food.
The last presenter was Cindy Moyer, whom works actively with the mayor of Colwood in order to develop food events with environmental awareness and community interaction in mind. The events that she explained I thought were great, not just for the food but the community involvement as well. One good example was the go local tomato challenge where community members are challenged to grow their own tomatoes and participate in a cook off. This was not just a competition between people to see who could grow the biggest tomato but it was much more. It involved various organizations around the municipality of Colwood such as Royal Roads University and Island culinary chefs. This event created a connection between the community at every level. By allowing members to interact with one another around the idea of locally produced food, this creates a hub of community awareness. Another example within an example I guess you could say was the cob oven used for the food challenges. This oven was created by a wide array of multi-generation groups, community members and first nations citizens. It benefitted the community because it housed an environment in which all entities of Colwood were allowed to interact with one another. Even just the simplicity of creating an object can create friendships and positivity that can further dissipate into the community. I like the idea of incorporating food and community which can be very beneficial in developing relationships to reach a common goal. Perhaps that these ideals with community interaction can be applied with and expand onto other concepts such as transportation, emissions, and energy use. If these principles can be adapted then possibly the goal of becoming carbon neutral for Colwood can become an evident reality.
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