It can all be so simple.

A post in short form, because there are too many projects to swoon over and articles to read to be sorted through to be discussed at later date.

Peanut Butter Sandwiches are a simple way to feed people in your 'hood who need lunch, also here's an about it all article

It Starts With Us is inspiring. The motto they're pushing is basically: "The secret to doing big things is to do small things...consistently."

A project called Skip 1 which encourages people to skip something everyday, save the $ and then donate it to a charity. In their own words:

We skip because we can.
We skip because 1/6th of the Earth's population is undernourished - more than ever before!
We skip because 25,000 people die every day from hunger and related causes.
We skip because every 6 seconds a child dies of hunger and related causes.
We skip something because the world needs our help.

On another note - I appreciate stories. Especially stories told by people in situations that are misunderstood, stigmatized, on the periphary of regular life, or completely chameleoned into regular life with complex histories or secrets. Mysterious humans. Today I came across a project called Invisible People. Documentaries about homelessness across America.

Somewhat completely unrelated, interviews with a vast array of people from all over America as well - David Lynch's Interview Project.

Pessimism

First, the optimistic bits.

Saskatchewan has announced new policy for school nutrition.

Deputy Premier and Education Minister Ken Krawetz announced the launch of Nourishing Minds: Eat Well. Learn Well. Live Well., a nutrition guidelines policy, at the Yorkton Regional High School.

"The Government of Saskatchewan believes that the learning success, well-being and achievement of our young people are vital for securing the future of our province," Krawetz said. "Good nutrition is essential for the proper growth and development of our children and youth. Our schools serve as an important access point for nutrition education and healthy eating practices, healthy food policy and modelling of healthy lifestyles."

The Nourishing Minds resource aligns with the ministry's mandate of working with school boards to increase healthy food options in schools.

The Ministry of Education, in partnership with other government ministries and education partners, developed this resource document to support all Saskatchewan schools in implementing healthy food standards.

In Calgary, nutritional guidelines have been set and are on track to be fully implemented by 2011. Mainly, the goal is that by Jan 1, 2011 80% of foods in cafeterias will be nutrient dense, while maintaining 20% low nutrient dense foods.

Food Co-ops:

In NY the Park Slope Food Co-op has been going since the early 1970's. I was excited to think of this as a solution to fill the gap between the expensive Farmer's Market and Superstore/Safeway in Calgary. I'll be collecting info about this initiative that has been going on all over North America. To start with, here is one woman's daunting experience with the Co-Op.

On to the pessimism.

First of all, it is likely too late to start trying to make people really care about this stuff. Do you know how many food blogs there are? How many books? How many movies? It makes me want to barf. And here I am - blogging.

Thinking about the idea of a revamped "Local Food System Strategy" (LFSS)...makes me wary and pessimistic. I get fixated on barriers - like the climate of Calgary or the fact that so much of the population spends the majority of free time commuting over the vastness of the city everyday so have little time or patience for starting a garden or going out of their way to go anywhere else for groceries besides Safeway or Superstore. Myself included. Maybe people participate in a CSA, or use a service like SPUD to get their local, organic, seasonal food. Maybe they go to Community or Planet Organic or the Calgary Farmer's Market. The issue with all of these options comes back to accessability (financial, locations, products offered).

What does my ideal LFSS look like?

To me, think of more options. More grocery stores that offer more local & organic options at an affordable price, more urban garden spaces for community gardens. Perhaps even a space where if you are growing food, you can swap your excess with other growers who have items that you yourself don't grow. Or, if you live in an apartment/condo or just plain can't garden - you can pay a small membership fee and have the same access to these swaps. See - Food Co-op models.

Markets in the traditional sense achieve many of these idealistic notions but have been basically eliminated as giant chain grocers have gained dominance. Blah blah right?

For good reason. So, how do we re-balance out the situation again? How do we fill in the gap that exists between the expensive boutique Farmer's Market and cheap Superstore?

-lobby chains to carry more local foods. Even food companies on their own are starting to initiate this lobbying. See - Hellman's Eat Real Eat Local project. And their gardening projects.

-sanctioned community garden spaces

-food co-ops

-markets where any vendor of any size can have a table, and the standard is that that food be only from a certain distance away. In Alberta this could mean BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and maybe North Dakota.

-free education for individuals about composting, gardening methods, trouble shooting for both of these activities, put on in local community centres.

In Calgary, these are solutions that are in full swing thanks to Clean Calgary and the Horticultural Society. And probably many other projects I've yet to hear about. Ah, there's my optimism coming back again :)

Recycling, Policy, and Oak trees

Here's a short video and article about what goes down in the Calgary Blue Cart Recycling Sorting Facility. The article also mentions some details about Calgary's plan to reduce waste...by 2020. 80/20 by 2020

Thinking more about the garbge tracking thing from a few days ago and have decided to try and figure out where my garbage and recycling go, and the status of compost in Calgary. Here's atimeline of these actions in the city.

Also thinking a lot about the Food Summit last week.

What does Food Policy mean for a city like Calgary? First of all, I would like to get more clear about what food policy in action looks like. Policies determine what needs to be done, who does it, how it happens, and for who it's being done for/to. We control policy in that we can influence those elected to sit in City Councils. In my mind, policy can exist to limit what people can or can not do...but they also allow for citizens' visions to become reality. Political support of policy can do a lot for your dreams of something like city wide composting. Also, policy happens everyday where you might not even notice it in personal interactions, organizational situations, and in the public sphere. So, how do you draft a new policy and map what needs to be done to make it pass through government? How do you organize people and educate them? I'll find out.

Today, my favorite tree is:

Plant IDs, Hyacinths, Bison Roast, and Beer.

Tonight I helped my friend Janelle identify the trees and shrubs in the yard of her new house. Ahem. In Latin: ROSACEAE, Spiraea trilobata, Threelobe Spirea; OLEACEAE, Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Green Ash; ROSACEAE, Malus adstringens, Rosybloom Crabapples; CORNACEAE, Cornus alba, Variegated Dogwood; and a CORNACEAE, Cornus sericea c. stolinifera, Red Osier Dogwood.

Thank you Calgary Zoo and a wee course called Woody Plant ID. In 6 weeks we've learned to ID 49 trees & shrubs. There are 2 weeks left and 12 more to learn. We're quized every week on everything we've learned cumulatively. They pick a random 10-12 trees/shrubs and we go on a walk and ID them by examining the branches, form, bark, buds, leaves, and location. It's crazy.

Next I'm on to the Master Gardener course. It starts immediately after this ID class wraps up, runing till March 13, 2010.

So we ID'd the trees and shrubs. Then we started to rip some out. Fun! Then we dug a moat along one edge and planted tulip, hyacinth, and crocus bulbs. The dirt was riddled with evil looking roots, we concluded they were from the Red Osiers which have taken over the yard in general. We tore them out as best we could and nested the bulbs in for the winter.

We also chatted while bagging leaves about composting, and contacting Clean Calgary about energy/water conservation. I'm excited for spring and the subsidized Earth Machine sale put on by the city.

Now, I'm making a bison pot roast and drinking a beer. The roast was from a bunch of meat Yuval bought from a friend who knows a guy who sells bison from his truck. He meets you at an undisclosed location on the side of the highway. We have a freezer full now and it was cheap.

This roast - I cut up and then put it in a roast pan with a can of crushed tomatoes, shallots, onion, olive oil, garlic, brown sugar, vinegar, and pepper. It's cooking at 350 now, I browned it first in a pan on the stovetop. We'll see.

Also, I never forget how much I love beer.

World Food Day, No Impact Project, ETC.

Last week Oct 16 was World Food Day. To celebrate I attended the first annual (?) Calgary Food Summit put on by the Calgary Food Policy Council (CFPC). Visit the link to see the agenda for the summit. It was the very first time that I have ever been to a gathering of 130+ people who are all equally concerned about food production, urban agriculture, and the creation of sustainable agriculture practices in an urban environment. We were separated into groups seating around a table with about 8 other participants. Then the scheming began.

The evening was divided into 3 sections with topics focused on issues surrounding accessibility, the building of new food systems, and policy to support cultivation of new initiatives. A speaker for each issue got the discussion ramped up by proposing various questions for consideration in the team discussions. We broke out and spent about 45 min. on each topic brainstorming various policy dreams that the city/provincial government could get behind in order to support these solutions. We wrote solutions on paper and posted them on the walls. Looking around the room in the end...was inspiring to say the least.

I felt by the end of this 3 hour event as if I might just explode with visions of a new Calgary. The ideas and enthusiasm of the participants (ps - we were from all different backgrounds) was humbling, encouraging, and completely intoxicating.

What is the outcome? Hopefully a formation of a volunteer group within the CFPC who will take on some of the policy drafting, education initiatives, and community rustling that would instigate the changes to create a new food system in the urban core. Ahem, I hope to be among these folks.

Also -

I had been considering participating in the No Impact Project this week, and after today's mania of trying to have lunch without having brought one from home and not make trash...I'm hesitant. I did manage to use a cloth hand towel in the washroom of the office rather than paper towels, and I toted a bagel from the coffee shop in my own reused ziploc baggie.

Conclusion: carry clean tupperware, a hankie, and a hand towel at all times. And, utensils.

I feel pretty conscious of my consumption, but I'd like to know more about it. Maybe go on a landfill tour, or have someone track my personal trash. A friend passed this link on to me for a project which is basically my dream. It's called Trash Track and well, that's what they do. It's pretty astounding.

Tornados & Wars

*I will be tracking my dreams here as well, without interpretation*

Woke up from a dream this morning in which I was one of a few hundred people who were brought to an urban steel bunker (above ground) to live while we went to war with the rest of the world. I'm not sure who the "we" was. Of course the saddness was overwhelming, and my curiosity about what was going on outside the bunker was huge. We were there for about a week before the actual attack was scheduled to begin. On the day of the launch I finally cracked open a back door to see a field of troops, missiles, everything pointed directly at the bunker, but I had a sense that it was all really aimed beyond the bunker. I couldn't get the door shut again. A soldier tried to help me close it, then he called in his commanding officer, then he called in the president. And it just wouldn't close again. Then they put everything on hold because of some other issues. A few of The People and I went out a different exit to get our final meals from a civilized world. We were walking through some upscale urban villa that had been totally abandoned, when in the distance I could see a tornado spinning down through the city central. This made no sense because we weren't in the prairies. Then it hummed by and basically destroyed the entire city in one go. Then we went back to the bunker and the war started as planned. My alarm went off.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IFATP)

IFATP Food and Society Fellows

An informative site with articles from various contributors or "fellows" who over the span of 2.5 years are given the means and education as to how best communicate their food policy ideas.

From the site:

Fellows come from many disciplines—chefs, farmers, nutritionists, activists, public health professionals, fishers, policy experts and academics. Together they form an interdisciplinary team that works to:

• Use communication to influence the issues that reach the public agenda, thereby creating policy changes at the personal, organizational and public policy levels that advance sustainable food and farming systems
• Increase the mass media communications on issues around sustainable food and farming systems that produce healthy, green, fair and affordable foods
• Raise the profile of the fellows as food system experts among media and policymakers
• Build capacity, leadership, and cohesiveness in a group of experts who collaborate and communicate using mass media channels to bring sustainable food system issues to the public agenda.