Conference Food-Feb-5-2007
From Common Energy UVic
These are the minutes of the Food Working Group from the proceedings of the Common Energy Conference, Feb 5th 2007.
Contents |
[edit] Check-in 1
[edit] What directions are we moving towards?
[edit] Sub Group 1: Do we have enough agricultural land in the region to feed the population?
Psychology for change. How to ensure/encourage movement from cognitive motivations to real action? How do we ensure that we don't lose the amount of agricultural land? How much land do we need to feed our population? Urban agriculture, what is it's place in the future? It appears to be an area for great expansion. CJVI lands on campus as a potential site?
[edit] Sub Group 2: How can we reclaim UVic land for food production, what are the barriers?
Are the barriers institutional, economic, etc.? What are the barriers exactly? Focus has been on listing what the barriers are.
[edit] Sub Group 3: What are the practical steps to make UVic food purchasing local/sustainable?
Possibly easier to start with UVSS as student led. Goal: Have a % of purchased food local We don't want to take local organic food away from the local market excessively. Can partner with local groups aleady in motion, e.g. FoodRoots Distributor's Cooperative. Can use our $$ to pressure the present suppliers to include local organic. Not likely to be viable for UVic to deal with 100's of small scale farmers, so how do we facilitate getting local food from fields to campus?
[edit] What directions are we moving away from?
[edit] Sub group 1
Farm land can not be removed from the ALR/Food system. Industrial food system is not sustainable.
[edit] Sub group 2
Move away from the ornamental gardens towards edible landscaping. Reduction of the barriers to this process and barriers to on-campus food production
[edit] Sub group 3
UVic food purchasing needs to move away from the industrial food system. We realize that food production capabilities on the island might not be ready for UVic to go all local/organic. This transition will have to be gradual and include how UVic can work to increase local production as well as purchasing.
[edit] What questions need to be researched?
[edit] Sub group 1
How much land do we need? Distribution of that food? Food production systems, what are the ones that will work for our situation? Food storage issues?
[edit] Sub Group 2
What are the barriers? Size? Strength? How many? Once this knowledge is compiled, make a database. How viable is on-campus food production - economics (lease, community plots, facilities mgmt?)
[edit] Sub group 3
How can UVic demand the incentive for agri land? define 'local'? How do we phase it in as a policy? How can we bring groups like 'Food Roots'? How to educate the student body? How do we make this affordable for the students? Can the pocket market become permanent? Can this be tied in with academics for students here ? Is U of T a useful model?
[edit] Check-In 2
We have formed back into one main group.
[edit] What directions are we moving towards?
We have hit upon many topics. Our food is too cheap at present. We can look to UBC and U of T for similar situations. Can Food Roots have some part in this? Create a local agri program at UVic through cross-faculties? We need to map the present programs as a lot of work is going on.
[edit] What directions are we moving away from?
The disparate working of many groups (but for the same goal)
[edit] What questions need to be researched?
How different is the price of local vs. industrial, really? How can we increase supply? Direct spend? Can CJVI become part of ALR? Is the problem more lack of land? or lack of $ or lack of farms? What part can shared backyards have? What about community gardens? We need to map and better connect existing projects and organisations, rather than re-inventing the wheel.
[edit] Check-In 3
[edit] What directions are we moving towards?
[edit] 1. Consumption
On campus:
- Discussion of 'food walks' where the students will be educated 'first contact' about food on UVic. Maybe put a course into 'First Contact'. This could include all the aspects that would demystify the food buying process. Also here educate on moving towards lower meat consumption.
- Education for students of choices. Putting food carbon points on menus (similar to inital push for ingredient lists). Could this be integrated with the university buying policy of local by pressuring our purchasing firms?
- Creating/promoting gardening courses. Promote community garden, ensure the community garden has a permanent home. If community garden is strong might be better for getting CJVI lands into cultivation.
- Educate the students now, as this will lead to life choices. Vikes have a food choices for athletes to educate them. Possibly the Vikes can adopt organic menus. Rez is captive audience. Rez can be a good place to get the first year students to adopt good food choices. With the education it is important to ensure the message is good: local not organic from NZ. Make sure to demudify the issues (fair trade, local, organic, free run, free range, etc.). Can we use the resources (like the island farmers website) to point students to (suppliers, seasonality)
- Pocket market allow for more marketing?
- Can have one-off events like a FoodFair out front.
- Also other events like dinners etc.
- Can expand the education to include fish (using the guides already available). Meat becomes very complex (People don't want to personalize their meat) However this is an area that is important for energy use. How can we make the meat more sustainable? Economies of scale.
- BBQ for local meat, can use as a educational opportunity.
- Can we use taste tests? Could this be an opportunity to get people to notice and educate?
- Can the price increases (if any) be offsetting? Similar to a fast food tax? This would be used to subsidize the local food at the expense of the industrial? Can we sell it to the students and say, add a 30 cent levy per month, (this worked for Camosan for Paper). This should be integrated with BUSINESS
- How can we control the packaging of the food?
- Can we change the way it is done, in terms of pricing.
To the region:
- Students will go out into the community and exercise their buying choices.
- Public events
- Using the academic system, to promote outside involvement.
- We have a real tie-in to our supply, if there is no supply then consumption can not make this up.
- Our choices are limited and causes many problems with local consumption.
- UVic could have some sort of database that would locate local/org suppliers to make it easy to locate. It is hard now to find where the good stuff is. Can this integrate things?
- Could we help develop a curriculum add-in for high school students.
- Could we integrate seasonality into the menus on campus. This might take the form of a part of the menu revolving with the seasons. Integrate in in Sept so that people don't notice.
- Increase networking opportunities. Possibly host along with the database.
- The 'Culture Crawl' in WVan, can be done with Vic with local food. Already one in Vic, can expand upon this.
- Local Pub Crawls - mabye make the Felicitas have a local segments
- Local feasts, sustainability fairs...?
- Build a coalition with the other universities to build purchasing power.
[edit] Reclaiming UVic Land
This is part of supply now
[edit] Composting/Waste
Presently strong, can be expanded. Put in with Education. We want to discuss this more.
[edit] Supply
What directions do we want to go in?
1.Land
- Preserve agricultural land --> Agricultural Land Reserve
- Provincial policies --> Gateway project
- Use unused spaces--> Map fallow agricultural land in CRD (with geography?)
--> Urban agriculture on and off campus
- CJVI Lands aka Mystic Vale Farmlands on campus
2. Local Farmers
- Financial support --> UVic could support farmers who will guarantee crops for campus purchasing (Island Chef's Collaborative model or Community-Supported Agriculture)
--> Partner with School of Business
- Madrona Farms --> Have UVic coop summer positions, interest in education
- Haliburton Farms --> already offer courses, Purnima's wetlands restoration project through Biology
- Linking Land and Future Farmers (LAFF) --> connect land and new farmers, agricultural training
- Academic agricultural training --> CJVI Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (long-term); interdisciplinary food systems task force or advisory body? link with existing initiatives
3. Provincial Network
- To be able to tackle larger provincial policies on ALR etc.
- Already started with Common Energy, Sierra Youth Coalition (Maggie Baynham)
4. Education
- Links with training
- Links with above consumption discussion
- Networking
5. Policy
- Local purchasing
- Fair trade (already exist, link to local food?)
- Feasibility study on how much local we can get, how economically sustainable it is, etc.
Directions we want to move away from: 1. Don't get stuck on creating demand without looking at how realistic the supply is --> current demand for local and organic food already outstrips supply 2. Don't feel limited to working within the institution, we can also work with UVic and outside of it --> diversity of tactics
Questions:
1. How can we build partnerships?
- Unions
- Facilities Management
- Current food suppliers
2. What are our priorities?
- eg most food contracts are 5-10 years and most are coming up for renewal in the next 6-12 months
- legalities of local purchasing poliices --> ask U of T
[edit] What directions are we moving away from?
1. Don't get stuck on creating demand without looking at how realistic the supply is --> current demand for local and organic food already outstrips supply
2. Don't feel limited to working within the institution, we can also work with UVic and outside of it --> diversity of tactics
[edit] What questions need to be researched?
First step is to map and integrate all that is going on at UVic. We need further research on all of the above points.
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