Food Advance Summary
From Common Energy UVic
Note: There is now an updated version of this progress report in the Going Beyond Climate-Neutral Progress Report - April 2007
This is the final Advance Summary / Progress Report April-2007 of the Food Working Group.
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
No other aspect of our lives is as intimate as food. What goes into our meals quite literally becomes us. While it is easy to understand how our food choices impact our physical well-being, it is less obvious that they impact our environment. Each apple we purchase from New Zealand, Chile or California includes with it a hidden luggage of greenhouse gases emitted to transport it, lost nutrients, and lost business for local farmers. It has become 'normal' to purchase without regard to season or distance. For instance, we buy tomatoes in February and mangoes year-round. Enormous amount of greenhouse gases are emitted in global food production and transportation [1]. Changes in food habits are essential if UVic is to move BCN. Supporting local [2] food production will increase food security [3] and nutritional content, lower greenhouse gas emissions, support local farmers, diversify our local economy, and build healthy communities [4].
[edit] Section I: Supply
[edit] Urban Agriculture on Campus
Creating on-campus spaces for food production creates opportunity for food self-sufficiency. On-campus food production will also create experiential learning opportunities and enhanced community connections.
[edit] Action
- Partner to build the capacity of the Campus Community Garden - The Campus Community Garden only has a 5 year guarantee on its land. This land insecurity threatens the long-term viability of the garden. A permanent land holding would allow the community garden to play a key role on our campus and act as a step towards moving our food supply BCN.
- Build awareness of opportunities available through the Garden.
- Link with the pocket market, and promote it on campus to student population.
- Link with faculty and departments.
- Find funding through grants and co-op students.
- Collaboratively lobby for land tenure.
- Build awareness of opportunities available through the Garden.
[edit] Proposals
- Edible landscaping will be promoted on campus, through work in partnership with the UVic landscape architect and Facilities Management - Edible landscaping helps boost local food production and provides a visible, physical connection between us, the food we eat, and the places we carry out our daily activities.
- Support plans for new buildings with edible landscaping, such as the new Social Science and Math building.
- Incorporate edible landscaping into the other new buildings presently being built or planned, {including the First Peoples House, Science building, Mearns Centre for Learning, and the Support Services building}.
- Increase edible landscaping on underutilized land.
- Educate the student population about the benefits of edible landscaping on campus and in the region.
- Promote rooftop gardens in areas where this would be beneficial and possible. If a rooftop garden is not appropriate, CE will support the creation of green roofs - Rooftop gardens help promote local food production and increase involvement in urban agriculture.
- Support the creation of a centre for urban agriculture on the CJVI lands - This centre would provide a space for research and innovation through experiential learning,providing opportunities for local food production and community connections.
[edit] Section II: Consumption
[edit] Local Food Purchasing
Shifting our food purchasing to more local sources is a first step in boosting the local food production capacity, improving food security and radically decreasing the greenhouse gases emitted during food delivery. The positive social and economic benefits of this switch will be felt throughout the region.
[edit] Actions
- Pocket Market
- Build awareness of the market and foster a link with the Campus Community Garden. As a central hub for local food, the market offers a unique opportunity for education, project creation, and local food-related events.
- Promote opportunities for co-operative buying such as: community supported agriculture, box programs or wholesale ordering.
- Local purchasing in the Student Union Building (SUB) and the Graduate Student Society (GSS) operations.
- Work with the UVic Students Society (UVSS), GSS, local farmers, distributors, and the UVic Purchasing Department to increase local food purchasing.
- Demonstrate demand for local food through education, surveys, local specials on menus, integration with Residence Life cooking classes, and special events.
[edit] Proposals
- Shift UVic toward increased local food purchasing.
- Collaborate with UVic Housing, Food and Conference Services and UVic Purchasing to promote and increase the number of local food options available in campus food outlets.
- Work with distributors to increase the sourcing of local food.
- Purchasing Policy
- Promote the adoption of a UVic local food purchasing policy.
[edit] Section III: Composting and Waste Management
Currently, UVic composts a large portion of the food waste generated on-campus. This policy redirects the food waste from our landfills and transforms it into compost, a beneficial product that can be resold in the region, thereby turning a waste into a resource. Additionally, organic food waste is not the only waste that is generated by food consumption and preparation on campus. The petroleum-based containers used for food delivery, such as plastic cups and styrofoam to-go containers, are non-degradable, made from oil feedstocks, and take up space in landfills.
[edit] Actions
- Support the work of the Environmental Responsibility Committee (ERC) and the UVSS in expanding the SUB composting program.
- Raise awareness about opportunities to reduce resource consumption and composting in general on campus.
- Collaborate with the Greater Victoria Compost Education Centre to host workshops on campus to raise awareness in our community. These joint initiatives can be promoted through the Pocket Market and the Campus Community Garden.
- Support the ERC proposal for transition of the SUB to compostable utensils and dishware.
[edit] Proposals
- Collaborate with Facilities Management to expand the current composting system, so that it includes more outside drop-off locations and receptacles in buildings.
- Work towards campus-wide adoption of the compostable dishware and utensils being introduced to the SUB.
[edit] Beyond Climate-Neutral
At its most basic level, the relationship between food and climate change is this: the less food travels, the less it emits greenhouse gases. Following from this, UVic can significantly decrease its emissions by focusing on ways to grow and buy food locally [1]. However, the above plan goes far beyond this simple equation. In addition to reducing emissions, local food purchasing reconnects us to the people and places that produce our food, supports our local economy, provides fresher and healthier food choices and provides incentives and capacity to expand our local food production system.
In order to expand our local production system, we need to learn about agriculture and urban agriculture. By providing opportunities for experiential learning around food, members of the UVic community will be empowered to reclaim our food system, deeply engage with food sustainability issues, and learn skills that are vital to human survival. In addition, composting and waste management exemplify our goal of going beyond climate-neutral by transforming unnecessary waste into a rich source of nutrients to grow more food. The on-campus composting program also raises awareness among the UVic community of food issues and food waste.
Food is a fundamental need that all organisms share, and that makes it a powerful tool for engaging people and providing a positive way of understanding and addressing climate change. Not only can we drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by changing our systems of food production and consumption, but we can use food as a vehicle for education, engagement and understanding.
[edit] References and Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Manning, Richard. "The oil we eat: following the food chain back to Iraq" Harper's Magazine 308 (2004): 37-45
- ↑ Rather than creating an arbitrary definition of "local" based on distance or geographic and political borders, we have chosen to leave "local" open to negotiation and change while we examine the possibilities of where our food can come from. Current realities of food production force us to look off Vancouver Island to the rest of British Columbia and the northern part of Washington. However, as UVic provides a market for local farmers, this will catalyze an increase in the amount of food being produced and consumed on Vancouver Island. Thus our definition of "local" will shrink in relation to the feasibility of procuring food from a smaller geographic radius.
- ↑ "Food security exists when there is universal access to food that is healthful, nutritious, safe, and culturally acceptable. In addition, in a food-secure community, the growing, processing and distribution of food is regionally-based, socially just and environmentally sustainable." From: MacNair, Emily. A Baseline Assessment of Food Security in British Columbia's Capital Region. Victoria: Capital Region Food & Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CR-FAIR), 2004. p. 3.
- ↑ Waltner-Toews, David and Tim Lang. "A new conceptual base for food and agricultural policy: the emerging model of links between agriculture, food, health, environment and society" Global Change and Human Health 2(1) (2001): 116-130
