Flicks & Fare Food Film Festival Happens on Saturday, August 6 as Part of Eat Your City; Free Family Film Offered

Flicks & Fare Food Film Festival Happens on Saturday, August 6 as Part of Eat Your City; Free Family Film Offered

From Cool to Committed: Reflections From The Veggie Patch

From ‘Cool’ to Committed: Reflections From The Veggie Patch

I’ve learned a lot over the last few years about the food movement and food insecurity. And I have been excited to see it ‘come of age’ recently in the community. There seems to be new gardens and food projects starting up everywhere. Even today I heard about a recent municipality raising concerns about urban food deserts in a small municipality. In today’s paper there I read an article lobbying for a small city park to be turned into and welcoming garden project. Gardens and local, fresh food seem to be ‘cool’ in many circles now. That’s funny because I distinctly remember conversations I had ten years ago with individuals who said that talking food would never be at interest to the general public. Not so. This new found interest in local, fresh food and food security or insecurities does raise a few concerns for me.

As foodies, food activists, gardeners and part time farmers, “What are we doing to sustain this important upsurge in local, organic, fresh food?” A few things come to mind. Policy. Yes, I know.  Dirty word.  Boring. I think it is important to strike while the skillet is hot. Now’s the time to be active in making permanent changes to policies in our schools, municipalities, provinces and federal system.  We need to be leaders in our community right now while we have the public’s interest.  Lobby for change in bylaws and local policy. Speaking out publically when we see the environment getting  little consideration or not enough attention. If the time is right to start a project because of the friendly climate to food initiatives, we need to stretch a little now to benefit for the long term. The general public is fickle and some new hot fad or idea could hit at any minute. All of us need to encourage our government and our community to support the changes that need to be made. Mobilize your friends and neighbours now to support your initiatives. Stay in touch with those you are working with and share updates as much as possible. Do your best to keep the momentum going. If first you don’t succeed with your municipal government, regroup and try again. Or even better, find a loop hole or design a similar project that achieves your objectives and bypasses them all together. Don’t squander the current support we have in the public eye. Make the best use of these positive days for food initiatives.

Secondly, be careful of ‘lookalikes’ and those who want to ride on your coat-tails with greedy intentions. You know, like the ‘farm stand’ in the city that sells produce out of season and considers California local to Canadians- or local strawberries in April. There are a number of ways this can occur. Everyone wants to be seen as ‘cool’, environmentally friendly, connected to the community these days. Try to build lasting and ongoing relationships with like-minded groups of people. Make new friends in the neighbourhood if possible. Start an alliance. Share and network so that you can encourage one another. I’ve already seen my fair share of well-intentioned organizations blow in and out with the wind for their photo opportunities. Sometimes this is helpful and necessary to get a lot of work done or to get an infusion of equity but it’s not something that will last. It’s a flash in the pan solution to your immediate needs. Invest in getting to know the people in and around your project and movement. That will ensure things will continue- even if you are long gone. Remember, any municipal or government representative who cozy’s up to you may only be in it for their duration of the election, or run up to election. Real relationships are often not associated with officers or elected officials. Be careful of befriending too many people with a vested interest in your project other than humanitarian food security matters.

Because a fad is just that, a fad, remember that just because our movement is popular right now, does not mean we have reached everyone who should know about this. There was a time not so long ago that us foodie kin folk were close to being rounded up by our friends and relatives and put in the hippie farmer nut-house. Now, they don’t think we are ‘as’ crazy and can accept our weird and wacky ways. There is still a huge population out there that could care less about what they spray on their food, are too lazy to do anything about their own family food insecurity, refuse to grow a single tomato (yes, gasp, the horror!), get all their groceries from a one stop commercial shopping center that dictates what you and I will or will not eat. In fact, sit down for this, there are many people out there who only eat processed food or eat out every night. I am constantly stunned at the number of families that don’t eat fresh local vegetables, know nothing about a Farmer’s Market, won’t eat it unless it comes with golden arches stamped on it or in a cardboard box. There is still a high percentage of North American’s who don’t even know how to cook a meal from scratch. So let’s not get too high on our horses about how successful we have been in raising the awareness of food security and sustainable urban agriculture, organic farms and community gardens, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. And that is why we need to be as permanent as our agricultural practices are. Or we could end up on our own compost pile.

But for now, let us celebrate our successes, enjoy being the ‘in’ group for once, and proudly display our harvest bounty, spout off about the latest and greatest documentary on the importance of food security, and answer the call for proposals that are catering to our needs.  Like Ghandi said, change needs to start in each of us, and our life has to demonstrate our commitment to this movement and lifestyle. Once the public and the elected officials turn their shifting and fleeting attention to a different headline, it will still be up to people like you and I to continue to promote our love of dirt, food and community. Grow on people! Eat well and share everything with your neighbours!