Supermarket shelves, coolers and produce sections are stuffed with food from every part of the world. The apparent abundance is staggering. But it's also deceptive. In reality, our food supply is vulnerable, and we need to get serious about local food.
The global food system is complex, but there are two important factors threatening our food security: oil and soil.
Food that is trucked, shipped or flown in from long distances uses a lot of fuel. Look at your dinner plate tonight. If yours is like most households, some items on your plate travelled between 1,500 and 5,000 kilometres. That's a lot of fuel for dinner.
Global food production is based on massive farms with single crops protected by pesticides and stimulated by synthetic fertilizer. Both pesticides and fertilizers require huge inputs of fossil fuels. As cheap oil becomes a thing of the past, the higher cost of transportation, pesticides and chemical fertilizers will make importing food less viable.
The global food system is also vulnerable because we're losing good soil. It takes from 100 to 400 years to form one centimetre of soil - and 3,000 to 12,000 years to build enough soil to farm. Soil is a non-renewable
resource. Worldwide, an estimated 40 per cent of agricultural land has been degraded due to factors like poor farming practices, overgrazing of livestock and deforestation.
But there is quite a lot of good news.
Metro Vancouver is capable of producing 85 per cent of the food we need, according to the 2011 Metro Vancouver Regional Food System Strategy.
Buying local has a positive impact on our local economy. When we buy local food, we support our farmers and keep farmland in production, and that's essential for the future.
Small changes matter. We can all look for local products such as dairy and meat and choose them over imports. We can learn to celebrate what's in season - berries in summer and apples in fall, for example. And local food tastes better, as everyone who's compared a local strawberry to one from "away" knows. Local food is also likely better for you because some nutrients, like vitamin C in leafy green vegetables, deteriorate within days of the plant being picked.
We can learn to preserve seasonal foods, so they last throughout the year. Freezing, canning and drying are not difficult, and there are many classes teaching these skills. It's also more social to buy and preserve food with others. Instead of food being something we do in a rush, attending to where our food comes from can restore food to the centre in life with family and friends.
A little bit of gardening can go a long way, too. Anyone with a balcony or place for a pot can grow lettuce greens. In our mild climate, it's possible to grow greens like chard almost year round, and store root vegetables for most of the winter just by leaving them in the ground.
These "go local" suggestions are at an individual level, but it's critical that governments at all levels address food security: for the protection of farmland and support of farmers, urban and rural; for education and the promotion of food skills, including growing, storing and cooking; and to deal with the poverty that keeps many people in Canada malnourished despite the abundance of food on supermarket shelves.
Buying and eating local food is a good choice at the moment.
In the future it will be the only option on the table. We and our governments can either plan for that inevitability or suffer the future consequences.
So, in addition to the other suggestions for going local, here's one more: call an elected representative and ask what he or she is planning to do toward food security.
And you can join with others to create the changes we need. Burnaby Food First is a group of residents and representatives of community organizations who work on local food issues.
Among other activities, the group offers free community workshops on topics like container food gardening and canning.
By learning and sharing skills or volunteering your time on other aspects of food security, you can help strengthen our community's ability to respond to these important food issues.
For more information, visit the Burnaby Food First blog at burnabyfood first.blogspot.ca.
. Joyce Cameron is a Burnaby resident and member of Burnaby Food First, a community coalition dedicated to promoting food security in our city. For more information, go to burnaby foodfirst.blogspot.ca.
