2009 FEATURE TOPIC

FEATURE TOPIC

What does Food Security have to do with Climate Change?
Good news stories from the field...





Valley Plentiful Community Garden
Princess Diana Park, Pickering
Civic Award Winner - The “Sustainability Award”
excerpt from the garden’s blog page
http://www.pickeringgarden.blogspot.com/


Green Gardens
Community gardens are places where collections of local individuals work together with the earth. The community shares a space of land - ours is divided into individual plots where people plant gardens that can include flowers, vegetables and fruit.
We are living in a time of growing environmental crisis. The way things work in the world has taxed the earth to the point where it is getting harder for it to recover. Many animal species have gone extinct as a result, and the world climate has experienced a subtle but documentable rise in temperatures. We need new and better ways of doing things.
One function of society that has become damaging to the environment is the food system. Many foods are mass-produced thousands of miles away from the people who eat it. As a result, billions of cubic tons of greenhouse gas emissions are expended just to ship food. The result is well-traveled food, that needs extra chemical preservatives to make it last while it spends weeks or even months in transit.
Moreover, Canadian communities have come to rely heavily on food produced in distant regions or even countries. Food is not as easily accessible or healthy as it should be for people.
Community gardens seek to become a part of the solution to these problems. They reduce stress on the environment by providing access to food that is grown down the street. The food is also free of preservatives and chemicals and is much healthier (and tastes better too).
Community gardens and buying local also help regions not to rely so heavily on imported foods and builds a local economy. Food is more accessible to the people who live in an area. This concept is called Food Security, and is more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.
When the community gets together to tackle issues like these by growing their food in a community garden, great things happen. People who might not ordinarily get to know each other get a chance to become friends and partners - they get a chance to build their community. They also get to enjoy the benefits and stress-relief of being active outdoors. Experts help the novices. There are good reasons why community gardens are becoming very popular!
We are the first municipality in Durham to have a community garden in a public park!
Come Grow with Us & Become a Gardener!

Please contact the coordinator at 905.420.9843, valleyplentiful@gmail.com or Councillor Littley at 905.420.4608




Durham Region Food Charter
After two years of community consultation and a final Symposium last spring with guest speaker and local food/food security guru Wayne Roberts of the Toronto Food Policy Council, the Durham Region Food Charter is finalized.

The introduction reads as follows:

“Planning Food Into Our Future
The Durham Region Food Charter reflects the community’s vision for a food secure Durham Region focused toward building a just and sustainable local food system as a foundation for population health.
Based on community participation a sustainable local food system will improve the economic viability of Durham Region’s food industry, work in harmony with natural heritage systems as well as the built environment, and promote overall health.
“Food Security: means a situation in which all community residents are able to obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice, and the ability of the agricultural community to support this system.”
(Growing Durham ROPA 128 (2009))
A food secure Durham Region is financially sound, environmentally responsible and socially just, contributing to the future well being of our region and its residents.”
To read the entire Charter please visit:
http://www.durhamlives.com/healthy_eating/he_food_charter.htm

NEW - Food Security Principles endorsed by Regional Council
Councillor Littley’s motion to add food security priniciples to growth plans for the Region was almost unanimously supported by Regional Council and has been added to the Regional Official Plan.

NEW - Regional Food Security Working Group to work with the Durham Region Roundtable on Climate Change (DRRCC)
The goal of the DRRCC is to position the Region of Durham as a leader in addressing climate change issues by preparing and recommending a comprehensive strategy with detailed actions that can be undertaken across the Region to address climate change. Our task is to develop a Community Climate Change Action Plan.
Part of that Action Plan would include mitigation and adaptation plans for future Food Security in the Region. Councillor Littley adds, “Currently, several departments at the Region work on various aspects of food security and a working group would provide opportunities to bring people, departments, their ideas and knowledge together to build upon accomplishments. The Durham Region Food Charter’s “Essential Foundations to Build Upon” is a great place to start.”