Farms: "Chew On This"- Food Security, Eh? A Panel Discussion on Sustainable Food in a Canadian Context
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Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, hosted by Common Energy UBC, Oxfam UBC, and the UBC Commerce Undergraduate Society's Sustainability Committee. "Chew On This," is a week-long series of lectures, panel discussions, and workshops. A diverse group of panelists will share their research and thoughts on the topic of Canada and what it means to have sustainable food in Canada. Panelists include: * Dr. Andrew Riseman, Associate Professor of Applied Biology and Plant Breeding in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems; co-chair of the Campus Academic Plan committee working to guide the future of the UBC Farm. * Dr. Sean Smukler, Assistant Professor of Applied Biology and Soil Science; Junior Chair, Agriculture and the Environment; research working with farmers to assess impacts of farm management practices. * Dr. James Vercammen, Professor in both the Faculty of Land and Food Systems and the Sauder School of Business; research focussing on food and resource economics. * Will Valley, Project Coordinator, Think&Eat Green@School; member of Inner City Farms. Will's research interests include the analysis and application of community-engaged scholarship and food system education * Anelyse Weiler, Communications Coordinator, UBC Farm * and Sophia Baker-French, Registered Dietician; MSc Candidate in Human Nutrition; previous Research Assistant with Think and Eat Green @ School; prior coordinator at the UBC Farm School Tours program. Moderator: Amy Frye, Acting Director of UBC Farm"
Comments
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20 minutes into this video and I still don't really know what the real "ideas" are for sustainability. Industry has used this word to support the use of GE crops which have concerns around them AND have increased the use of pesticides like glyphosate dramatically. This herbicide is beginning to show that its affects on the soil and human health are extremely harmful. It has been designated to be a "probable carcinogen", is patented as an antibiotic (which lists beneficial soil and human gut flora) and is a strong chelator (holds onto) of essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron and more. Other GE crops have not delivered what they promise at least in the long term, are very expensive to develop and still have concerns around how the entire genome interacts with displaced DNA and new DNA which will interact in ways we cannot know. This has to happen with the normal defense of a plant to prevent foreign DNA "infecting" the genome to be overrided. Hybridization has worked well in producing hybrids which are drought resistant and provide bio-diversity which is in itself a protection against massive losses. The industry that produces pesticides have infiltrated every aspect of our food system so much so that Bill's have been passed just to benefit them (bill C-18). Soil is gold. We do not have any standards in Canada to protect water which will be much more important to the world than oil in the not too distant future. Farmers are paid money to allow oil companies to spray fracking waste water onto their land. Subsidies for no-till farming has encouraged the use of more pesticides. The Attorney General of Canada did an audit of Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency and found 80 pesticides on the market which have not submitted the required science before registration. 36 of those are neonics implicated in bee deaths around the world but are also killing all insects and affecting bird populations. Scientists have said this class of insecticides are 5-10,000 times more toxic than DDT. This pesticide is very water soluble and contaminates nearby watersheds. THIS system does not really produce cheaper food it produces inferior product, is reducing soil integrity, reduces biodiversity, reduces beneficial insects and puts our health at risk. If you research this in depth you will see money flowing from our taxes directly to these industries who have dramatically increased royalty fees and the general cost of all their products. They all have patents. They are not interested in long term impacts they are interested in the profits they make. This is a global takeover of our food system. Markets doing well such as the wine industry does not take into account how harmful NAFTA was to Canadians in general....far more harmful than beneficial and as always we will only hear one aspect of these issues instead of the bigger picture. Canada is currently the most sued nation in the world since this "trade" agreement was put into affect. Nothing about our current system supports organic/permaculture/agroecology/small farmers but supports big industries with poor track records. Big fields of canola with four neurotoxins sprayed on it will NOT feed the world it will destroy our ability to grow food for our local populations. We have a revolving door between industry and government at every level. I talk to farmers all the time and I know their stories........this does not go into how industrial agriculture in contributing to climate change. According to a UN report 44-57%....big industry keeps spinning on words to mystify the real aspects of how harmful they are to everything INCLUDING economy! If you destroy the environment, human health, the integrity of the soil/water and trust of markets around the world you destroy your economy. Also, what a poor argument about transporting food over long distances because it is cheaper??? How about all the community gardens around that people are developing to address this issue? This addresses this in a far more profound way and is sustainable. If I can grow much of what I need with little input I am feeding myself and my family. Relying on a system because you think that is the cheapest way is not necessarily better for multiple reasons and needs to be revisited.
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She stole Sarah Palin's voice. We eat a lot of garbage food; anything containing fructose or sugar, processed foods, gluten, lactose. Most people lack adequate Vitamin C & D. The food supply is systemically controlled to reduce nutrition to people. Fruit juice is just as bad as soda.