Janet McNeill

<written for the North Renfrew Times in June 2008>

Judging by the responses I’ve received to the recent column I wrote about the Ottawa Valley Food Co-operative, lots of us have been thinking about local food.

“If you bought it, it came on a truck” is a useful phrase for getting one’s mind around the concept of ‘peak oil’ and the many likely practical impacts facing our oil-based economy and world as supplies of cheap oil dwindle. Before one’s mind has gone very far at all, the question quickly arises: “What and how are we going to eat?”

At a very informative one-day “community forum” on peak oil in January 2006 that was co-sponsored by the City of Ottawa and Ottawa’s Environmental Advisory Committee, it was most interesting to hear (then) Mayor Bob Chiarelli advise those in attendance not to rely on our politicians to provide leadership on the peak oil issue.

The excellent March 2007 Bob Waldrop Marguerite Centre workshop on “local food systems and the need for permaculture” inspired several attendees to do more on the local food front – and thus the OVFC – aimed at bringing together local food producers and consumers, for tremendous mutual benefit – was born.

In recent years there has been incredible growth in organizations focusing on the promotion of local food initiatives; FoodShare, Local Food Plus and the Toronto Food Policy Council in Toronto, Just Food in Ottawa and Food Down the Road in Kingston, are just a few examples.

Permaculture workshops are also now available. Permaculture is a word that was coined to join the words permanent and agriculture and permanent and culture; there is a good discussion of the term on ‘wikipedia’ at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture. For a local workshop (Golden Lake area) coming up July 20-25, go to http://www.earthwisdomcentre.com/ The Ecology Retreat Centre near Orangeville will be holding one from July 20–27 (http://www.truesourceseminars.com/Permaculture.htm for more information).

Key ways for all of us to “get on board” are to garden in our own backyards and/or to take part in community garden initiatives. Deep River has its long-time Horticultural Society community gardens, and many of you have probably spotted the community garden site at the Marguerite Centre in Pembroke.

Another food phenomenon not everyone is yet aware of is the Community Supported Agriculture movement. In CSA’s, members pay their local CSA farmer in Spring for a weekly box of local veggies. By paying upfront, the consumer helps the farmer – who faces multiple daunting challenges just to remain in business – with expenses, and also guarantees her/him a customer base. Kylah Dobson’s Cobden-area CSA ‘Rainbow Heritage Garden’ is in its second year of operation. I’ve become a member this year, along with two other local households. We’re taking turns with our food pick-ups in Pembroke, to minimize car trips. Wouldn’t it be great if a CSA opened up closer to home?

Anyone who’d like to learn about the CSA movement in more detail might want to check out the book Sharing the Harvest – A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture, available at Deep River Library. The book is U.S.-based but is utterly relevant to the Canadian scene, and is also a lovely and inspiring book!

Two books for raising awareness about all matters food-related are Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma – A Natural History of Four Meals and In Defense of Food, both available at Deep River Library. Both are highly informative and very well-written.

Naturally, there are lots of good Web resources on the issues of peak oil and food, and good films to watch also. I recommend the ‘Oil Depletion Resource Page’ at http://www.gulland.ca/depletion/depletion.htm  - and I find the films featured on the Peak Moment Television Web site (http://www.peakmoment.tv/) of great interest.

One more important thing I want to mention is “victory gardens.” I expect there are quite a few people in Deep River who know a lot about this very essential element of life in England during World War II. I wonder if someone with first-hand knowledge would like to write about their victory garden experiences for a future issue of the North Renfrew Times? I strongly suspect this is a concept we may very soon want to “recycle!”