Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Food & Agricultural Systems
http://www.relocalize.net/resources/food

Community food security is a condition in which all community residents
obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a
sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social
justice.

~Mike Hamm and Anne Bellows (CFSC)
This section will include resources on community supported agriculture,
food co-operatives, farmers’ markets, organic and bio-intensive farming
methods, urban gardening, food assessments and aspects of permaculture,
food preservation, and food security.


The strategy of Relocalization mandates a drastic reduction in consumption
and advocates increasing the local production of goods. This ‘reduce and
produce’ concept is particularly applicable to food. Food is energy. It
takes energy to grow, harvest and move food around, and we need to start
diversifying the food that is produced in our regions and supporting
farmers that use natural, bio-intensive farming methods if we are to adapt
to an energy constrained future. Simply put: with current industrial
agriculture methods, we are using too much energy to produce the food
energy we need and destroying the soil and biodiversity of our localities
in the process.

Many people reading this will have first hand experience in growing or
eating locally produced food at some time in their life. The idea that we
can eat whatever we want, whenever we want – mangoes in the winter, Thai
spices in Northern Canada or an American burger in Delhi for cheap - is
still pretty new and is highly problematic.

In North America a revival is taking place. More and more communities and
towns have at least one farmers market. Awareness is spreading. Some people
consciously choose to buy local produce when they go grocery shopping or
belong to a box scheme or even pick herbs, fruits and veggies from their
gardens in the warmer months. Reducing consumption and starting to produce
locally is sometimes easier said then done, but this is an area where there
are plenty of resources and examples of community groups and also lots of
potential for individuals and communities to learn and succeed at various
levels.

It is important to begin to recognize what is happening in your locality. A
good way to start is by looking at the space around you, the farm land and
initiatives that are already in place. There may be local garden plots,
fruit picking initiatives or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). We have
provided links to the 100 mile diet, slow food movement and other local
food systems. There are also resources that feature the reality of current
food consumption, and the cultural disassociation between producers and
consumers.