Now speaking of things as they are meant to be, let's talk about food, community food security and food charters.
The Fodd Charter establishes the foundation upon which a Community Food Security Action Plan can be built. The following information about Community Food Security is taken from an article that first appeared here on July 16, 2004.
Community Food Security programs enable communities to build sustainable economies. The following is a quote from the DRAFT of the Community Food Assessment commissioned by the Food Action Network(FAN): "Community Food Security is a strategy for ensuring secure access to adequate amounts of safe, nutritious, culturally appropriate food for everyone, produced in an environmentally sustainable way, and provided in a manner that promotes human dignity.
It features cooperation among all contributors in a local/regional food system, including growers and producers, citizen groups, community agencies, governmental organizations, businesses, academic researchers and environmental advocates. Its actions are based on those of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion: building personal skills, strengthening community action, building healthy public policy and creating supportive environments (including the general principles of food safety that are ensured by monitoring and enforcement activities)."
When we apply permaculture design to the creation of Community Food Security Action Programs, as we are doing here in Thunder Bay, we begin moving towards creating a sustainable community. Locally we have begun the second phase and moving towards community food security. We are conducting a series of community dialogues to find out what and how the people living the experience want to proceed. There are always possibilities. For example, local production, distribution and consumption are vital to the creation of any vibrant community. However, people need income to participate in any market.
Over the next few weeks, we will look at some specific programs and how they work. We will also examine the role that food plays in our lives and community.
I'll leave you this week with these words from E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful:
"Study how a society uses its land and you can come to pretty reliable conclusions as to what its future will be" (p.94)
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