Food and Prosperity: Part One

April showers bring May flowers. If only it were so simple. This April has been dry, dry and sunny. My partner and I just got back from a tour of the Northeast. We visited three towns. Manitouwadge, Marathon and Terrace Bay. The weather was perfect, sunny and mild. It was so ideal in Manitouwadge that I wished that I had packed my shorts.

I look forward to this journey. The scenery is inspiring and humbling at the same time. If you can, plan a vacation and come visit. Get away from the smog and noise. Experience the uniqueness, beauty and hospitality that thrives here.

This week we begin to look at food and community capacity building.

I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation but if people could reduce the amount of food waste that they produced daily, this simple action would have a serious impact on the environmental problems that plague us. For one thing, the reduction in food waste would be a reduction in the food supply that is available to the various pests that rely on the landfill sites for their meals.

One of the reasons that rats thrive in an urban environment is the mountains of garbage that humans produce. They receive a veritable smorgasbord plus shelter and nesting material. We have created rat havens in our cities. There is a direct relationship between waste, which includes food waste, and the rats and other that infest a city.

The sewers are not the only place rats inhabit, although they do give them a convenient transportation system.

Rats, like all beings, go where the food is. Rats will move into your house and gladly enjoy the food remains you leave about or most other garbage for that matter.

We can reduce (not eliminate) the rat population and create niche economic opportunities at the same time. Composting is the first step towards reducing waste and thereby the urban pest food supply. If we stop and remember the fact that everything eats and then act on that fact, we can make a difference.

Composting not only reduces the waste that is available for the pests' dinner. It provides soil, good healthy soil for your garden which in turn produce s food for your table. It becomes a win-win situation. You not only reduce waste and its accompanying pests but you produce food; healthy, food for you and your familybef we expand composting into a food reclamation program then we begin to reduce food waste on a community level.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic