Vision - Healthy fields, farms, and food for current and future Nova Scotians.
Mission - to educate ourselves and others with regard to local and global issues, to craft policies that will help provide solutions, and to advocate for food security and sovereignty within a "big picture" interconnected framework.
Local and global issues:
1.the local and global economic and financial crisis
2.global and regional trade policies that continue to have negative impacts on local agriculture
3.the impacts of global climate change and global warming on our capacity to produce food and thus on the need for shifts to Agricultural polices that are ecologically sustainable
4.the impacts of 'the end of cheap oil' on food security and agricultural policy especially the implications for fossil fuel derived inputs like gasoline for farm vehicles and fertilizers
5.the impact of water scarcity linked to climate change and contamination
Imagine for a moment if we once again knew, strictly as a matter of course, these few unremarkable things: What it is we're eating. Where it came from. How it found its way to our table. And what, in a true accounting, it really cost.Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma
On Thursday evening September 12th, 2008, a group of concerned individuals met in Wolfville to explore the opportunity to share our concerns and learn more about food and agriculture. Each member of the group had a few minutes to introduce themselves and talk about their concerns, issues and possible solutions. It was decided to come together as a Food Security / Food Sovereignty coalition of concerned citizens and groups, which could be called FANS, for Friends of Agriculture in Nova Scotia.
FRAMEWORK: The group agreed that the we should frame our mission as food sovereignty within a "big picture" interconnected framework, and within a context that recognizes how global trends require a major local perspective shift with regard to how we feed ourselves and the population and the kind of agricultural / horticultural polices we foresee for the future.
FOOD SECURITY / FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: We looked at two frameworks - 1) Food Sovereignty is not the same as "food security". A country can have food security through food imports but dependence on food imports is precarious and prone to multiple risks -- from price risks, to supply risks, to conditionality risks (policy conditions that come with food imports). Food sovereignty, on the other hand, implies ensuring domestic production and supply of food. It means that citizens of the country or at the region must primarily be responsible for ensuring that the nation and the region are first and foremost able to depend on their own efforts and resources to grow their basic foods. http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/08/editorials/tandon.htm
ii) Food Security Principles of Vandana Shiva. Shiva is a nationalist who advocates localization of food production and hence food sovereignty. Shiva's Food Security Principles emphasize the importance of extricating ourselves from global and regional trade polices that favour large corporations and profit over people and the planet.
FIRST STEPS
1. EDUCATION We will educate ourselves and help to inform the public - these may be slightly different as there was agreement that the public might not want as quite as much information and detail and depth in terms of analysis and policies. There was also agreement that we need to understand how the present trade polices impact agriculture and our ability to shift to more local/sovereign policies (even buy local campaigns in the US have been cited as possible impediments to NAFTA and global corporate profits.
With a view to this we agreed to start with the a showing of a very good Food Security video that documents how the global corporate model is attempting to control world food supplies through Genetically Modified food, through a Codex Alimentation regime that is working to prevent labeling, through global corporate trade and finance policies etc. This would be followed by a panel of experts who would discuss the impact at the local level. Edith Callaghan, Executive Director of Acadia's Learning Academy for the Environment will facilitate larger group meetings on the Acadia Campus.
2. NETWORKING Reach out to all who are involved in this issue - citizens, farmers, NGOs, economists, peak oil specialists, trade experts, politicians, and others, and foster networking of and with all groups involved in the issues.
3. CRAFT POLICES RECOGNIZING THE PARADIGM HAS SHIFTED
Craft policies that we would like to see in place after educating ourselves about the best alternatives to present systems. In a time of rapid change it is easy to critique existing models – however, we realize that those models were put in place at another time politically, economically and with a different set of assumptions, knowledge base, and values informing the decisions. We need to understand the principles of the alternative economic system within which our food production will evolve as resources diminish.
3a. DRAFT WHITE PAPER Prepare a white paper that presents the best solutions we have been able to ascertain for resilient agriculture and food security in Nova Scotia, and take our findings to government leaders and advocate for appropriate policies.
Submitted by Janet M Eaton, PhD, and Linda Best, September 19th 2008, for - PH-S, EC, LO'N, LW, JMcM, PC, WZ, SH, AP, AS, GP, JS, MLH, RM, SF, TP, LB, LC, FW, DF, PMcM, SB, NB, LY
