Saturday July 31, 2021 | VANCOUVER ISLAND, BC
Commentary by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Editor | Island Social Trends
Today July 31 is Food Day BC. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham enthusiastically Tweeted that out today:
“Its proclaimed! July 31 is #FoodDayBC. Today, we celebrate our province’s rich and diverse culinary heritage. Thank you to all B.C.’s farmers, fishers, producers, chefs, food processors & everyone else who contributes to B.C.’s food system https://fooddaycanada.ca #buybc #bcpoli “
It’s fabulous that BC has great leadership to build food systems infrastructure.
Growing food in your own yard:
But hopefully the BC strategy will also soon include direct encouragement (programs and funding) to generate consistent backyard food growing by households as the next plank of food security and generating a bit of food self-sufficiency.
There’s nothing like homegrown food for freshness, optimal nutrient value, natural quality, and availability:
- You know it’s fresh-picked for taste and being most nutritious because it hasn’t been shipped or sitting around in a store.
- The natural quality of the food (presuming that chemical fertilizers or pesticides are not used) is relatively assured.
- And there it is, right in your backyard (or front yard!), ready when you wish to include the pickings in your lunch or dinner.
Provincial government support for home-grown food projects might include supporting organizations and small businesses that can help homeowners establish new vegetable gardens, and even providing similar encouragement to strata councils and rental building owners.
Direct-to-homeowners might be achieved with coupons that can be redeemed at certain retail or wholesale suppliers, or even a home-garden tax deduction if proof of garden establishment and maintenance for the purpose of food security (personal or neighbourhood) can be proven.
Soil health:
Naturally, the fundamental success of growing healthy food is to enrich the soil and keep it free of herbicides and pesticides. On top of that, proper watering and irrigation systems are key.
On a national scale, local MP Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) held a Zoom session earlier this month about strengthening the food production system in Canada, with an emphasis on his Soil Health Bill C290 (which, if there is an election this summer/fall, he will have to introduce again in the House of Commons in what would be Canada’s 44th parliament).
MacGregor’s focus was on commercial farming (small, medium and large), but said (in response to a question from Island Social Trends) that once a food systems and soil health committee might be established (if his soil heatlh bill comes to pass), that a federal approach to supporting at-home food growing might be a recommendation that would come out of such a committee.
Share your food stories:
Part of the Food Day BC proclamation (signed by BC’s Attorney General David Eby and BC Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin) reads that Food Day Canada is a time for all people and communities in BC and Canada to share their food stories and celebrate food together, in person or online.
We are happy to publish your food photos and gardening tips here within the Island Social Trends food and nutrition section. We are particularly keen to hear about food-growing here on South Vancouver Island. Send your photos and stories to news@islandsocialtrends.com .
Food security:
Food security for individuals contributes to financial resilience and for the broader community demonstrates adaptation to climate change. Locally-grown and home-grown food means that food products have not been shipped from afar (which implicitly means that energy was expended to package and ship it, in almost all cases with an environmental impact whether that’s plastic packaging, herbicides and pesticides sprayed onto foods, and the carbon emissions from fuel used for trucks or shipping by air).
Starting a veggie garden was a hobby engaged in by more people than usual during the stay-at-home phase of the COVID pandemic this year. In addition to learning a few garden tips, the experience was probably enlightening as to how much work it is to maintain a garden that produces edible vegetables, herbs and fruit.
South island ideal for food-growing:
Here on Vancouver Island we are incredibly fortunate to have regional and local micro-climates that — in some cases — allow gardening nearly year-round (unless it snows).
Some experienced gardeners can achieve nearly two full growing seasons out of a properly established garden.
Tips in that regard include soil nutrient levels and appropriate types of irrigation.
The climate zone for most of the coastal areas of Vancouver Island (and particularly for Greater Victoria within the southern tip of the island) is Zone 9 which has a coldest temperature of -7 to -1°C (19 to 30°F).
The real estate angle:
From a strictly property-value point of view, a house or multi-family residential building has added value if food is grown on-site. This could well be the next ‘hot ticket’ in terms of home-purchase preference, especially in the south Vancouver Island region.
Doing it:
And just to show that Island Social Trends puts our efforts where are words are, here is a recent photo of the backyard garden that we maintain:
Happy Food Day!
===== About the writer:
Island Social Trends Editor Mary P Brooke holds a B.Sc. in nutrition science, with a strong component in community education about food and nutrition (as well as sociology — how we tick as a society).
Ms Brooke has long been a proponent of ‘optimal nutrition’, both from natural food sources and from strategic nutrient supplementation. Properly counselled nutritional intake can be supportive to improving or resolving a wide range of physical conditions, many of which also impact emotional and mental well-being. The human body is a complex galaxy of chemicals; food supplies many of the components we need for the optimal function of the human body and the rest can be supplied by natural source supplements.
Mary dabbles in backyard gardening, producing veggies, herbs and fruits from yard to table.
