Philip Steenkamp: Food security should be next on B.C.’s political menu | Canada News Media
Connect with us

Politics

Philip Steenkamp: Food security should be next on B.C.’s political menu

Published

 on

Certainly not all of us — anyone who has relied on a food bank knows what it’s like to worry about where the next meal is coming from. But many British Columbians, especially those in positions of power and influence, are used to the luxury of leaving food security questions to other people.
Those days are over.

We got a taste of food insecurity early in the pandemic as grocery-store shelves emptied. The race for the last package of toilet paper or bottle of hand sanitizer got the headlines, but even the availability of household staples like flour and eggs was suddenly in doubt.

Then, just as that was settling down, the November 2021 atmospheric river swept in. Floodwaters overtook huge swaths of Fraser Valley farmland, and drowned cows, chickens, pigs and even bees by the thousands. Landslides and bridge collapses cut off trucking routes and rail lines — and once again, supermarket shelves emptied out.

On the heels of that disaster came a massive surge in inflation. COVID-19’s on-again, off-again supply-chain disruptions were supercharged by Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine. And while prices rose across the board, food prices have been the ones to keep stubbornly increasing. (Not that frustrated consumers will be willing to place the blame entirely on supply chains while grocery chains are reaping record profits and memories of the 2017 bread price-fixing scandal are still fresh in customers’ minds.) In one of the most expensive places to live on Earth, that’s having a serious impact on the ability of people with a limited income to feed themselves and their families.

Today, in the aftermath of an even more devastating atmospheric river and widespread flooding in California — the source of a lot of B.C. produce, especially in the winter and spring — questions are arising of where the next shortages will show up. Even at that, our situation pales in comparison to developing countries that until now relied on wheat from Ukraine. Russia has not only blockaded exports from that country, but is also launching relentless attacks on the energy infrastructure that helps keep food production running.

If there was any doubt before, it’s gone now: Food security is a critical issue. The assured, ready supply of a wide variety of food that we’ve been accustomed to is in jeopardy.

That may be disheartening to hear, given the many other dangers and challenges we’re facing, but then those crises have more than a little connection to a safe, reliable, affordable supply of food. Climate disruption means more extreme weather events; rising authoritarianism and nationalism threaten to unleash more wars; our global economy, built on assumptions about stability that today seem hopelessly naïve, can be expected to falter again and again.

All of these conditions erode the security of our food supply.

In turn, an insecure supply of food can undermine the stability of governments and local economies, prompt large-scale migrations and humanitarian crises, and heighten conflicts between countries.

This is life under the polycrisis — interconnected, mutually reinforcing crises that affect everything from severe rainfall warnings to the ever-rising prices at the grocery checkout.
Giving Garden Harvest Fall 2022 event at Royal Roads University near Victoria. Left to right: University president Philip Steenkamp, Jesse Willis of Upbeet Garden and Anna Maria Stone of Iyé Creative. Steenkamp and Stone hold a variety of winter squash to be donated to local community groups. Photo by Trevor Henry

Addressing food security requires a broad range of co-ordinated responses at every level, from individual neighbourhoods to international co-operation. We urgently need to have long-overdue conversations about just what that response must look like.

But not all the answers will have to be planetary in scale — or even provincewide.

As you read this, the Giving Garden in the Farm at Royal Roads University is nearly ready for the first harvest of 2023. Driven by Dr. Hilary Leighton, program head in our School of Environment and Sustainability, it is both a living laboratory for Royal Roads students and a growing source of fresh produce for the Greater Victoria community, directly addressing food insecurity in the region.

The impact of the Farm at RRU is real and significant, with over 1,000 pounds of fresh vegetables distributed last year to food-insecure seniors, single parents and newcomers to Canada. That contribution will keep increasing in the coming years.

Meanwhile, Dr. Robert Newell, the new Canada Research Chair in Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainability, is studying the use of systems mapping to show relationships among local farms, transportation networks, grocery stores, communities and key social and environmental issues. His program also looks at sustainability and novel food production methods, such as vertical agriculture (growing crops indoors using stacked shelves) and cellular agriculture (growing meat directly from cell cultures instead of relying on animals).

Solutions like these are being developed throughout B.C. and Canada. But we need to co-ordinate them. One obvious vehicle for that co-ordination is government: Indigenous, municipal, provincial and federal. There are many ways they can support that work — from developing up-to-date standards for measuring food insecurity to bringing a food security lens to bear on every aspect of public policy.

That can only happen if leaders at all levels start convening the public conversations needed to shape that vision.

If any good is to come from the food supply shocks of the past three years — and the more severe incidents that are sure to come — it’s that they’ve given us all an appetite for those conversations. It’s time for our leaders to get cooking.

Source link

Politics

N.S. government sets up code of conduct for province’s municipal politicians

Published

 on

 

HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government has released a code of conduct for municipal politicians across the province.

The code includes 40 guidelines under 14 categories, covering topics from gifts and benefits, to how officials should handle confidential information.

Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr says a code ensuring elected municipal officials have clear guidance on conduct and behaviour is long overdue.

The code was originally requested by the provinces’ municipalities and villages, and it was developed based on recommendations of a working group established in January 2022.

The working group recommended a code that applied across the province, with processes for investigating complaints and imposing sanctions.

The provincial government says councils and village commissions must adopt the code of conduct by Dec. 19.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Parliament returns amid partisan wrangling, rumblings about Trudeau’s leadership

Published

 on

 

OTTAWA – The House of Commons returns today from a week-long break, but it’s unlikely to be business as usual.

Members of Parliament are slated to resume debating a Conservative demand for documents about federal spending on green technology projects.

The matter of privilege has all but paralyzed House business as the Liberals try to maintain a grip on an increasingly fractious minority Parliament.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to face the most serious challenge to his leadership to date.

Several media reports have detailed the plans of a group of Liberal MPs to confront Trudeau at the party’s Wednesday caucus meeting over sagging poll numbers and gloomy electoral prospects.

The precise strategy and breadth of the attempt to push Trudeau to resign remain unclear, though some MPs who spoke to The Canadian Press on background said the number of members involved is significant.

Trudeau could sidestep both problems by taking the controversial step of proroguing Parliament, which would end the session and set the stage for a fresh throne speech.

Some political watchers have mused the move would allow time for a Liberal leadership race if Trudeau were to step down.

The prime minister also plans to soon shuffle his cabinet to replace four ministers who don’t plan to run again in the next election.

A general election is scheduled to be held in October next year, but could come sooner if the Liberals lose the confidence of the House.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

— With files from Laura Osman

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Harris tells Black churchgoers that people must show compassion and respect in their lives

Published

 on

 

STONECREST, Ga. (AP) — Kamala Harris told the congregation of a large Black church in suburban Atlanta on Sunday that people must show compassion and respect in their daily lives and do more than just “preach the values.”

The Democratic presidential nominee’s visit to New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest on her 60th birthday, marked by a song by the congregation, was part of a broad, nationwide campaign, known as “Souls to the Polls,” that encourages Black churchgoers to vote.

Pastor Jamal Bryant said the vice president was “an American hero, the voice of the future” and “our fearless leader.” He also used his sermon to welcome the idea of America electing a woman for the first time as president. “It takes a real man to support a real woman,” Bryant said.

“When Black women roll up their sleeves, then society has got to change,” the pastor said.

Harris told the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke, about a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by robbers. The traveler was beaten and left bloodied, but helped by a stranger.

All faiths promote the idea of loving thy neighbor, Harris said, but far harder to achieve is truly loving a stranger as if that person were a neighbor.

“In this moment, across our nation, what we do see are some who try to deepen division among us, spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos,” Harris told the congregation. “The true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.”

She was more somber than during her political rallies, stressing that real faith means defending humanity. She said the Samaritan parable reminds people that “it is not enough to preach the values of compassion and respect. We must live them.”

Harris ended by saying, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” as attendees applauded her.

Many in attendance wore pink to promote breast cancer awareness. Also on hand was Opal Lee, an activist in the movement to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday. Harris hugged her.

The vice president also has a midday stop at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro with singer Stevie Wonder, before taping an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton that will air later Sunday on MSNBC. The schedule reflects her campaign’s push to treat every voting group like a swing state voter, trying to appeal to them all in a tightly contested election with early voting in progress.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, headed to church in Saginaw, Michigan, and his wife, Gwen, was going to a service in Las Vegas.

The “Souls to the Polls” effort launched last week and is led by the National Advisory Board of Black Faith Leaders, which is sending representatives across battleground states as early voting begins in the Nov. 5 election.

“My father used to say, a ‘voteless people is a powerless people’ and one of the most important steps we can take is that short step to the ballot box,” Martin Luther King III said Friday. “When Black voters are organized and engaged, we have the power to shift the trajectory of this nation.”

On Saturday, the vice president rallied supporters in Detroit with singer Lizzo before traveling to Atlanta to focus on abortion rights, highlighting the death of a Georgia mother amid the state’s restrictive abortion laws that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court, with three justices nominated by Donald Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade.

And after her Sunday push, she will campaign with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

“Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused,” Harris said.

Harris is a Baptist whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. She has said she’s inspired by the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and influenced by the religious traditions of her mother’s native India as well as the Black Church. Harris sang in the choir as a child at Twenty Third Avenue Church of God in Oakland.

“Souls to the Polls” as an idea traces back to the Civil Rights Movement. The Rev. George Lee, a Black entrepreneur from Mississippi, was killed by white supremacists in 1955 after he helped nearly 100 Black residents register to vote in the town of Belzoni. The cemetery where Lee is buried has served as a polling place.

Black church congregations across the country have undertaken get-out-the-vote campaigns for years. In part to counteract voter suppression tactics that date back to the Jim Crow era, early voting in the Black community is stressed from pulpits nearly as much as it is by candidates.

In Georgia, early voting began on Tuesday, and more than 310,000 people voted on that day, more than doubling the first-day total in 2020. A record 5 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that the mobilization effort launched last week, not Oct. 20.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Exit mobile version