It’s sometimes hard to believe that with all we hear about locally-sourced food, going green and food security, the grassroots projects to support those notions are still the Davids versus the Goliath of the commercial agricultural system.
It can be mind boggling to think that after thousands of years of developing a collective knowledge of agriculture we, as a society, drastically threw most of that out the window and changed the way we do everything within a span of a century. Small family farms turned into massive commercial enterprises. Time-tested growing practices, that worked with the Earth, were replaced by quick-fix solutions that yielded more crops but hurt the land. Backyard gardens disappeared. Fruit and vegetables started being shipped hundreds and thousands of kilometres.
What Ron Berezan’s project in Cuba supports is the idea that in order to save our farming practices and to become reconnected to the food we eat, sometimes we need to look back and think small in order to move ahead.
Just as in Cuba, this system could easily all come crashing down. All it takes is rising fuel prices or a natural disaster and all of a sudden the supermarket may not be stocked with so much fresh food, or it might be so expensive as to be unaffordable.
Cuba, despite whatever qualms anyone might have about its government, should be seen as an example of the direction the world needs to go in terms of food production.
Powell River, in turn, can lead Canadian communities with our example. As a genetically-engineered crop free zone and a harbinger for backyard farmers, Powell River celebrates its agricultural heritage in a way that many other communities could benefit from.
The way we do things now simply cannot be sustained long term. The alternatives are there and gaining in popularity but they are still compared to the supermarket, McWorld system of growing. Someday that may change. Someday that may have to change without any choice. For now we need to do what we can with what we’ve got, put in a little extra effort into buying and growing local, organic food and keep taking small, David-sized steps forward.
