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The Vancouver Island Diet

ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot

I feel incredibly inspired and encouraged by all the efforts of Vancouver Islanders to increase local food security this year, yet I can’t help but think that we need a plan to move from providing five percent of the food we consume to 50 percent, the rate currently enjoyed by the rest of BC.

Before we begin, we need to know if we have enough farmable land on Vancouver Island and the outlying islands to make sure that a goal of 50 percent food security is feasible. The current population of Vancouver Island is 734,860; in order to maintain current American dietary standards, we need 1.2 acres of farmable land per capita population. This could be cut back to a half-acre if we reduce our meat consumption and adopt a more vegetarian/vegan way of eating. By quantifying farmable acres, we’d familiarize ourselves with the land that we need to protect from speculation and development, in order to feed ourselves.

We are fortunate to live in a cool, temperate climate, with Mediterranean-type summers and mild winters where we can grow food year-round. We are also fortunate that we have a solid core of community-minded people who understand the imperative of getting more food in the ground. When we shift from a social norm that encourages rugged individualism and competition to one that inspires cooperation, collaboration and community (the 3 Cs), we’ll be able to make the shift to a Vancouver Island Diet more easily.

We could launch a ‘REAL’ food campaign – it just so happens that REAL stands for regional, environmentally responsible, agricultural land use. Tests at a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) lab in Maryland show that greens grown in greenhouses lack the antioxidants essential for maintaining good health. The glass blocks the UVB-band in sunlight that prompts lettuce and other crops to make antioxidants outdoors.

This is how we market the REAL food campaign: growing our own food and supporting the local farming community means we eat REAL food, food that has been grown in healthy soils and allowed to sun ripen. This is how we protect ourselves against the onslaught of cancer and neurological problems, using natural phytonutrients in our food as our defence.

By 2040, the number of people older than 65 will double to 1.3 billion, accounting for 14 percent of the total global population. For the first time in history, the old will outnumber the young, a fact that could slow economic growth in both rich and poor countries alike. If our new mantra was ‘let food be thy medicine,’ we could prevent the bankruptcy of our healthcare system. And a new approach endorsing preventative health care – making it the individual’s responsibility to eat the right foods to achieve optimum health – would mean we would shift from depending on pharmaceuticals to living well.

So who’s going to grow all this food and where is the land going to come from? Farmers require secure land access so restrictions could perhaps be tightened on the future purchase of land that has been zoned as agricultural. A clause requiring that a minimum of 10 percent of the land be farmed would put a lot of land back into food production. For landowners who do not wish to farm, extending long-term leases to tenant farmers would get the next generation of farmers back on the land and the landowner could receive farm tax credits as a reward.

The Vancouver Island Diet mitigates the unknown effects of climate change, the economic recession and the swine flu pandemic. It creates both community and greater food security through ensuring that our neighbours are fed. It also means greater prosperity as we reclaim our right to good health and benefit from the power of community. What are we waiting for?

Carolyn Herriot is author of A Year on the Garden Path: A 52-Week Organic Gardening Guide. She grows Seeds of Victoria at the Garden Path Centre where she teaches The Zero Mile Diet - Twelve Steps to Sustainable Homegrown Food Production and Growing an Edible Plant Business.www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath

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