Tricia Edgar | Friday 20th November 2009
Localization has become the mantra of many people who are concerned about issues like peak oil and climate change. It's a matter of self-reliance. How can we develop communities that can better serve our needs: our need to clothe ourselves, our need to move around, our need to eat, our need to have health care. The list goes on and on. The need for food sovereignty is often bandied about.
What is food sovereignty? Like the sovereignty of a nation, the idea of food sovereignty is the idea that we must do more within our own national boundaries to feed ourselves. In my world, these boundaries could also extend across nations but between communities. In Canada, we have many ties with our United States neighbors, and the ecosystem that I live in spreads across our national boundaries into Washington as well. To me, that's local too. Why support food sovereignty? Well, we're starting to rethink the distances that we ship food, the ethics and production of the food that we ship. It's not just an ethical conundrum either. As oil prices rise, we may be pushed into local eating through economic necessity, and it would be useful to have the capacity to respond.
What enables a community to become more self-reliant and to develop sustainable sources of local food? First of all, community members need to develop an understanding of the land, which means developing an understanding of the general climate and the very specific neighborhood and backyard-level issues that accompany growing food. Is the area rainy much of the year? When is the first and last frost? What crops grow well in a semi-shade backyard?
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