Seriously, What the Heck is Food Security?

Food Security. What does this mean exactly? There’s different ways to answer this but here’s one thing food security means. Take this analogy: You rely on the grocery store to have all the items you need, when you need them. If they do, that’s food secure. If they don’t, because the trucks that bring in all the groceries couldn’t make it here from California because the cost of diesel got too high, or we ran out of diesel, or Trump decided to close the border because someone’s social media tweet annoyed him, that’s food insecure. In other words, the last few generations have placed alot of reliance on the prevalence of grocery stores on the corner. That’s a whole other story. And we don’t stock the pantry like the old days. The grocery store IS our pantry now. So without these grocery stores how would you eat? If most of our food gets shipped to us from somewhere far, far away then we are at the mercy of this system and things can and will go wrong. Not just from the shipping side but also from the growing side. If you haven’t noticed, California has no water! California has been feeding Canada and the US for decades. That has worked beautifully in the last half century due to the technology to tap our earth’s aquifers (underground water sources) and irrigate otherwise unproductive lands (California is mainly desert or semi-desert by nature. Not strawberry fields forever!) Now those aquifers are drying up rapidly and things are going to be changing in the way we receive food. And in the not-too-distant future California will not be pumping out food for the masses like they do now. This is food insecurity. And times are changing. Does this bother you at all? We’re not going to starve, but we are going to have to make adjustments. One of those adjustments is to grow at least some food where you live, or in a community garden or in your neighbour’s garden, or buy from local farmers. Growing food is magical but not mysterious. The smiling and well-fed (on local and nutritious food!) folks at https://www.westcoastfoodscapes.ca want to remove the mystery and paint your thumbs green. Or, leave it to us and we’ll manage that garden for you. We just want to see fruit and vegetables springing forth from the places you live. We all win in this scenario. And become much more food secure in the process.