The Open Source – SELRS Update January 24, 2012

“Most people working in the non-profit sector would love it if their organization could do more with its existing staff and volunteer resources. We often care passionately about the work we do, but lament the wasteful ways we have to do things. Wasted hours, wasted money, wasted contacts, and wasted opportunities! We’re tired of being frustrated by the way things are. We want to make a difference, a bigger difference.” – Joseph Murray, PhD

It’s safe to say that this is how most – if not all – of us feel as members of the GFSA Network. And it certainly rings true for the coordinators and advisors of the SELRS project. Our asset mapping exercise has helped us meet many dynamic and committed individuals who helped us find some pretty cool ideas, initiatives and technology. We want to share one special one because its potential for helping us do what we do is quite amazing.

What we’ve found isn’t necessarily new – as a practice. But in terms of technology, it’s one of those hidden gems that make us wonder how we ever got along without it.

“Open source” is collective power in action. The power of a worldwide community of highly skilled technology experts that build, share and improve the very latest computer software together – then make it available to everyone. The term open source was coined in 1998 to remove the ambiguity in the English word ‘free’ and it continues to enjoy growing success and wide recognition. Originally coined in 1998, the term open source came out of the free software movement, a collaborative force going strong since the dawn of computing in the 1950s. This early community was responsible for the development of many of the first operating systems, software and, in 1969, the Internet itself.¹

The open-source community is thriving and today boasts some of the best brains in the business. The aim has not changed: free systems and software should be available to everybody, wherever they are. A great, although sometimes “geeky”, documentary on the Open Source movement is Revolution OS… take the time to watch, it’s a great story!

So, why is this relevant to the SELRS Project? Well, one of our deliverables is to share all of the information we’ve gathered in our asset mapping exercise and we’ve been wondering how best to do this; what format, what cost, how much, how to manage, etc. For a group without legal form nor reliable funding we can’t exactly take the conventional path (aka MicroSoft or other private service providers) – and we’re trying to set an example here for collaboration across a network. So, what better solution than Open Source? From complete operating systems to Windows-compatible office and network management software we can run high-calibre and effective organizations and projects at flea market prices.

Gathering for the few remaining Guiding Group meetings of this first phase of the SELRS project, we need to choose the right mix of available technology to share our framework and resources that will grow sustainable, equitable, local and regenerative systems for food. Whatever we end up with needs to make the most efficient use of limited resources at our disposal. Perhaps the open source solution can grow us in the right direction.

Submitted by Rene Michalak and Brenda Barritt

¹www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/our-philosophy

Infusing Value in Supply – SELRS Update December 23, 2011

It’s almost the end of the year and a natural time to reflect on the year past.  Our project (SELRS) really only kicked off in the last 6 months but there is much to consolidate and reflect on. This blog is about just one part of the many insights we’ve gathered in this short time.

As we’ve mentioned before – on the 12th December we gathered together our guiding group and community animators from GFSA for a ‘sense-making’ workshop: to consolidate what we have learned so far with our asset mapping and plan next steps for SELRS. One of our key objectives for this workshop was to understand what a food system is.

Our last two blog posts shared parts of our inquiry into the second ‘S’ in SELRS – the System for food. In the first blog (http://gfsa.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/digesting-the-global-food-system-selrs-update/)- we reflected on the complexity, confusion and the convoluted-ness of the global food system as it is right now. In the second (http://gfsa.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/destination-sitopia-selrs-update/) we started to look at what a different kind of food system could be – one rooted in local, in place and then growing outward from there.

Reflecting on our workshop, we feel we reached our objective (many times over!) as we were able to build an understanding of what the food system is that we are working to build, how it relates to our current food system, how it is different from the current food system, and a sense of where our work is taking us – globally as well as locally.

And thanks to Shelley Keyes of SK Transitions who joined us as graphic facilitator for the workshop – we are able to illustrate our understanding and see this conversation more clearly.

We realised that we are aiming to build a food system that is based on values and with the goal to feed people, where money is a tool in that system – but is not the commanding purpose of the system (middle part of the image – titled Values Chain).

We have called this a VALUES based food system where the values are the principles and pillars that uphold the system. These pillars are the Sustainable, Equitable, Local and Regenerative identifiers in SELRS. We know that relationships between people are necessary and are the foundation of the model. In the diagram we have used the acronym ‘CFS’ – for community food system: it is system rooted in place and in the relationships of the community that it feeds.

Contrast this to today where people are cogs in the wheel of the system, a system where the goal is to make money and food is simply a commodity, a tool to make that money (left side of the image – titled Supply Chain and GFS for global food system).

People and relationships between those people don’t matter as long as the the supply chain keeps working and money keeps being put in the pockets of the people who are running the system. In one conversation we had during our asset mapping, someone put it bluntly but clearly, “There are a lot of ‘pimps’ in the system and they are the ones who benefit from this it, not the producers or the eaters.”

We acknowledged that today both systems: the supply chain food system and values chain food systems are trying to co-exist but there is a disconnect and a clash between them. We also recognised that the only reason they are both in place is because of cheap energy – - which is a changing reality.

The third panel (right side of image) of our discussion board acknowledges that there is the possibility to have a values chain that is also a global food system but we see it is path that is still a bit foggy.  To have a values chain at a global level, we must base it on our experience of values chains at a community level. As we work at the local level – we build the capacity and the infrastructure to support a global food system that is values driven.

So what we have now is a key part of the SELRS framework because we need to understand where we are – what kind of food systems are present in our world, where we want to go, and how those things are related to each other. And we worked all that out in the first 1/4 of our day together!!! Whew! We said we reached beyond our objective!

We are working to put together the complete output of the workshop which includes a more detailed definition of what Sustainable, Equitable, Local and Regenerative mean and look like in our context as well as the beginnings of our action planning for those steps we are taking along the path to a value chain based food system at a community – and then at a global level. Once that is expressed in tangible terms we will share it here.

In the meantime – we wish you all a wonderful holiday season and happy new year!  We are looking forward to walking the path and building a values based food system with you!

Many blessings and much love,

Rene Michalak and Brenda Barritt

Destination: Sitopia…? – SELRS Update December 5, 2011

With harvest season behind us and Thanksgiving suppers well digested, hibernation and slumber sound like a natural next step. But alas, Christmas supper and New Year’s cheers are just around the corner. AND… seed catalogues are almost in the mail!

It’s a little known fact that Growing Food Security in Alberta (GFSA) is coming up on a milestone. That milestone is its 10 year anniversary as a network of food security-aficionados in Alberta. Over the years, GFSA has been supporting the development of community food systems across Alberta’s rural communities; now totaling 19… and growing! To mark this occasion, the network members are gathering in Sylvan Lake December 11th and 12th to take a walk down memory lane, forecast the next ten years, and then get right to work by planning the next steps for the SELRS project and the progress of community food systems. (see previous blog posts for more info on SELRS)

Community food systems are one of the most important ways we can lead a connected life. These systems connect us to our food, to our local area, to the producers of our food, and other people in the community who belong to the same community food system. Throughout the SELRS conversations – some 50+ to date – the term ‘food system’ has referred to all processes involved in providing us with food. For example, growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consuming and disposing of food. From a ‘system’ perspective our food network does not operate in isolation but functions within and is influenced by the social, economic and natural environments. But, in light of the converging crises around the world, how does our current food system measure up to this reality?

Carolyn Steel, architect, lecturer and writer of the book Hungry City – How Food Shapes Our Lives explains that food is not only a shared necessity – but also a shared way of thinking. Looking at food systems offers an unusual and illuminating way to explore how cities (and society) evolved. Steel’s chief interest is in exploring the inner lives of cities, and her work has focused on developing a lateral approach to urban design that looks at the everyday routines that shape cities and the way we inhabit them. She explains that the historical design of communities subscribes to a “utopian” vision, a term that means ‘good place’ or ‘no place’; used since Plato to describe an ideal – and therefore unattainable – community. Laudable as the utopian desire may be, Steel recommends a more practical “sitopian” approach, a term she coined from the Greek sitos, meaning food, and topos, place, meaning ‘food-place’. Pointing to Ebenezer Howard’s legendary Garden City Movement as a realistic example, she points out that the world is already shaped by food, so we may as well start using food to shape the world more positively.

Could ‘sitopia’ be the obvious answer that has been staring at us all along, only it was too big to see?

Returning to the global food system diagram from our last blog post, where does community fit into the picture? Through the lens of food security, community is promoted as an ideal – a network of relationships in which all processes in the food system occur in a spatial area and in which all processes have positive benefits to the environmental, economic, social and nutritional health of that area. It appears now that “spatial area” is the question. Can we have a community food system at the global level? Perhaps. The issue is the expertise needed at that level is so enormous, the utopian dream so intangible, and the experience of operating at that capacity so undeveloped, we may not be ready for it – if ever.

Alternatively, local systems are simplified, tangibly sitopian, and we have tens of thousands of years of practice. Why then are local systems struggling for support? Why are they increasingly unfamiliar to us? Why do our institutions insist on global markets being the only way? Tough questions. But so is trying to create a utopia. We would argue that a good place IS a food place. Perhaps we’re closer to a utopia than we realize.

Going into the SELRS workshop in Sylvan Lake, we have some tough questions to explore. Among them, “What will a ‘sustainable, equitable, local, and regenerative system for food’ framework create?”, “Can we do it at the local level?”, “If we commit to create it together, will a “good place” be the result?”

We’re hungry to find out.

Submitted by Rene Michalak and Brenda Schroeder

Digesting the Global Food System – SELRS update November 15, 2011

Nausea, heart burn, indigestion… upset stomach, diarrhea…! No, it’s not just the Pepto Bismol commercial : ). It’s the feeling you get when you try to put together and digest the recipe of our global food system.

We’ve heard it said that, “We eat first with our eyes, then with our mouths”. In the case of the global food system, we could argue that our eyes are full but our stomachs, ironically, are empty; and our relationship with food is increasingly detached. To better understand where we are with our relationship to food, let’s begin by trying to understand how our global food system works:
Eee-gads! Perhaps this condensed version will be a little more appetizing:

Still feeling queasy? Us too. Wrapping our heads (and mouths) around the global food system seems nothing short of an Herculean task; perhaps requiring divine intervention… and some of that pink stuff.

According to the Basic Elements diagram above, the global food system is the balance between supply and demand of food. This balance seems to be quantified by two things, geography and politics. Or, assuming they can be separated – a HUGE assumption, by the way – natural systems and human systems.

• Natural Systems
  • Geography / Environment, natural resources (air, water, land)
• Human Systems
  • Politics, Economy, Science / Technology
  • Demographics
  • Psychographics (Socio-Cultural – knowledge, values, preferences)
  • Industry
    • Energy
    • Transportation
    • “Waste” management

And the management and measurement of balance between these ‘separate’ systems is qualified and quantified in:

• Governance – managing the dynamics of complex systems
• Civil Security – relationships between people
• Food Security – relationships between people and food
• Climate Change – degree of change in natural systems

That seems to be the short and skinny of it. Sounds simple, right? Not exactly. That’s like saying salt and pepper alone flavour our meals. Well, they can but you miss out on a lot of flavour. When we move to the more detailed diagram, we can see the ‘flavours’ and ‘spices’ increase almost exponentially… and not in the best combinations as anyone learning to cook for the first time can attest (cue the Pepto Bismol dance).

So, if the global recipe is falling short, how then do we find the right balance of flavours…?

The SELRS approach has been to use two proven recipes: Community Capacity Building and Asset Mapping and Whole Measures for Community Food Systems. Not to replace the global food system per se, but rather to refine its palate so that Sustainability, Equity, Locality, and Regeneration can thrive in diverse systems that communities can call their own – like treasured family recipes.

The question of how to understand the global food system ‘recipe’ and balance its many flavours is what we will address at the SELRS “Sense Making” Workshop, December 12th in Sylvan Lake. Bringing forward all of the information collected through our stakeholder conversations since August, the SELRS Guiding Group and GFSA Community Animators will complete the first iteration of its community asset mapping exercise to find a shared understanding of what a local food system can be in comparison and contrast to the global model. We plan to leave the workshop with a concrete action plan related to the SELRS framework with rural communities in central Alberta – and then across the map of our great province.

As for digesting the global food system, we think our backyards and local farms are a lot easier (and tastier!) to digest…

Submitted by Rene Michalak and Brenda Schroeder

(images courtesy of shiftN)

St. Paul Harvest Ball – Food, Farm, and Family November 5, 2011

What do you get when you put a farmers market, local artists, sustainable food enthusiasts, two great guest speakers and a delicious local food supper prepared by community volunteers together!? The second annual St. Paul Harvest Ball put on by Champions for Change on October 29, 2011! Connecting Food Farm and Family was the goal! And they did it! Fun, Food and outstanding conversation made the event amazing! Dr. Trent Keough, President of Portage College, shared the news about the forthcoming processing centre to be built in St Paul and the partnerships and creativity that have nurtured its development. Xinna Chrapko of Birds and Bees organic winery and meadery shared the moving and motivating story of the family winery and meadery – a story of vision, creativity and perseverance. Xinna reminded us all of the ever-growing distance between ‘our food and the people’ and that we need to work together to bring them back together (www.BirdsandBeeswinery.com). St. Paul has a good start! Stay tuned… you will be hearing a lot more from St. Paul! Margo Fauchon and her team did a wonderful job on the event! (for more info contact Margo at 780-645-6673). Great job Margo and St Paul!

Submitted by Susan Roberts
Growing Food Security in Alberta

University of Alberta Farmers Market – A dream come true! November 5, 2011

Nikki Way and her helpers put on a great Farmers’ Market event in the U of A SUB on Friday, the 21st of October during the University’s Sustainability week.

Farmers, gardeners, processors and crafters were all there along with others with displays about food and sustainability organizations. It was an honour to be there with our GFSA display and our book draw.

This was Nikki’s dream shared at a meeting held by ECOS on Feb 2011! Atta Go Nikki! and all your helpers! Hope we get to see this at U of A more often! A great step to connecting students to local food and farmers!

Submitted by Susan Roberts
Growing Food Security in Alberta

Talk is cheap. Let’s have a real conversation. SELRS Update November 1, 2011

A Harvest Wedding November 1, 2011

On a rainy weekend in mid-June of this year, my fiance (now husband) and I took off for a few days and nights of planning. Thanks to the rain and a big tent – we were cozy inside, working on our holistic goals for our life together as well as doing some more immediate scheduling for the rest of the year.

One of the goals we wrote is:

“We are eating and sharing nourishing food with family and friends.”

We’d already put in a large-ish garden and knew we were going to be raising 200 pastured chickens but we, honestly, didn’t have in mind just how we would get to share this food with our loved ones.

At the same time – we were planning our wedding for the Thanksgiving weekend (October 8th) and had met with a caterer who was willing to let us source the foods from our own garden and pastures or from our farmer friends. Our intent was to have a lovely harvest-style meal: perfect for a Thanksgiving/fall wedding.

These two streams of intent merged over the summer and by the time the wedding day came, we were serving our own beef, chicken, potatoes, carrots, beets, rutabagas and pickles! Some of the desserts were made with our own fruits and the wedding pie that we cut (in lieu of a wedding cake) came from strawberries and rhubarb that we grew as well. I also made up small jars of jams, jellies and other preserves for people to take home with them.

The head table had to be set on the stage of the hall, which was a bit nerve-racking for us: everyone could see us so clearly! It felt like we were setting up ourselves to be king and queen of the night, which wasn’t really what we wanted. But it was a great spot because we could watch the crowd line up at the buffet and could see people coming back for seconds and thirds! I didn’t expect the food to be a big part of the wedding – even though I wanted it to be food I was proud of and felt good about serving. Honestly – I don’t remember the food from other weddings I went to! So it felt great to see people enjoying and commenting and to still be getting notes from friends (3weeks later) about how they enjoyed the meal.

There was a great sense of satisfaction in sharing our produce with our loved ones and felt we were living out this goal that we’d set only a few months ago. It gives me confidence in the direction we are going and means that every time I dig out more carrots or defrost one of our chickens, I am reminded of this special day.

We are humble in our ambitions to be farmers and food producers – but knowing that we started out our marriage and partnership by sharing our own food with our loved ones, I feel like those ambitions just might be possible and might be already realised, in some small way.

Submitted by Brenda Barritt (nee Schroeder)

Susan’s Provincial Update October 20, 2011

I feel the urge to share with you some of what I have learned over the last month that shows things are really happening around food and opportunities across our province. By the end of this month I will have attended or presented at eight different gatherings, celebrations, panels and dinners all about food, and there are more coming up in November! The topics include: marketing of food to kids, cooperatives, enterprising non-profits, healthy eating and active living, students and food, permaculture, urban agriculture, food from a global perspective and GFSA and S.E.L.R.S. The tidbits I have swallowed and am digesting suggest some epi-centres for future GFSA and S.E.L.R.S. action and advocacy across the province including:

• Food corporations marketing of unhealthy foods to children must be stopped! A Café’ Scientific of the CIHR – Institute of Population and Public Health, clearly showed that food corporation marketing of unhealthy foods to children must be stopped. Dr. Kim Raine (U of A), Dr. Charlene Elliott (U of C) and Dave Colburn of the Edmonton Public School Board gave those attending some valuable insights on how pervasive unhealthy food marketing is to kids. The panel shared research findings, ideas for solutions and left the attendees with a clear understanding that change must happen. Stay tuned for more CIHR Café scientific sessions across the country. Have a look at www.consommateur.qc.ca/union-des-consommateurs/docu/agro/MarkJunkFoodChildren.pdf
• Co-ops and enterprising non-profits approaches are viable business models for the regenerative food system we envision.
  • The Rural Team Alberta provided an excellent one-day experience in Westlock about cooperatives – what they are and amazing Alberta examples – Westlock Grain Coop, Sangudo Investment Coop and others – see the Cooperative Secretariat’s Cooperative Development Initiative (CDI) at – http://coop.gc.ca/COOP/display-afficher.do?id=1232543849777&lang=eng
  • the TRICO Foundation’s Enterprising Non-Profits provided an excellent one-day session on Social Enterprise. There will be other workshops. www.enterpisingnonprofits.ca  /  www.tricofoundation.ca
• The term ‘Healthy eating” is not as simple as it sounds and as some make it out to be.Alberta Health Services’ “THRIVE” and ARPA’s Communities Choosewell are opening the door a crack for change. Healthy eating is far more than an eating behaviour change or a health and chronic disease issue. It has implications for economics, equity, peak oil, food system regeneration and sustainability, the environment and as a key to building “community”. If I eat healthy, I believe I will help achieve food sovereignty in Alberta. Eating healthy non-processed food and food closer to home will build my community and my health. Eating ‘non-processed’ and ‘closer to home’ food means we will learn/relearn how to cook and garden, and we will build relationships with providers/retailers and understand the origin and composition of food. I do believe THRIVE and Choosewell Communities are open to this broader dynamic of healthy eating.
• Post secondary and secondary school students interest in seeing change in the food system.The McConnell Foundation has recently provided some funding for a Farm to Cafeteria project. There is a keenness among U of A students who are holding a Farmers Market and also mounting a panel and discussions about Food Security locally and Globally this week!
• Urban agriculture movement is growing– Urban Ag vis-a-vis Permaculture is becoming a stronger force. The City of Edmonton held a display on the potential of Urban agriculture – www.edmonton.ca/FoodandAg. Dustin Bajer, a teacher at Jasper Place High School, presented to a group attending in Edmonton’s City Hall about the vitality of connections in the plant and animal world that are so vital for community. In JP High School Dustin and students have lots to share about permaculture in schools and beyond. Visit www.permaculture.jasperplace.ca/.
• GFSA and S.E.L.R.S. – watch for the blogs and the updated web site, there is lots going on! Rene Michalak has stepped in for Angie Dedrick as the GFSA co-Coordinator with me, Susan. Welcome Rene! Angie is now with the City of St Albert in Community Development. Thanks to Angie for all her great work and all the best as she moves ahead in her new job. Rene will handle some administration, social and technological media, and communication for GFSA. As well, he is a community facilitator along with Brenda Schroeder/Barritt with S.E.L.R.S. News! The “R” in S.E.L.R.S has recently been amended to “Regenerative” instead of regional! Stay tuned for S.E.L.R.S and GFSA updates on the web site at www.foodsecurityalberta.ca

Please let me know if this information is useful, I am fortunate to have had these opportunities. I am sure many of you have others to share. Please do!

Forthcoming in November:

• Nov 1 in Edmonton – Dairy Nutrition Symposium;
  
• Nov 2 in Edmonton – Alberta Rural Sustainable Alternative Network (ARSAN) event;
  
• Nov 3 in Edmonton – Verge Permaculture event;
  
• Nov 8 in Edmonton – Short Film Premier and reception REAL BEEF – Cows and Fish;
  
• Nov 17 and 18 in Toronto – Food Secure Canada strategic planning;
  
• Nov 22 in St. Albert – Meet your Maker – Capital Region Local Food Initiative;
  
• Nov 29 location TBA, Explore Local discussions. 

I am sure there are many more. Why not share what you know that is up-coming?

Submitted by Susan Roberts of Growing Food Security in Alberta

Garlic Planting at Steel Pony Farm October 19, 2011

This past Saturday (October 15th) a group of people got together to do some garlic planting at Steel Pony Farm. This was a root day according to the StellaNatura, and so I decided that it would be a good day to get out there and plant garlic. 17 of us planted almost 1700 cloves of garlic. After planting, we watered and mulched the garlic with some straw I purchased from Kris Vester at BlueMountain Biodynamic Farm by Carstairs.

Last year about this time, garlic was the very first crop seeded on Steel Pony Farm. This year, the garlic is the last crop that I will seed this year; from now until early May the field will go dormant, and garlic will be the first thing to grow up in the spring. It’s really a crop that measures the passing of time.

So 1700 cloves is quite a lot, and I’m looking forward to having a good quantity of garlic for next year. Last year we did about 1000 cloves, but a little bit less than half of those were from bad seed stock and so didn’t end up  making very good bulbs. This year I planted seeds that I had saved from the good part of last year’s crop, and so I’m pretty confident that we’ll get some amazing garlic for 2012.

Submitted by Mike Kozlowski – Steel Pony Farm