Most of these are local to Victoria, but maybe if you’re elsewhere you have similar options (let me know if you do!) for giving gifts that will make a bigger difference this year.

1. Buy a farm a long term future
A local organic farming couple is seeking investors to help them keep their land available for farming in perpetuity: Madrona Farm has met the first installment deadline in its quest to raise $2.5 million to buy its permanent custodianship for agricultural use under the TLC — thanks in no small part to the number of British Columbians who’ve donated their carbon tax (“climate action dividend”) cheques to the cause. There’s another deadline coming up in July, so you can start now…

2. Buy another farm a long term future
The Farmlands Trust is also seeking investors and TLC covenant protection to purchase Woodwynn Farm. So far they have raised over $3 million in donations and no-interest loans and are seeking another $2-$2.5 million in time for their March 15th, 2009 deadline. Every donation over $50 receives a tax receipt and thank-you card from The Land Conservancy of BC. You can check it out for yourself with a visit to the neighbourhood, at 7pm on Thursday December 4 in St Stephens Church Hall, 7921 St Stephen’s Road, Saanich, to catch a viewing of Island on the Edge and hear about the fund-raising plans from the people behind the project.

3. Buy a stake in ecological vision: OUR Ecovillage in Cobble Hill, a living laboratory of rural sustainability, attracts 7500 visitors a year who come to learn about cooperative living, permaculture, natural building, and a new vision of life on Earth. They’re seeking people who want to invest in OUR Ecovillage Co-operative at $5,000 per share; or to make a charitable (tax-deductible) donation to the Cowichan Community Land Trust have OUR Ecovillage put into protection as a Community Land Trust.

4. Buy some veggies for someone who needs them: if the Food Roots Holiday Box (20 lbs of local edible fun for $49) sounds like too much fun to keep to yourself, you can donate a box (or more!) through Food Roots, to the Salvation Army or the Women’s Transition House.

5. Give a turkey. Get in touch with Joyce & Peter at Earle Clarke House in Victoria (sometime before December 21), and pledge some money or food for the Christmas hampers they put together each year for families in need. They look for everything from stuffing mix to turkeys. They have 100 empty hampers they’d really like to fill this year.

6. Bless the bees: Give bee-friendly plants, or a home-made mason bee house or a bumblebee nest to encourage them (or you can order some here). People have been sending me honeybee news, for which I am most grateful: here’s a story about bee havens in Europe (thanks Ruth!); about a swarm of protest in Britain (thanks Judi!); and another about the founder of a cool group called Bees Without Borders.

7. Give a goat: Oxfam Unwrapped offers a dazzling selection of items and services for people in developing countries, from seeds to water to healthcare training. They’ll send a card to your friend or relative describing the gift you selected for them while the gift and proceeds generated go to those who need them most. (Meli told me about a wedding she went to where the gift list was all Oxfam Unwrapped: how great is that?)

Thursday’s excitement was participation in the Focus on Farmlands conference, where about 180 interested parties, younger and older, got together to talk about farming, food, agricultural land trusts and ownership and where to go from here. Presented by the tireless souls of LifeCycles, including Linda Geggie,

it was a stimulating day of discussion with participants from many different areas: lots of farmers, a good selection of elected officials at several levels of government, and some fringe-dwellers like myself, there to find out more and connect with the like-minded. The topics ranged from farmland trusts, community farms and other models of land access, to farm status and assessment, to political strategies, to urban and traditional methods of growing food. There was too much for any one soul to take in, so LifeCycles plans to post information from the sessions as soon as they can get it onto their website. Video footage from sessions and interviews is being posted on www.farmlands.blip.tv

We began with some prayer and drumming from Scott Sam, of the Tsartlip Nation

and then had a briefing from agrologist, farmer and BC Agriculture Council member Niels Holbek who had many interesting statistics to share, including some on farmland loss from the American Farmland Trust and the Farmland Preservation Research Project at the University of Guelph; and a local stat that came up several times through the day: 3% of the province’s land has both 80% of the population and 80% of the province’s gross farm receipts; not a good formula, observed someone, should there be a food security crisis, and the reason why there is so much competition for the same land for farming and housing.

We then broke into workshop sessions. I went to the one called The “Regional Food Basket” – Looking Beyond Farmlands, where we heard from two members of the Tsawout Nation, JB Williams and Earl Claxton Jr, who are working to restore first nation ties to traditional food sources and culture; observing that their populations had been devastated by the introduction of some foods and the loss of others. Lee Fuge of Food Roots talked about pocket markets and the distributors’ warehouse space they share with Share Organics and LifeCycles – but she then had to dash back to the kitchen to make sure our lunch wouldn’t be delayed. Melanie Sommerville of LifeCycles threw a few more numbers into the statistics pool: about 80% of Canadians now live in urban centres; 84.5% do so in BC, with just over 50% of the province’s population in the Victoria and Vancouver regions combined. There is a lot of interest in growing food nowadays – local seed selling has tripled this year – and there are many great examples of local urban agriculture projects – the Fruit Tree program, the Sharing Back Yards program, HomeGrown Gardens, Growing Schools and Spring Ridge Commons. Deb Heighway talked about SPIN farming in Victoria, and recommended the online resources which helped her join the 2000 others worldwide who are farming in other people’s under-used back yards.

In the afternoon I attended the From Ideas to Action: Farmers and Eaters Taking Action on Farmland Issues workshop led by David Mincey,

whose Camille‘s restaurant has long been known for its use of local products.

He was joined by fellow restauranteur and Island Chefs Cooperative member Ken Hueston, whose Smoken Bones Cookshack sounds worth a visit. He talked a bit about ‘food trending’ – which is a bit of a vicious cycle, where flavour-of-the-month foods get over-promoted at the expense of variety and honest experimentation by restaurants. A veteran protester (he’s only recently been allowed back into Safeway where 10 years ago he kicked over a display of Mexican corn when there was a local farm visible out the window) he made another good point to do with consumer demand: if we simply go on accepting only 5% local produce in our supermarkets, there’s no motivation on the part of supermarket buyers to change their sourcing. Next to him was David Chambers from Madrona Farm,

who spoke persuasively and from personal experience on the idea of channelling what farmland we have left through The Land Conservancy, so that it’s preserved for agricultural land in perpetuity, and not loosed to the whims of marketplace when farmers retire. His family farm is in the process of being bought by TLC who – if the needed funds are raised by July 2010 – can assure its future better than the Agricultural Land Reserve, which has proven itself unequal to the forces brought to bear by speculators and developers, and which protects relatively little of the most fertile land in the province, down here in the southern third where all the people want to live. In fact, as Niels Holbeck had told us at the start of the day, 90% of the land included now in the ALR is in the north of the province, and 70% of the lands excluded from the ALR are in the south.

Elmarie Roberts gave a primer on what community support for agricultural land can do, from her experience at Haliburton Farm, which is one chunk of land rescued from subdivision and property development by the local council, and protected by its nonprofit status. She’s one of six farmers who’ll be bringing in the veggies for thirty lucky supporters of their Community Supported Agriculture program. She said that in its purest form, a CSA helps to fund the farm’s operation by small scale investment by members of its community, and its members also work the land alongside the farmers. Here, though, it’s a pick-up scheme that provides a selection of seasonal fruits and vegetables to members, with volunteer work parties picking up the slack in weeding and field work. To her right is Lana Popham,

whose family runs the Barking Dog organic vineyard (and makes a rather special local gin!) and who is running for a seat in the next provincial election. David Cubberley

is already there (and put his money where his mouth was by laying down a significant donation to the Madrona Farm purchase fund). He talked about a few of the ALR properties that were topical at present: Panama Flats and Beckwith Farm, both owned by developers claiming to want to grow organic blueberries – I guess they’ve really turned a page in their career books – and he ran us through the political history of Haliburton’s acquisition; it had been owned by the water board who had been sorely tempted by developers who were only stopped by a group of active and well organised community members.

Corky Evans gave the closing address.

He’s retiring after 25 years in politics, including stints as provincial Agriculture minister and most recently Agriculture critic, and he wanted to share some insights into motivating politicians. He urged people to start showing up at council meetings, to organise into large enough audiences that politicians would have to come and answer to us: “We don’t listen to small groups of people who don’t all live in the same constituency.”

Food, he said, has never appeared on the agenda of any party meeting, any poll, any election in this province; there are no farmers elected to the legislature: and that is why there is no food policy in this province. Someone has to educate the politicians, he said, and a crisis point such as the one we’re in is the best time we’ll ever have to keep them focused on food as an issue; without focus, no action.

Words dear to my heart: “The drug of our time that dissipates focus is television. If you want to keep focused through the next election, don’t watch television, don’t get distracted by what the television stations tell you are the issues.”

He pointed out that BC pays less to support its farmers than Newfoundland; that it would cost $143 million to bring the province to an average rating, compared to other provinces; which amount is .4 of 1% of the annual budget, or $1 million less than tax breaks currently awarded by the government. He wasn’t talking subsidies, which he feels promote bad farmers and bad food, but there are all kinds of ways to support farming other than subsidies.

He said if we were looking for something to ask for in the next election, how about voting for the party that votes to end exclusions (from the ALR): but only if that party also supports farmers: “You can’t protect the land and abandon the people.”

And of course we ended with food: provided all day by the resourceful crew from Food Roots, including apples

from the Fruit Tree Project. I had to skip out smartly so missed the wine and cheese which featured beverages from local brewers and vintners and Natural Pastures cheeses.

My favourite food at my favourite vegetarian eating place in London is quiche, so I attempted a version of one from their cookbook, using some of Farmer Dan’s purple cauliflower. Looks like food for the colour blind, doesn’t it? (It looked – and tasted – just fine after I finished filling it)

Followed by the apricot and almond cake from Nigel Slater‘s book Appetite…

Had a great visit on Wednesday to Fruit Trees and More, having a tour of the demonstration orchard with Bob Duncan. He has been growing oranges, lemons, limes, olives, figs, pomegranates, persimmons, medlars,

tea

and lots of other things. His orange trees are in an unheated greenhouse, but everything else is outside. The lemons and a few other things are growing against a south-facing wall with a short glass roof to protect them from rain, and strings of old fashioned Christmas lights rigged to a thermostat set to kick in if the weather goes much below freezing.

He’s testing the avocado tree to see if he can get fruit from it as he doesn’t want to sell anything until he’s proven to himself it will produce.

Afterwards it was lunch at The Roost, where we had some sweet potato/yam soup which tasted of honey, and vegetable wraps, with more sweet potato/yam inside.

Then I wandered into town to see the Village Butcher. When I looked in the phone book I counted a total of 6 independent butchers listed for Victoria and area, which says a lot about how dependent we are on supermarkets for our meat. No wonder we are out of touch with the source of our meat and the cuts that might exist beyond what supermarkets sell to us. The Village Butcher knows the source of all the meat on sale and specialises in free-range and naturally raised products. They sell a selection of frozen game and will do specialty cuts on request. And they make their own sausages (including Merguez, which excited me).

Seafood is as confusing a topic as any these days. Trying to get to the bottom of what is and isn’t a good choice of seafood is baffling and contradictory. Here’s an attractive guide for Europeans from The Guardian; and here’s some information from the Suzuki Foundation, complete with informative videos and links to sustainable seafood lists, adapted to different geographies.

But is it as simple as eating only this or that fish, when they do not exist in isolation? Humans are persistent in choosing to believe they can pick and choose from nature with no effect on its complex interrelationships. There is a whole aquatic food chain involved, and deeply affected by our choices; eating our way through multiple links in it is bound to cause unknown effects on all the ocean’s stocks.

Today I listened to a report on NPR about a study of acidity in the coastal waters just south of Victoria. It seems CO2 emissions are being absorbed at such a rate by our oceans that they are turning acidic much faster than supposed, bad news for acid-sensitive marine life like mussels, while ideal for acid-friendly life forms like algae; and down the line will corrode the shells and kill off other vulnerable shellfish including coral and plankton, way down at the bottom of the food chain – and what more important place is there? (Lots more on this in a 2006 report called Impacts of ocean acidification on coral reefs and other marine calcifiers)

Meanwhile, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has published a new and interesting page of information for people wishing to peddle so-called “novel fish and fish products” in this country. Novelty is not so cosy a word as it used to be; nowadays this is food-regulation-speak for genetically modified and otherwise oddly manipulated food items. (A list of the “novel food decisions” going back to 1994 makes for uneasy reading.)

This led me down some time consuming side-tracks… I find myself wondering if the appearance of this information sheet might herald some potential movement on Canada’s part in allowing genetically engineered fish to be farmed here, just as the FDA has offered up some procedures for companies wanting to market genetically modified animal products in the US; and what happens next door usually spills across our border without a fight or much delay at all.

The 2008 March Status Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development hints that this might be coming, even as it states that this country has no intention of developing a policy on transgenic aquatic organisms because it feels that the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (with its Animate products of biotechnology section, and the Domestic Substances List (DSL)) covers the matter nicely thank you. Lots of reading there for interested parties.

And the complexity of all of that regulatory verbage explains why most of us haven’t a clue what genetically modified foodstuffs are and aren’t being fed to us; unfortunately for us, the politicians are as confused as the rest of us. And this CBC story from 2002 is as mercilessly true today as it was when it was broadcast. Beans and rice for supper, I think…

Anyway. Nancy Willard has written a great tribute to seafood in A Wreath to the Fish.

Started off the week with a rather dispiriting set of facts from speakers at BCSEA’s monthly meeting, where the subject was peak oil. The first speaker was Ron Smyth (provincial government’s Chief Science Officer, Offshore Oil and Gas Branch and member of ASPO-USA) who ticked through the list of oil-producing countries, showing graphs that tracked the declining production of oil world-wide, and enumerated the percentage of GDP that oil represents for those countries, leaving us to imagine for ourselves the repercussions to national fiscal policies of the increasing loss of significant revenue over the next few years.

The impact, he predicted, would come in the next 5-10 years. It seems likely that instead of pouring money and research into developing sustainable energy sources, today’s short-sighted humans will keep looking for oil and turn back to carbon-unfriendly coal for the near term.

OPEC was at the heart of his presentation (with reference to Twilight in the Desert); he explained that these countries are madly developing infrastructure to secure their non-oil-rich futures: which – aluminum smelters, copper refineries and the like – require a lot of oil to build and run, and so will divert a lot of what would otherwise have been oil exports into increasing internal use. Leaving the non-OPEC world suddenly and dramatically short of oil. Again. With huge question marks dangling about self-sufficiency and living standards world-wide, given the seeming general lack of preparedness in this oil-happy era.

Consoled myself with some dim sum on Thursday, which I hadn’t eaten for quite a while. I was, in my tedious way, struck again by the perils of restaurant menus to the pure of palate. Where had these shrimp, this pork, that rice come from? Unlikely, at those prices, to have been organic or sustainably raised. Free associating now into visual feasts, note to self: must watch Eat Drink Man Woman again one of these days.

Thursday night I managed to get to the art gallery to catch the Rice is Life show, which closes today, and a talk by the curator, Paula Swart (Curator of Asian Studies at the Vancouver Museum) who showed some slides of pieces in the exhibit and photos of her travels around rice-producing nations, and recommended the book Seductions of Rice for the beauty of its photos and the range of its information and recipes. She talked about some of the religious and cultural aspects of rice: Inari shrines in Japan, Dewi Sri in Bali, Mae Phosop in Thailand. As always where food is concerned, ancient methods – sustainable and back-breaking human labour – are eclipsed by the production possibilities of mechanisation and chemical and biotech research. California’s rice growers sow their seed by plane, which is faster but costs more – unless you have a plane and an endless supply of oil, I guess. If all you have is hungry people and lots of land, traditional methods work too. And as always you get what you pay for: cheap rice carries that inevitable deferred price tag of chemical contamination of the product, the soil and the water supply; poorly-paid labour; and declining nutritional value.

Friday was Fred Stenson‘s

reading in Sidney; his co-star was not Rachel Wyatt as originally billed, but Jo-Ann Dionne who read from Little Emperors, her memoir about teaching English in China. Fred was reading from his latest, The Great Karoo, about Canadian soldiers in the Boer War.

And last night I had friends to dinner, for which I made a welcome journey out the Saanich Peninsula visiting my favourite farm shops — and saw this handsome display at Farmer Dan’s:

and served a seasonal and mostly local meal, finishing with this dessert which I’d been wanting to try for some time: pumpkin kheer, for which I used a combination of butternut and sweet mama squashes, seasoned with cardamom and topped with toasted cashews.

It was good; basically a cold, sweet soup to finish on, surprisingly filling.

Here’s a photo of an afternoon view across the parking lot of my favourite Victoria store: Capital Iron, long may it continue.