Food in cities and snow on mountains

This TED talk by architect and author Carolyn Steel has been circulating recently and, while it does simply discuss a lot that’s pretty well known now – urbanization, the planetary cost of meat and dairy consumption – gives some historical context to urban food production, asking us to think about food as an essential aspect of city planning, and how we’ve severed that connection in recent decades.

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

Speaking of cities, I was sad to see this message appearing on Victoria’s public library website. Municipal budget cuts are, ironically, impairing a service that is enjoying peak demand right now as people turn from bookstores to libraries to help them save money:

Here in Banff we’ve had our first snowfall and it’s warmed and cooled enough to make paths slippery. But not too cold or slippery for some of the walks we’ve had between the literary doings. Yesterday to the Hoodoos

and Saturday’s treat was a visit to Johnson Canyon

followed by a soak in the hotsprings. We’ve also been visiting the Wild Flour Bakery in town, which has fantastic cookies and beautiful bread.