Food activists, farmers join forces

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Published: December 12, 2014

Gardener Jacob Kearey-Moreland promotes a GM-free, pesticide-free food system and encourages city dwellers to take up gardening as a way to return to a self-sufficient lifestyle.  |  File photo

TORONTO — Farmers and food activists trod what might be described as a strip of common ground at the recent Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

Speakers at a Nov. 15 event included grass-fed beef producer Harry Stoddart, biodynamic farmer Martin Boettcher, honey producers Susan Chan and Jim Coneybeare, John Bennett of the Sierra Club of Canada and guerrilla gardener Jacob Kearey-Moreland.

Kearey-Moreland is known for having been part of an unsuccessful effort to establish a free community garden on Ontario’s legislative grounds. He also helped establish seed exchange programs in public libraries in Ontario.

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“Seeds are living things, our source of life,” he said.

“Without them none of us would be here. I think the problem is that seeds are no longer viewed as being sacred in our society.”

He sees food production as a pillar of the economy and believes it’s time to develop systems free from pesticides and genetic modification. One way to support this effort is by reintroducing basic survival skills, such as gardening, to urban settings, he said.

Kearney-Moreland also hopes to affect change politically. He’s working toward a coalition of Liberal, NDP and Green party supporters to unseat the current Conservative MP in Simcoe North.

Stoddart is also pushing for food system change. He supports wider crop rotations and animal-plant synergies rather than energy-rich in-puts.

He said much of the landscape in southern Ontario would be dominated by hardwood forest and savannah, which are incredibly rich ecosystems, if nature were to be left to her own devices. The challenge for farmers is to harness this natural potential to grow food.

That’s the type of approach Boettcher is pursuing on his family’s mixed farming operation. He said humankind should be viewed as being part of the planet rather than apart from it.

“If we are not careful, the adjustments our home makes will exclude man from the picture.”

Boettcher said many of the tools of conventional agriculture run counter to that objective.

“I’m thinking of starting a soil humane society and taking away the pesticides from all my neighbours,” he said.

Jeffrey Carter is a freelance writer under contract with The Western Producer .

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Jeffrey Carter

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