I am this Momma Bear and I am SO damn hangry for change.
Sir Albert Howard, a key founder of the modern organic agriculture, talked about it starting in the early 1920’s. Wendall Berry started mentioning it about it in the early ‘70’s. Frances Moore Lappe blew the lid off it 45 years ago with “Diet for a Small Planet” in 1971. Barry Commoner brought ecology and economy into the discussion in the early ‘70’s. Joan Gussow, matriarch of the eat-locally-think-globally food movement, provided insights in the late ‘70’s. Michael Pollen picked up the torch in the early 1990’s and is still going strong.
Who has been working on ecology and economy and human health in regards to food, this hard and this long in Canada? hello? anyone? (insert Bob and Doug MacKenzie call of the wild here).
Dr. David Suzuki has been delivering convincing arguments for decades, Wayne Roberts has been in the trenches with the perspective of urban food policy for decades, - and is still contributing even in his ‘retirement’. Rod McRae has been researching and writing for many many years. What has been achieved nationally or provincially or at our municipal levels of government?
Multiple movies and documentaries have been produced worldwide to support an endless supply of research and study. And yet, what has been done in a concerted effort to stem the flood of hyper-processed low quality ‘food-like’ products that take up the majority of shelf space in grocery stores? What have individuals, groups, think-tanks, educational institutions and gov’t’s yet to accomplish nationally to safe-guard the health of Canadians? Has history taught us all nothing?
Are WE incapable of learning? The Canadian food guide is still woefully inadequate. GMO’s are still not labeled here in Canada. It is still more difficult for local food to get to our tables than food grown in Peru. It has become impossible to mindlessly eat in a healthy way - all labels must be read and then carefully deciphered.
It has been my experience that governments don’t lead - they are not capable in the current system, so they follow. WE must lead governments ( at all levels ) to where WE as a society want to go. We are hungry for leadership, hungry for connection, hungry for action, hungry for meaningful dialogue. I know I’m hangry for change.
This then means we begin with personal responsibility. The following analogy was stolen/paraphrased from David Katz MD, President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Dr Katz likens the current wave of obesity and chronic diseases, due to lifestyle choices, to a flood. There is a flood of ultra-processed foods in our grocery stores. When faced with a flood, the population should have access to two things (1) swimming lessons and (2) levees.
It would be a person’s own responsibility to want to learn how to swim. Of those who want to engage, Canadians need to realize that swimming lessons are not enough. When the current is strong, even the best swimmers can become tired and fatigued. Big Ag has the financial resources to influence the current to their favour.
Levees change the environment and reduce the flow of the current or totally stem the tide of the flood. To be effective, both swimming lessons and levies need to be in place. Both are needed to navigate flood waters. Floods cause massive damage during the event and afterwards when they abate. Canadians are being left to deal with the aftermath of a flood of unlabeled GMO’s and convenience foods (with harmful chemical residues ) in our food system that we know to be detrimental to our health - and the health of generations to come.
Right now in Canada most of the focus has been on swimming lessons. People have been encouraged to go and learn how to swim, lessons have been provided by community stakeholders, but not in a coordinated way that would shift the system.
We have a government that is strongly encouraging people to make personal changes to their diets, yet it is still easier to put food from Mexico on our plates than it is to access local food grown 7 kilometres down the road. Dramatic changes in the food system are not being seen because the levees have yet to be put into place in order to support the work of the swimming lessons.
If, according to Michael Pollan, change happens it is likely to follow that of Big Tobacco. It took decades before the movement against the tobacco industry could claim any concrete accomplishments. By the 1930’s, the scientific case against smoking was made, yet it took till 1964 in the United States, before the surgeon general was willing to declare smoking a threat to health, and it was twenty more years before the industry’s hold on government finally gave way to public pressure. By this standard, the food movement in Canada is progressing at break-neck speed - thanks to social media and not government response.
But still - who the fuck has that long to wait? Who can even justify a wait of many more decades before policy makers get their shit together?
It is here that I implore other ‘Mother Bears’ like myself who are ‘Hangry for Change’ to become expert swimmers. Changing how we feed our families and our communities, can impact the system - doing it through soil, soul and society. This work involves ecology and economy and is powerful, invisible, life changing when done in greater numbers. Your leadership appears in the form of fierceness and how utterly vulnerable we are in trying to protect our children and grandchildren from the harms in our current food system and in our rapidly changing environment. We innately understand deep connection and interdependence. We don’t wait - we act, and we do what is necessary for the health and well being of those in our care. We lead others from beside or behind and in collaborative frameworks. We are inclusive and expand traditional views of what community is, we build bridges over differences.
Engage your own circle of influence. Commit to making one simple change in your life and let others know about it.