Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The orchard has created bonds where there were none before. Our volunteer network, our relationship with the university, the friendships of people who first met under the mulberry tree — these connections may be vital for our future.
At three of Montreal’s universities, collectives have created alternative food provision services. People’s Potato at the Concordia University established in 1998, Midnight Kitchen at the McGill University established in 2003, and Ras-le-Bol, started in 2012 at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), distribute hundreds of meals for free.
The Sustainable Economies Law Center proposes a regulatory scheme that promotes food safety and economic opportunity for home cooks while ensuring community ownership of our food economy — not more absentee shareholder controlled economic development.
There are many community food organizations working hard to create a more sustainable and equitable food system.
…making space for nature goes beyond the world of nature reserves, wildlife documentaries or even pilgrimages into the wilderness.
Food politics is often a major news story these days, so I would dispute the generalization that most consumers do not see food as political.
On Dec. 10, 2012, hundreds of Detroiters lined up outside of The East Lake Baptist Church, braving the cold for the last of a series of public hearings on “the Hantz Woodlands deal.” At stake was the “largest speculative land sale in the city’s history”: 140 acres comprised of 1,500 lots of city land. Local multi-millionaire John Hantz wanted to turn this plot into a large timber farm that would be, as he promised, “Detroit’s saving grace.” But the hundreds of residents waiting outside had another idea of what saving the land could mean: They wanted the city to sell individual vacant plots at affordable prices for people to plant community gardens.
