Ian Aley and Emily Van Halem take some time to chew on the issues of the day.

Real Dirt digs deep into our food system

Student run conference on food issues took on the challenges of local and organic food, social inequities in our food system, and aims to find a role for students in procuring a more sustainable food system on campus.

By: Linda Varekamp

Posted: 3/21/07

Emily Van Halem has a passion for food. She didn't expect, however, that this passion would lead her to take on a class project that has become "more like a full time job."

Van Halem, with some of her Environmental Policy classmates, and in concert with the Hart House Social Justice Committee, brought together a group of seasoned foodies and activists to discuss a topic close to everyone's stomachs, at a conference entitled "The Real Dirt on Food: Unearthing the controversies behind the food we eat," held last Saturday at Hart House.

From fresh to fast, food goes far beyond a necessity for survival, beyond even the pleasurable stimulation of our taste buds. Food is a uniting issue - it can bring together groups of like-minded people; it has the capacity to create events. We often identify ourselves, our interests and our concerns, by the food that we eat. The issues and questions surrounding our global food system are numerous. The Real Dirt conference brought people together to tackle some of these issues, ranging from food sustainability and nutrition, to food security and social justice.

Van Halem's idea for the conference initially took root when she heard about the launch of the Local Flavour Plus (LFP) program, which works with institutions, including UofT, to link urban eaters to local sustainable food producers.

Van Halem, however, wanted to highlight the important role that students could play in shaping their own food systems. Although the class project came out of a policy course, she explains that she has extended this definition to mean "a change of the food policy on campus…[and] how students can influence that." An end of day workshop, entitled "Food Activism for your School," brought students together to connect and strategize for a more equitable and sustainable selection of food on campus.

A recurring theme of the day was the growing popularity of local food. Lori Stahlbrand, President of Local Flavour Plus, and Toronto's local champion for local food, addressed this issue in her keynote address. "[Local food has] been identified by market research experts as a trend that's going to grow over the next few years," she explained. She believes that this interest stems partly out of our anxieties about issues such as global warming, safety scares and food security, and partly from our desires to connect with our food, and support our local farmers.

With approximately one third of the greenhouse gases that we release being related to our food system in some way, a movement to reduce the miles our food must travel to get to our plate can make a huge environmental impact.

Ian Aley, a UofT student who has worked on organic farms and various non-profit food organizations for the past four summers, feels that much of the momentum for local food comes from an increased "attention to place...which makes it more tangible," and can make a big issue like global warming easier to relate to. He believes that "taking the time to cook meals...and think about your food," is important in making this connection.

Stahlbrand sees this growing trend towards local food as a way to improve not only our environmental crisis, but also deals with many of our global food production inequities. "It's really positive," she said. "It's a way for people to express that they're not happy with the way things are going in our globalized world, where people are taking advantage of people in other countries...and it can also be good for other countries."

Local food is even becoming a favoured choice over its fashionable healthy living comrade - organic food. The cover of Time Magazine's recent issue embodies this duality with an apple whose sticker bears the slogan "Forget Organic. Eat Local."

Said Stahlbrand, "I don't like seeing local and organic pitted up against each other...what I want to see is local and organic, local and sustainable, and I want to see sustainability expanded to become a larger, more comprehensive way of thinking," to include practices such as animal welfare, labour practices, energy, and biodiversity.

When it comes to the many choices faced by the consumer, Aley believes that it's important to be informed about our food, and do what we can to make the best choices that are within our means. "I think it's about bridging the gap between our ideas and our ideals of what organic means and what local means...and making sure we're always questioning that to make informed decisions."

Ryan Horning, an intern at Foodshare, is hopeful about the future of food and believes that UofT is a great place to start. "I think the UofT campus is fertile for this kind of movement: between Local Flavour Plus, this conference, and the Hot Yam! starting up." He explained how an idea like this could evolve. "Let's get a farmer's market here, let's get some more social enterprises...UofT could be a microcosm."

Students shared more than just ideas at this tasty conference, as they took time to enjoy a local, organic lunch and mingled with market place vendors selling miso, green coffee and bicycle-ground chocolate.

At the end of the day, Stahlbrand, also a certified yoga instructor, led a brief yoga lesson. Yoga is related to an important principle in activism, "to take care of yourself," she explained, relating it to the issues explored during the day. "The important thing about this is that you're creating a culture around food. Food is more than just fuel...it's about the mind, body, spirit connection."

To read more about the topics explored and to view some of the videotaped seminars from the Real Dirt conference, visit their website at http://therealdirt.ca/