CHIA CANADA - Omega-3 Diet, Nutrition, Energy:

Local Agriculture. What a novel concept. Localized systems of food production benefit people via improved food nutritional value- due to less time from harvesting to plate- and accessibility, restaurants love it because they're patrons know their food is fresh, and it results in less accumulation of waste. A no-brainer, right? Conceptually the idea makes perfect sense, but how about in reality? In the modern world, job security and availability are becoming crucial issues. Utilizing niche production and effective locally oriented marketing the grower is working for themselves and producing a product that is in continual need of replenishment. Talk about job security and availability.

There are many individuals, communities, and organizations out there working to accomplish the goal of local agriculture. Farmers markets are a good example of this phenomenon. In fact, The USDA reports that 2,800 such markets are now operating across the country, a 63% increase in just six years.

In the book, "Going Local", author Michael Shuman points out that local food production is thriving across the planet. "Some 800 million people in the world who live in cities are engaged in urban agriculture, mainly for their own consumption. In Hong Kong, which has extraordinary population density, nearly half of all vegetables consumed are grown within city limits, on 5 percent to 6 percent of the city's land.... Residents of Kampala, Uganda, meet 70 percent of their poultry and egg consumption with local production. Data from the 1980s suggests that the eighteen largest cities in China met over 90 percent of their vegetable needs, and half their meat needs through urban farming. And Singapore raises 80 percent of its poultry and a quarter of its vegetables, within city limits." Local Food Systems are "a collaborative effort to integrate agricultural production with food distribution to enhance the economic, environmental, and social well-being of a particular place (i.e. a neighborhood, city, county or region)." [Gail Feenstra and Dave Campbell, "Steps for Developing a Sustainable Community Food System (1,6). PG prides itself on being a resource for anyone interested in implementing the idea of local agriculture. Not only are there job opportunities galore, but it fosters the idea of real human sustainability at a profit.

The idea is summed up nicely here, "One of the primary assumptions underlying the sustainable diet concept is that foods are produced, processed, and distributed as locally as possible. This approach supports a food system that preserves local farmland and fosters community economic viability, requires less energy for transportation, and offers consumers the freshest foods." [Jeanne Peters, "Community Food Systems: Working Toward a Sustainable Future," Journal of the American Dietetic Association (Sept. 1997)

It's helpful to utilize concepts in order to "paint the picture" regarding local agriculture, the idea of the "Foodshed" is one such model. The foodshed concept, most often attributed to Arthur Getz in his 1991 Urban Foodsheds article in Permaculture Activist [Vol. VII, no. 3], uses the analogy of a watershed to describe "the area that is defined by a structure of supply." Getz used the image of a foodshed to answer the question of "where our food and regional food supply system works." Inherent in this concept, he emphasized, was "the suggestion of a need to protect a source, as well as the need to know and understand its specific geographic and ecological dimensions, condition and stability in order for it to be safeguarded and enhanced." Imagine this idea integrated with hydroponics and Urban Gardening? Maybe we're on to something.

With all of these positive developments there are inevitably some trouble spots. Up to one-fifth of America's food goes to waste each year, with an estimated 130 pounds of food per person ending up in landfills. The annual value of this lost food is estimated at around $31billion and could feed roughly 49 million (USDA).

We also ferry our food around tremendous distances to get it where it is demanded. The average distance food is shipped from place of production to place of production is 1,200 miles ("Solviva", 89)! Imagine for a second, how much fossil fuel, packaging materials, unnecessary labor, and wasted shelf life are attributable to the shipment of foodstuff? Humans have a knack of getting stuck in a rut when it comes to progressive ideas. Paradigm shifts do not come a dime a dozen. How much more sense would it make to implement agriculture on a predominantly local level? Taking advantage of Urban Agriculture via rooftops, garages, vacant warehouses, etc. Every city