Salt of the Earth
Bring out the controversy gloves kids, it’s time to knuckle down to a core issue in the local food movement: does “local” truly represent “sustainable”?
What if the food in question is not actually food, not actually grown, but instead, mined? Yes, I’m talking about that core dietary mineral: salt.
To my utter surprise, I can actually get local salt. I had no idea. As a little kid, I thought it came from those funny cone shaped “silos” in public works yards. (I also thought that pepper was stored in them, since they obviously went together on the table.) As an adult, I realized it was mined and shipped from somewhere, and it annoys me that my scientific brain never thought to ask “where?” until now. I assumed there were salt mines in far away remote places, like the NWT, or Angola, or India. I had no idea that the far away remote salt on my table came from Goderich, Ontario.
Goderich! I’ve driven there! Quiet, unassuming, quaint Goderich is home to one of the world’s largest salt mines, extending for kilometres under Lake Huron. So, bright side: I can get local salt. In fact, two of the most commonly recognized brands of salt in your run-of-the-mill grocery supermarket are Sifto and Windsor, and guess where the second one comes from. (Hint: it comes from Windsor.)
Down side: is a salt mine sustainable? My knee-jerk inner-hippie response is “MINING =BAD”, although I confess to knowing extraordinarily little about the mining and refining processes of salt. The little geological information I have gleaned from minutes of reading Wikipedia is that the Goderich mine is the result of a millions-of-years-old ocean that used to be where we are now. They also have some amazing pictures of vast salt caverns. http://davechidley.ca/corporate/
It would seem that my other, non-local choice would be sea salt, something I am distinctly uncomfortable with, having studied water pollution. I suppose were the ocean less polluted and hard done by, and nearer to Guelph, my choice would be clear, but in the mean time I am at least comforted that my neighbours in Goderich will benefit (at least a little) from my dietary expeditions this summer.
Gillian Maurice
Posted by Mary Cross on February 19, 2012 | Permalink
I Love Wheat
So I’ve always been a little late with trends. I’ve decided that this is the year my household tries out the 100 Mile Diet. We’re cheating a little, right off the bat, because we’re only going to do May-September. I’ve heard that there is a greater challenge doing it all year, with winter needing more advance planning. However, as a test run, we’ve decided eating 100% local food for 5 months is a good way to start.
The second way I feel like I’m cheating is by living in Guelph. I feel like I have a unfair advantage, being located right in the middle of agriculturally rich Southwest Ontario. I started playing with the modern day equivalent of protractor and compass, Google plugins, to draw that decisive circle around my home.
The first thing I noticed, and literally cheered out loud for, was that the Niagara region falls within my 100 Mile radius. Score. I have set myself up with the perfect excuse to gorge on peaches and wines. This could be my best summer ever. After briefly scanning around the vegetable world, I was starting to feel completely set, but with a niggling doubt forming in the back of my mind. First off, a confession: for a Green and a greenie, I don’t really like veggies, or eat nearly enough of them. I am a carboholic. Like some people crave coffee, I crave bread, pasta, pitas, tortillas, you name it – as long as it’s made of wheat.
I suddenly became convinced that all Canadian wheat comes from that great rectangular province, Saskatchewan. I’d travelled through there and seen the grain elevators myself, and had heard since my childhood the stories of the massive, proudly Canadian wheat farms in our own Breadbasket of the Americas. Which, although nicely patriotic, falls way outside the boundary of my newly planned dietary restriction.
Luckily, before panic set in, I remembered there is an amazing tool available to us Guelphites: - the Local Food Map. I discovered that searching for “wheat” lead to one farm, and searching for “bread” gave me a list that made my gluten-deficient brain go into spasms of joy. My ecstasy reached its peak when I learned that I wouldn’t have to drive outside the city, sign up for a share, or have the uncomfortable “so where do you get your flour” conversation with 100 local bakers: I found could buy Ontario flour at a downtown store I’d previously only associated with glorious(ly expensive) cheese, Ouderkirk and Taylor. I am going to become a bread-making 'fiend'.
Stay tuned for some surprising local finds: salt and oils.
Gillian Maurice
Posted by Mary Cross on February 03, 2012 | Permalink
Twelve months ago, The Daily Climate, a website that produces and tracks media stories about climate change, declared that 2010 was “the year climate coverage ‘fell off the map.’” The downward spiral continued in 2011, a more recent analysis by the site found.
The number of articles, blog posts, editorials, and op-eds “declined roughly 20 percent from 2010’s levels and nearly 42 percent from 2009’s peak” according to a review of The Daily Climate’s global English-language media archive. According to a post about the findings by the site’s editor, Douglas Fischer:
The declining coverage came amid bouts of extreme weather across the globe - historic wildfires in Arizona, drought in Texas, famine in the Horn of Africa - and flashes of political frenzy. Australia’s approval of a carbon tax, the U.S. presidential election, a Congressional inquiry into the failed solar startup Solyndra all generated significant coverage within the mainstream press, but it was not enough to stem the larger trend.
Coverage dropped almost across the board among the top climate news producers.
Read the entire original article by Curtis Brainard on The Columbia Journalism Review web site.
Posted by Mary Cross on January 19, 2012 | Permalink
Media Release | 17-Jan-2012
OTTAWA - The Green Party of Canada is welcoming the shift in Liberal policy to legalize and regulate marijuana. “It is nice to see another party come in line with Green Party policy. We have said for years that we should be regulating and taxing marijuana and freeing up our police resources to fight real crime,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands...
"I totally agree with Interim Leader Bob Rae that the war on drugs has been a complete bust," said May. “The traditional approach to preventing drug use has not only been a spectacular failure in itself, but has resulted in building a massive crime industry and has had catastrophic negative impacts on numerous young people, especially within poverty-stricken areas both within Canada and abroad.”
In 2008, according to the Treasury Board, Canada spent $61.3 million targeting illicit drugs, with a majority of that money going to law enforcement. Most of that was for the “war” against cannabis (marijuana). Marijuana prohibition is also costly in other ways, including criminalizing youth and fostering organized crime. Cannabis prohibition, which has gone on for decades, has utterly failed and has not led to reduced drug use in Canada.
The Green Party recommends the following actions:
Posted by Mary Cross on January 17, 2012 | Permalink
Time seems to have flown since election day back in October and it's a period of significant transition in the leadership of the local Green's, with many executive members in their first term. There are several projects that we completed over the holidays:
-Hosting a very fun Holiday Party at the Shakespeare Arms, thanks to all who attended
-Sent out a card to all our donors and volunteers from the past year, thanking them for their efforts
-Sent out a fundraising letter to two thousand of our of identified supporters who have not supported the party financially in the past
-Took the first steps into creating a local constitution that will help us with our organizational stability and purpose (none currently exists)
-Took the first steps towards creating a workplan for both 2012 and the next three years.
As we move into February, you should start to receive invites to all kinds of things.It could be you might be interested in something fun/social like Sports for Life Sunday, or maybe an educational movie/info session, or perhaps finding a way to help make a difference in our community with a park clean up or assisting a neighbourhood group. There will also be an opportunity at our annual AGM for any interested members to run for a seat on our executive, as well as to vote on adopting our newly drafted constitution (available soon).
If there's something specific you would like to be doing, or are interested in helping out, please contact us using the form to the right! Have a happy January.
Posted by Robert Routledge on January 12, 2012 | Permalink
I like to get my news from a few different sources, but one of my favourites is from the BBC. The last few days have had Canada in the headlines, and not in a very friendly light. "Canada under fire over Kyoto protocol exit" reads one headline. As well we should be. I was very disappointed when I heard the news we would be leaving.
So, what exactly is Kyoto, and why did Canada decide to leave?
The first part of the question is pretty easy. It's a binding protocol that is going into it's second stage, the goal of which is to reduce global carbon emissions. The basic idea is that you look at your carbon output in 1990, and aim to reduce carbon output, on average, by 5.2% from those levels. It's got compliance and recording mechanisms built into it, and also includes a fund to help developing countries adapt to climate change.
So, why did we leave?
Perhaps it's because we're one of the worlds biggest carbon dioxide emitters. And we have the single biggest industrial emitter of carbon on the planet in the Tar Sands in Alberta. Our addiction to dirty oil would mean we've got to make a lot of big cuts in other places to hit our targets.
Peter Kent, the minister of the environment, has said that it would cost $1,600 per person in Canada (or a whopping 13.6 billion dollars) to comply. I can't seem to figure out where he's getting this number from, or in what time frame we'd need to make those payments.
Either way, we're the only country to remove ourselves from Kyoto, and as such, we're sending a clear message to the world: We don't care about climate change, we care about getting all the oil we can from the tar sands.
And that's a shame. We should be at the front of this, innovating, and showing the world it can be done. Instead, we'll watch from the sidelines.
If only Peter Kent would listen to his own words from 1984, perhaps we'd be in a better situation. For now, take a minute to write your MP, sign a petition, or put it out there on facebook and twitter. The Green Party supports Kyoto fully, and I support it too.
Posted by Dave Estill on December 14, 2011 | Permalink
13 December 2011 - 9:31am
OTTAWA - The Green Party of Canada is appalled by the Harper government’s decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. “It is extremely shocking that Canada has chosen to withdraw just days after the conclusion of the Durban negotiations,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May, who was in Durban for COP17. “It is simply outrageous disinformation that there is a $14 billion cost to staying in Kyoto. Staying in the Kyoto Protocol will not cost us a cent. What will cost billions is if we do nothing to address climate change.”
“Canada should be continuing in Kyoto and negotiating the targets that would be palatable for this government. By withdrawing, we become a pariah on the world stage,” said May.
The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, in its report “Paying the Price: The Economic Impacts of Climate Change for Canada”, estimates that the cost of Canada’s failure to act on climate change will range from $5 billion per year by 2020 to as high as $91 billion per year by 2050. Impacts on forests and coastal areas will be particularly felt in terms of hits to the Canadian economy. An increase in flooding, wildfires, heat waves, and poor air quality has already resulted in increased death and destruction of property. Canada's insurance sector is seeing costs from storms and wildfire escalating rapidly.
“Refusing to be a part of the global effort to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate will put Canada behind economically as other countries make investments in efficiencies and renewable energy. Canada has an opportunity to capitalize on a green economy and instead we are clinging to fossil fuels,” said May. “Withdrawing from Kyoto is an appalling decision. It will only hurt us—economically and environmentally.”
Posted by Mary Cross on December 13, 2011 | Permalink
2011 was a year of significant learning opportunities for the Guelph Greens. The provincial and federal elections have provided a few key lessons:
As we move into the new year, you can expect to see the leadership of the Guelph Greens move us in new directions. We’ll be asking for your voices, time, money and leadership to help find ways that our group can build momentum and make a difference in the lives of people living in the community. Expect to be asked if you can give a small monthly donation to the Greens and if there are any challenges in your area that we can help solve. Expect us to help you ask to be the voice of the organization in advocating for common sense, meaningful advocacy with issues that will help to create jobs, improve our health and lay the groundwork for a healthier environment. I continue to choose to be Green because I believe our party is the only organization that can provide a new, transformational leadership style.
Mostly: We to have fun building something powerful! We want to have bbq’s, play sports, watch movies, have interesting discussions and enjoy some laughs along the ride.
It’s a great time to be Green!
Christmas is a great time to be Green!
Posted by Mary Cross on December 05, 2011 | Permalink
Green Party of Canada Update on Omnibus Crime Bill and Guelph protest.
Coast to coast, Canadians have protested the flawed Omnibus Crime Bill.
Critics, including the Canadian Bar Association, say it makes no sense—crime rates are dropping and decades of research proves that more people in jail doesn’t equal safer streets. Just the opposite, in fact.
Despite debate on the bill being limited twice, the Green Party has put forward a robust response. Leader Elizabeth May has tabled 50 amendments that address the Bill’s worst aspects. As the bill moves to Report Stage before the full House, it is the Green amendments that most effectively tackle this draconian law. They include:
May points out, “…this legislation unjustly targets Canada’s most vulnerable communities, including First Nations and people suffering from mental illnesses. It strips away judicial discretion and removes our traditional emphasis on rehabilitation. The bill will cost the Canadian economy countless billions of taxpayers’ dollars for an approach that even Texas admits doesn’t work.”
One Green MP is standing up and making a difference!
In Guelph, Leadnow.ca and the local Council of Canadians organized a protest outside of Liberal MP Frank Valeriote's office. Here is a link to a great video of the event covered by the Guelph Mercury
Posted by Mary Cross on November 30, 2011 | Permalink
Please check out our November, 2011 newsletter
Please check out our November, 2011 newsletter
Posted by Mary Cross on November 29, 2011 | Permalink
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