The Compost Diaries

Thought something green and inspiring would be appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day. Detroit has been hit hard by foreclosures and the struggling auto industry. The Mayor and others think urban agriculture will help revive the city.

DETROIT – Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.

Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green.

Detroit officials first raised the idea in the 1990s, when blight was spreading. Now, with the recession plunging the city deeper into ruin, a decision on how to move forward is approaching. Mayor Dave Bing, who took office last year, is expected to unveil some details in his state-of-the-city address this month.

“Things that were unthinkable are now becoming thinkable,” said James W. Hughes, dean of the School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, who is among the urban experts watching the experiment with interest. “There is now a realization that past glories are never going to be recaptured. Some people probably don’t accept that, but that is the reality.”

Read full article Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking by DAVID RUNK, Associated Press. There are other great articles about the ambitious efforts. Check out Detroit Agriculture and Urban Farming.

I was sitting on a bus – one of the new cavernous tanks on the road in Metro Vancouver. I had just happily settled into one of the few seats when I noticed an elderly woman teetering down the wide centre aisle. Bags of heavy groceries dangled from one hand contorting her body into a dangerous lean. The other arm flailed about, clutching at thin air. She had a wild-eyed look on her face. There was nothing to hang on to in sight. I quickly got up to let her have my cherished seat.

“Oh thank you dear,” she said gratefully. “I just fell on one of these buses last week.”

That is something I’m hearing quite often these days since the debut of this new, much lauded $273 million dollar trolley bus fleet purchased by Translink. Fortunately I took balance beam in school and have fared quite well on these new and “improved” buses. Skateboarders, windsurfers and acrobats should find them accessible as well.

I am a regular transit user. In fact I don’t even own a car. And according to my family, that is saving a lot of lives. It took me one bus ride to observe countless problems with the design of these new buses. The first was the reduced number of seats at the front of the bus. The reasoning from the powers that be, I assume, was that if they pack us in like sardines, they don’t have to put as many buses on the route. Good fiscal management. Well, unless your lawsuits increase exponentially.

I was now standing, forced into a tree pose with my face pressed into someone’s back pack. I had nothing to grab on to but their hair in an emergency. And emergencies happened every time the bus stopped.  I should say jerked violently to a stop. The New Flyers, as the buses are appropriately named, regularly send riders flying through the air like a flock of trapeze artists. Sometimes it feels like a scene from that hilarious Vancouver-produced play The Number 14, where actors in garish masks are swinging around in a careening bus. What makes it even more Cirque du Soleil-ish, is when the bus driver pretends he’s a race car driver, zipping in and out of traffic, screeching up to curbs, all while talking on his cell phone. Breath-taking, death defying performances!

The new buses are especially challenging for the elderly, ironic, because the entire first third of the bus is dedicated to seniors and the physically challenged. There are no center poles to grab on to when you get up (or to pole dance on if you are so inclined). The straps that hang above the seats are so high that elderly people, who are often hunched over, cannot reach them. The side arms on the front row seats are so low, you can’t even use them to steady yourself anymore. Complicated all the more if you are carrying groceries or pushing a stroller or a little shopping cart.

A most entertaining scene was now unfolding. It happens pretty well every time I ride the bus. Riders (again, often the elderly, but even the weak like me) try to get the side seats unlocked by pulling up the yellow bolt thingy. Then a good Samaritan Hulk Hogan type steps in and begins to wrestle with the bolt. It usually takes several people to get it unlocked and then to hold the seat down while the person leaps onto it. Then there are the seats that don’t lock but just flip back up. Jack must be very nimble to get into his chair fast enough before his butt gets smacked. And speaking of sore butts.

“Didn’t they talk to you guys about the buses?” I asked a bus driver one day.

“They don’t listen to us,” he said. “These are the most uncomfortable seats to sit in all day too.”

Yeah, why would you consult the folks who drive the buses all day long? Why bother listening to customers? I wondered who exactly had evaluated the prototype (they only tested one by the way). It could not have been anyone who actually rides a bus. Not the elderly. Not bus drivers. Perhaps circus performers. But not bike enthusiasts. Last night I saw a bus driver refuse to let a somewhat derelict man with his bike come on board. He was rather rudely told “not after dark”. Apparently the exterior bike racks mess with the headlights! Wouldn’t you be more inclined to want to get home faster at night?

Granted these buses are probably greener and maybe quieter. Translink’s Buzzer newsletter praises some of their other stellar features: 4-wheel disc brakes, 6-speed automatic transmission, the engine located in the left rear corner (bonus!), door chime (wow!) and articulated joint (groovy man) made by a German company. I don’t know about you, but that is certainly why I ride transit.

But here’s the feature that really has me sold. THE ENTIRE BUS CAN KNEEL DOWN TO CURB LEVEL. Presumably to pray with you before you board that you won’t be permanently maimed while riding on it.

I am a big fan of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Farm. I’ll be taking a tour there this spring. It’s the only working farm in the city of Vancouver, located on a 24 hectare expanse of land on the campus grounds, with 10 hectares actually farmable. With that kind of “undeveloped” land one can imagine that the farm is under constant threat of development, in fact it was designated as “Future Housing Reserve” in the university’s 1997 Official Community Plan. But the farm will not go down without a fight and not just from the students who get their hands dirty there; the surrounding well-heeled communities shop at its popular farmers’ market. Up to 500 people line up each summer Saturday for the abundant vegetables, herbs, flowers and small fruits, over 200 crop varieties grown organically in their market garden. And they almost always run out of the organic eggs fresh from their flock of free-range chickens. The market garden produce is also featured at many of the city’s nearby high-end restaurants.

The farm has a rich offering of hands-on educational programs, both for UBC students as well as the community at large. There’s a children’s teaching garden with a beautiful little cob archway and garden shed. Children helped to build the natural structure by mixing clay, sand and straw together with their feet, molding the mud into balls, then stacking them to form the walls. The honeybees are popular with the kids too and they also help pollinate the gardens.

In the Mayan Garden, there are three sisters plantings (corn, beans and squash). Mayans “in exile” as they call themselves, have created this demonstration garden to educate students, faculty and visitors about their culture. Their produce is sold at the farmers’ market too.

I attended a beautiful fall celebration there one year. The Mayans were dressed in colourful native costume that day. There was a marimba band playing. Children ran about. The men walked through the dense cornfield cutting cobs of corn with their scythes. The women were bent over the traditional in-ground fire, standing the multi-coloured corn, still in husks, on their ends in a circle round the fire. Other women served up thick, sweet corn drinks and handed out tantalizing traditional foods, some I recognized, like the tomales wrapped in corn husks, but others, like the delicious white jelly-like squares, dotted with black beans I had never seen before. Standing in the field that day, encircled by a forest, Mayans and music, with no landmarks to orient us, I said to my friend, “Where are we?” We could have been in Guatemala. This was truly a gathering place. And it may have been on that day that I decided I must see Guatemala myself.

The Aboriginal Garden is tended by the Vancouver Native Health Society’s Urban Aboriginal Community Kitchen in partnership with the Musqueam First Nation. The garden takes up about one acre of land at UBC Farm. Land that is on Musqueam traditional territory. Urban aboriginals are bussed from the downtown eastside (DTES) to the site to work and learn in the garden. The garden helps to stock their community kitchen with fresh produce, including some traditional foods like salal and salmon berries. They have recently added a smoke house too so they can smoke their own fish. There is a very large aboriginal population on the DTES, many suffer from malnutrition. The group also hosts cultural workshops and events that celebrate aboriginal traditions around food, the harvest and the seasons.

The farm’s medicinal garden features a lovely interpretative trail through the native second growth forest where students and visitors can learn about native plants and ecology. Guided foraging walks are led by elders and other community leaders.

In their research plots, students are investigating new techniques in sustainable agriculture. The departments of botany, forest sciences and the faculty of land and food systems all use the site for field research. When I visited once, I asked Mark Bomford, the Farm coordinator to hurry up and come up with something for sowbugs before they took over the world. He said they already had and took me over to see the chickens.

Excerpt from Something’s Rotten in Compost City, The Plot to Take Over the Food You Eat.

I have joined a food co-op. I stumbled on it quite by accident one day. There was a sign posted in a front yard a half block from my place: Kitsilano Organic Co-op it said. I noted the email address and sent a note to find out more. Here’s how it works, local chef and co-op coordinator Darren Clay, puts in an order with a whole sale buyer every two weeks. He sends a notice out on Thursday with a list of the produce he’s selected, like this:

Apples – pink lady

Oranges – tangelo

Bananas – the yellow ones

Broccolini – if you have never seen this stuff before, it’s a mini-version of broccoli. Good stuff.

Cauliflower – the white kind

Leeks

Parsnips

Potato – Yukon Gold

If I’m in, I let him know. Then on Tuesday, he tells us when the bounty has arrived. At that point, I can barely contain my excitement. I grab my cloth bags and run the half block and up his steps to the porch. And that’s when the party begins. Or would begin if I wasn’t always the first to arrive and in such a hurry to leave with my treasure!

The produce is set out in boxes on the porch. There is a list of how many of each item we are to take. There’s always an extras box too. So we fill our bags, cross our names off the list and put our cheques in the mailbox.

I filled two bags to overflowing and paid $30 that first time. It ranges from $25 to $30 depending on the time of year, what the weather’s been like and if the produce is local or not. It’s mostly not right now.  I was so impressed with the produce the first time, I wrote Darren and told him so.

He’d obviously checked out my blog, in particular the Stew post. He wrote back:

Funny enough I did my apprenticeship at the Waterfront under chef Nagato. I also worked with Zarko. Chef Nagato was the first one to introduce me to organic produce as he used to order trucks of it in the summer well before it hit the mainstream. I will always remember tasting my first heirloom tomato and thinking it was the first real tomato I had. It’s a small town but I like it that way.

Me too. Darren’s blog has more pictures than mine. Great pictures. Food pictures.

I love this porch party thing. Love that I get produce that I wouldn’t normally buy. Like parsnips. Don’t like them much. But when I got seven of them last order, I decided to make soup and wow was it good! Can’t wait for the next order.

Will try to hang around the porch longer next time to party with my fellow co-op members.

I had the privilege of hearing Percy Schmeiser speak recently. Monsanto sued this prairie farmer for growing Round-up Ready Canola when in fact he hadn’t planted it (see previous post: the Persecution of Percy). When the vigorous 79 year old farmer took the stage, he got a standing ovation. He looked the most unlikely hero, but when he began to speak, I could hear why he was such a powerful spokesperson for farmers rights and how passionate he was about his cause.

He gave a brilliant summary of the biotech industry, from its North American introduction of soy, cotton, corn and canola in 1996 up to today.

“We now have 14 full crop years of GMOs [genetically modified organisms],” he said. “It’s no longer what can or may happen, but what does happen.”

There is indeed ample proof that the many claims the industry made weren’t true. Schmeiser mentions a report called Failure to Yield, released in March 2009 by Doug Gurian-Sherman, of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Yields have gone down drastically; three times the chemicals are being used, 15 times more for cotton; the nutritional value is 50% of conventional or organic; and there is even more starvation in the world,” said Schmeiser.

The report concludes that in terms of increasing yields, traditional breeding outperformed genetic engineering by a long shot.

“The purpose of the GMO industry was to control the seed supply and then the food supply and take the rights of farmers away,” Schmeiser said. “There is no such thing as co-existence with GMOs. You can’t have organic farms if there are GMOs. They will kill the organic farmer. There is no more pure canola on the prairies anymore. All of it is contaminated.”

What I didn’t realize, is because canola is a member of the brassica family, it means that every member (broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts, etc.) can become contaminated. GMO alfalfa has just been introduced, it is part of the pea family. GMO wheat was stopped three years ago, but it may already be too late for the wheat grass family. So it’s not just the farmers’ fields that are at risk, but our backyard garden crops too. As for the food on our plates, we can be pretty sure that every cob of corn we’re eating now has the Bt toxin (Bacillus thuringiensis is a soil bacterium that is toxic to some insects), especially if it comes from the U.S. Organic farmers have long used this natural insecticide and worry that its widespread use will decrease its efficacy. GMO sugar beets are used to make sugar so most sweet treats are full of foreign genes too.

The latest shock is that Canadian flax is contaminated with Triffid even though the genetically modified seed was deregistered and ordered destroyed 10 years ago because of a wary European market. Triffid had a weed gene added to it that allowed it to grow in herbicide-drenched soil. Developed at the University of Saskatchewan in the 1990’s, it was aptly named after the flesh eating plants in the 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. Another case of contaminated funding at a university. The “accident” has been blamed on a disgruntled U. of Sask professor who has since been fired. All Canadian shipments to Europe are now stopped. The Europeans buy 70% of our flax – a $320 million industry is potentially destroyed.

Crop contamination isn’t the only damage. There is now proof that GMOs can have detrimental effects on our health. In Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, Jeffrey Smith lists 65 health risks of GM foods. Pregnant women and children are advised to stop eating them because they can lower the immune system. GMOs are also linked to declining fertility; male sperm rates have dropped by 50 percent.

The majority of the public are dead against GMOs and wouldn’t eat any food that contained them if they knew they were eating them. Currently Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China and Japan all have mandatory labeling laws for genetically engineered (GE) foods, in fact 40 countries worldwide have them. Yet in spite of overwhelming support for a similar law in Canada (a decade of polling compiled by Greenpeace shows an average of 88%), Health Canada with the support of the food industry has opted for a voluntary program only. Even though pasteurized and irradiated foods must be labeled, GE foods were deemed “safe”. Greenpeace has not yet been able to turn up one GE label here in their on-going search through grocery store shelves.

In spite of setbacks and lack of public support, the industry continues to make advances. Schmeiser warned of the antibiotic resistant marker genes in canola. And the new “stacker gene” technology that allows them to layer in the viruses and bacteria. Other “innovations” include using plants to produce prescription drugs – currently industrial enzymes, growth hormones, contraceptives, blood thinners and clotters are being “grown” this way. Molecular farming, as it is called, is cheaper – which of course trumps safety.

If you want to avoid GMO’s, check out the Greenpeace handy little shoppers’ guide, How to Avoid Genetically Engineered Food. Other great GMO resources can be found at ETC Group and GRAIN.

Percy Schmeiser is a Canadian farmer from small town Saskatchewan. He has been farming for more than 50 years, saving his own seed, developing some of his own, minding his own business. His wife Louise is a full partner in the farm operation and managed most of the seed saving and breeding. Then one day, Monsanto, a multi-national seed and chemical company called up to say they were suing him. Monsanto’s “private investigators” had found their patented Round Up Ready Canola in his field. Schmeiser had never talked to Monsanto, never gone to any of their meetings, never wanted their seed. He figures they got a tip on one of their “snitch lines”. Clearly this former town reeve, municipal councillor and Provincial Liberal MLA (in the late 1960’s) was a lowlife who had stolen their property.

“You might as well sue the birds and the bees and the wind then,” said Schmeiser.

He claims the seed drifted onto his field. Monsanto said he had to pay their technology fee whether he knew their canola was there or not. Some believe Monsanto is purposely seeding the fields, a plot by the chemical cartel to contaminate the fields and then extort money from farmers for patent infringement. But could they be this sinister?

When farmers enter into the contract with Monsanto they agree to buy their seed along with their fertilizers and pesticides that they also produce and pay a royalty on top. They must allow Monsanto’s “cops” to inspect their fields. The company calls them “audits”.

Monsanto’s investigators, former RCMP officers, regularly patrol rural roads and take crop samples from non-customers. This is trespassing according to Schmeiser.

“What would happen if I went onto their fields and took some of their seed?” he asks. Other Saskatchewan farmers report planes and copters buzzing their fields.

Schmeiser launched a 10 million dollar countersuit and garnered world-wide support for his action. It took two years to go to court. The battle went all the way to the Supreme Court. Schmeiser ultimately lost the case and appeals. The judges ruled that it doesn’t matter how a farm is contaminated, if the patented seed is found in the field, the farmer no longer owns it. So all 50 years of the research he and Louise had done on their own seeds was now owned by Monsanto.

The up side is that Schmeiser did not have to pay them a cent because, the court ruled, he hadn’t profited from the technology. Not only had he not profited, but he’d used up all his savings. He had to pay all his own legal bills – about half a million for his one lawyer. Monsanto had to pay their own too: two million for their 15 lawyers. Schmeisers’ fields were also contaminated, needed massive clean-up and may never be restored to non-GMO (genetically modified organism) status .

Monsanto may have won but they lost the public relations battle. Schmeiser now speaks all over the world and is a hero for farmers fighting to retain ownership of their seeds.

I heard Schmeiser speak recently in Vancouver and learned more details about the five years he was engaged in the lawsuits. Monsanto sued him and his wife personally, calling them stubborn and arrogant. They put a lien against their home, farm and equipment. Monsanto representatives would sit in their driveway and watch them. They’d make menacing phone calls. Schmeiser wanted to quit many times, but Louise wouldn’t let him. He says he couldn’t have carried on without her support. He never left his wife home alone during that time. They both feared for their lives.

But it was the fear Monsanto stirred up among their neighbours that caused the most damage. He spoke of the “extortion” letters sent to friends. He read aloud from one of them, “We have reason to believe you might be growing our crop and it is not licensed. To avoid going to court, please send us $50,000 [sometimes more] within two weeks.” The company created a culture of fear: neighbours snitching on neighbours, afraid to talk to each other, afraid of losing their farms.

“It was the break down of the social fabric,” said Schmeiser.

Monsanto is not just guilty of bullying farmers with dictator-like flourish, they have been convicted of landfilling some of their monstrous inventions: canola with a rogue gene, other grains gone awry with toxic pesticides built right in. And yet, this ordinary farmer who was just going along minding his own business, trying to make a living, is the one who is called criminal.

I am reminded of the 20 premises at the beginning of Derrick Jensen’s book Endgame (Seven Stories Press, 2006); the deeply embedded beliefs we buy into to make industrial civilization work. These beliefs are often not conscious, at least not by the masses. Premise number five pretty well sums up how the persecutors justify the persecution of the small:

The property of those higher on the hierarchy is more valuable than the lives of those below. It is acceptable for those above to increase the amount of property they control – in everyday language, to make money – by destroying or taking the lives of those below. This is called production. If those below damage the property of those above, those above may kill or otherwise destroy the lives of those below. This is called justice.

Percy’s problems with Monsanto did not end with the final appeal. Some volunteer GM canola plants popped up in a field that had lain fallow for eight years. They called Monsanto to let them know and asked them to remove their plants. Monsanto agreed to remove the plants by hand as the Schmeisers requested. But for a price. The Schmeisers would have to agree to never take them to court no matter how much contamination might occur in the future. And they were never to speak of it to anyone.

Schmeiser refused to give up his freedom of speech. Instead they had their neighbours help them remove the plants. And they took Monsanto to small claims court to recoup the $640 it cost them to do the clean up. The multibillion dollar corporation arrived in court with a $640 cheque in hand and settled. A precedent has been set. Schmeiser believes this will help farmers in the future to get reimbursed when their fields become contaminated.

Let us all savour this moment of victory by the small.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, I share this poem with you. My favourite love poem. It is by Pablo Neruda, Nobel laureate who arose to great popularity in North America during the 60’s. While he was more widely known for his political poetry here, at home in Chile, he was also equally loved for his earthy, sensual poems. His Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, One Hundred Love Sonnets was a collection written to his beloved wife, Matilde Urrutia de Neruda. I dedicate this poem to Nodar Kumaritashvili, the fallen luge athlete from the Republic of Georgia and to all of the peaceful protesters and activists who are here during the Olympics, pouring their heart, soul and passion into making our world a more loving place. Y un beso con suerte (kiss for luck) to all the athletes!

Love Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

–Pablo Neruda

Global Exchange is doing amazing work. I used their web site and various reports and resources a lot when I was working on the chocolate chapter in my latest book. Here’s something you can do for Valentine’s Day, that will not increase your calorie intake nor keep children enslaved. Feel free to copy and email the post as they suggest. If you do indulge on the 14th, make it fair trade chocolate.

Will you be my Fair Trade Valentine today?  Win prizes!

Participate in Global Exchange’s “National Valentine’s Day of Action”!

How? Please forward this email to ALL your contacts TODAY!

By doing so, you’ll be spreading the love to low-income farmers around the world who make cocoa for the chocolate you love, and helping to end poverty and abusive child labor in cocoa-farming communities.

AND you may win a prize drawing for $40 in fabulous Global Exchange Fair Trade gifts, including CHOCOLATE!

What is the National Valentine’s Day of Action? Global Exchange has developed a fabulous, free Fair Trade cocoa curriculum, including 9 ready-to-use lesson plans. Educators nationwide (including teachers, youth group leaders, Sunday/religious school teachers, etc, etc) are acting in solidarity to present our innovative, teaching standards-friendly cocoa curriculum, to educate students about Fair Trade on or before Valentine’s Day.

Why email ALL your contacts? Because your other friends, family and colleagues also know educators who may be interested.

Educators receiving this email: Will you join teachers nationwide and help reach our goal of educating at least 3,500 students this Valentine’s Day? Educators who teach the curriculum will be entered into a prize drawing for $75 in Fair Trade gifts from Global Exchange’s Fair Trade online store.

REGISTER TODAY!  The first five new participants in the National Valentine’s Day of Action to download the curriculum AND email us to register will receive Fair Trade cocoa beans to use with their lessons.

To participate as an educator, enable us to track whether we have reached our goal of 3,500 students, and get entered into the prize drawing, please take ALL THREE of these steps:

1. Download the curriculum at www.globalexchange.org/cocoa
2. No later than February 13, email fairtrade@globalexchange.org with “National Valentine’s Day of Action Participant” in the subject line and the following information in the body of the email:

Your name:

Your school:

City and state where your school is located:

Your mailing address:

Your phone number:

Number of children in your classroom:

Date you plan to teach the curriculum: E-mail or postmark your curriculum evaluation by February 21^st.

How to win if you refer an educator: When downloading the curriculum, educators enter the name of the individual who referred them to the curriculum.

While we encourage participation around the globe, please note that only individuals with US addresses are eligible for the prize drawing.

Want to increase your chances of winning?? Do these three things:

1. 1 minute: Forward this e-mail to everyone you know, especially educators! Hurry, they start planning their curriculum now!
2. 10 minutes: Make an announcement at your local PTA or teacher staff meeting.
3. 20 minutes: Go to www.globalexchange.org/cocoa/vdaycurricula.html and download the National Valentine’s Day flyer and pass it out at your local schools, put them in teacher’s mailboxes, etc.

However you choose to do it, just remember that YOU’RE making a DIFFERENCE. And that cocoa farming parents and their children will appreciate every effort you make to help better their lives.

PS:  Have you made your Fair Trade New Year’s Resolution yet?  It’s not too late!  Visit www.globalexchange.org/cocoa and follow the links to the New Year’s Resolution page.

Honeybees are dropping like flies. Around the world beekeepers are reporting massive die-offs of these essential pollinators. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) as it is called has been blamed on cell phones, genetics, mites, pathogens, gmos, nutrient-deficiency and pesticides. In British Columbia, bee experts say it is a parasitic mite that is attacking the bees, along with the chemical treadmill (including antibiotics) designed to treat the mites and subsequent diseases. Crops like blueberries can’t rely on the wind; they need the honeybees to help transport the heavy pollen grains. Farmers pay beekeepers to bring hives into their fields when they are in bloom, but beekeepers can no longer keep up on the demand because of the declining bee population. Losing honeybees directly affects our food supply.

Although it may be a combination of factors, many feel a family of pesticides is chiefly to blame. Neonicotinoids are neurotoxins that affect the central nervous system of insects. Bayer CropScience coats many of their corn and canola seeds in these pesticides to protect them from pests, who also become coated with the stuff. France banned the products in 1999 and in 2008 Germany, Slovenia and Italy suspended sales too. The Co-op, Britain’s largest supermarket with its own farm, banned eight pesticides in January last year. As with humans, the link between disease and pesticide may be indirect. In other words, they might affect your liver which can’t then properly filter the toxins. Some feel that the pesticides could cause a viral infection in the bees, weakening their natural defenses.

And of course the bees are also exposed to all the crop chemicals. A recent study out of Pennsylvania State University found pesticides in pollen, honey and the wax comb in hives. And still the worker bee deniers deny the link between disappearing bees and pesticides.

A crowd has gathered on Granville Street at Helmcken in front of a vacant store. There is a shopping cart there with large buckets in it. A serving cart holds paper cups, bowls and plastic spoons. There’s juice and water too. Boxes of buns and apples sit on the sidewalk. Once a month, the day before the welfare cheques are handed out, the hungry from all over Vancouver come to feast on a now famous stew lovingly made by the cooks at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel.

There’s a story behind this stew of course. And it started eight years ago with a woman named Clemencia Gomez. Clemencia worked with Neighbourhood Helpers, a non-profit group that reaches out to seniors and others living in single room occupancy hotels (SRO’s) in the downtown core. Part of her job was to make sure people were eating well. She even started a little rooftop garden so residents could grow some of their own food. While working in the downtown area hotels like the Old Continental, the Vogue and the Gresham, she noticed that there were a lot of other hungry people in the area too.

“That was the biggest shock to me,” said this native of Columbia, “that people could be going hungry in a rich country like Canada.” She decided to do something about it.

She went to see the chef at the Fairmont Waterfront to see if she could get left over produce to put in a monthly soup. Daryl Nagato, the executive chef at the time, well known for his hotel rooftop garden said, “I can do more than that, I’ll make it for you.” And so began the monthly ritual that continues today. The giant pot of stew – much heartier than soup – is so large it is hooked up to its own heating system and has to be tipped into the waiting buckets with an electronic device. And the standard set by Nagato remains high.

“It doesn’t matter who my customer is,” says Zarko Torbica, the banquet sous chef and official “taster” at the Fairmont Waterfront, “if it doesn’t taste good, it doesn’t go out.”

“It tastes just like the stew my mother used to make,” says one happy recipient. “You don’t have to ask where’s the beef in this stew – there’s big chunks of meat in it,” says another. They go back for seconds and thirds. After all, they won’t taste this stew again for another month. Young, old, homeless or sheltered, the people gathered here once a month, rain or shine, have one thing in common – hunger.

Who knew that there were hunger problems outside of the downtown eastside? In fact the FORC Report, an assessment of Vancouver’s food system compiled by a group of researchers from the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University found that food “insecurity” or not having regular access to healthy, nutritious food is prevalent to varying degrees in neighbourhoods throughout Vancouver. Some barriers to access are income, housing costs, age, disability, ethnicity, grocery store locations, or lack of cooking facilities.

Most people are unaware of the SRO’s on the Granville Strip, including Rose Mancini who replaced Clemencia last November.

“I used to go to movies on Granville Street and I had no idea there were even single room occupancy hotels there,” says Rose.

Under Rose’s guidance, the garden program is expanding. Raised beds have been put in the parking lot behind the Old Continental. Residents grow tomatoes, lettuces, herbs and flowers for their own use.

“We have a big barbeque at the end of the summer,” says Rose. “The hotel managers are great. They put out a huge spread for the residents.” Only a few blocks away and yet worlds apart from the landlords we hear about on the downtown eastside.

Rose is concerned about providing healthy food to the hotel residents. In addition to weekly soups at the SRO’s, they host coffee hours to get to know the residents The food for these sessions comes from the food bank and is not always what she would call healthy: candy, cookies, donuts. But she’s working on that too. COBS Bread has been supplying scones for the coffee hours – and not left overs – they are fresh baked. Organics at Home on the North Shore also provides organic produce weekly.

“Food always brings people together,” says Rose. “That’s how we build relationships.”

Yes, feeding people does sound like the neighbourly thing to do.

Remember your neighbours in need as we move into the Olympics lock down period when it will be even more difficult for them to access fresh, healthy food. This article first appeared in Shared Vision magazine, April 2007.