Every once in a while a book comes along and changes the way you think, evolving your perspective and understanding of the world to another level. My recent reading of “Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations” did just that. Acting as a potent historical analysis of the human species seen through the lens of our agricultural practices since the dawn of agrarian civilization, this book reveals how empires rise and fall with their ability to produce and control the distribution of food.

Cities, culture, governments and growing populations all rise out of the food surpluses created by agriculture. The authors, Evan D.G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas, narrate a compelling  journey through various ancient civilizations from the Roman Empire, the Mayans, to the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, exposing a boom and bust history of expansion, crop failures, soil erosion, and climate change that eventually brought each of these societies to their knees with millions of deaths brought on by starvation.

^ A monocultivated potato field (photo by NightThree via Wikipedia)

Even in today’s high tech world of GMO crops, artificial fertilizers and pesticides helping produce an astounding level of crop yield to our tables and supermarkets, we are still vulnerable to all the same perils as before, as well as a few new ones such as industrial pollution, peak oil and massive monoculture crop failures from disease. Today, the majority of the world’s population is fed by 4 staple foods: corn, soy, wheat and rice. A failure in any one of these crops would be catastrophic and felt worldwide.

If we as a civilization are going to avoid the next food crash, we are going to have to do a lot more than change our dining habits; we are going to need to change the very fabric of our economy and way of life. Time is running out, but more and more people are awakening to the reality of what it will take to sustain humanity over the next few decades, and books like this act as a beacon and a warning. Highly recommended.

~ PK

Last week, I was invited to take part in the Comox Valley’s inaugural Farm Cycle Tour, a self-guided, pedal-powered jaunt through one of the most picturesque farming valley’s in all of British Columbia, affording me a chance to visit with some of the region’s local producers and to sample their wares.

With over one hundred and ninety cyclists taking part in this year’s event, organized in partnership by the Comox Valley Cycling Coalition, the Comox Valley Farmers’ Market Association, the Comox Valley Farmers’ Institute and Discover Comox Valley, the cycle tour has proven to be a great success with lots of potential for future growth and increased tourism.

There are nearly 450 working farms in the Comox Valley that contribute over $30 million dollars to the local economy in everything from poultry, cattle and dairy to greenhouse and field crops. The New Comox Valley Economic Development Strategy has identified food and beverage processing as the community’s number one priority for economic growth, with a total of over 40,000 hectares of agricultural land available in the Comox Valley, only 1/3 of the available land is currently in production.

Here is a rundown of some of the farms I visited on my journey:

First stop on the tour was Outback Nursery, a family owned farm that grows most of their plants on site. They specialize in grafted Japanese Maples and conifers and a vast selection of ornamental trees and shrubs, grasses, ferns, perennials, fruit trees and berry plants. Open 10:00am to 5:00pm daily.

^ Outback Nursery (Willems Family)
6016 Headquarters Road | Courtenay
Tel: 250-703-0723
outback.nursery@gmail.com

Just down the road is DeeKayTee Ranch, which produces natural grass fed beef, pork, chicken, turkey and eggs, as well as tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, jams & jellies, pies, bread, honey, local crafts and local in-season veggies. D.K.T. farm market is open year-round on Saturday from 9am-1pm. There is a log cabin and bunkhouse for on-site accommodation and farm vacations.

^ DeeKayTee Ranch
(Dan and Maggie Thran)
6301 Headquarters Rd | Courtenay
Phone: 250-337-5553
info@logcabinandbunkhouse.bc.ca
www.logcabinandbunkhouse.bc.ca

Our third stop brought us to Good Earth Farms for a lesson in strawberry farming and seed collecting.  Some of the seeds they had available for purchase: Asparagus, Raspberries, Apples, Cherries, Rhubarb, Arugula, Spinach, Carrots, Jerusalem Artichoke, Broccoli, Beans, Peas, Squash, Pumpkins, Tomatillo, Broad Beans, Garlic, Tomatoes, Gardeners Healing Salve.

Good Earth Farms
(Simon and Heather Toole)
7376 Island Highway | Black Creek
Tel: 250-337-2261
goodearth@uniserve.com
www.goodearthfarms.ca

Next stop, Coastal Black, an estate fruit winery and meadery. They grow all of their own fruit used in the wines and are also a large honey producer, which is used in the production of their mead. On site activities: a self-guided tour of 120 acres of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries and bee hives. Honey sampling and Wine tasting are offered at the main building.

^ Coastal Black Estate Winery
2186 Endall Road | Black Creek
Tel: 250.337.8325
info@coastalblack.ca
www.coastalblack.ca

A short 15 minute pedal away, Jane and Dave Aberle grow high quality organic blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries at Berry Best Farm. They also grow a large variety of veggies from arugula to zucchini. Their farm stand is open daily 10 am to 5 pm from June to September. You can also find them at the Saturday and Wednesday Farmer’s Market.

^ Berry Best Farm
(Jane and Dave Aberle)
Tel: 250-338-0234
2156 Coleman Road | Courtenay

The final stop of the tour is Freedom Farm, a family run farm offering a variety of organic in-season vegetables, a large selection of herbs and vegetable starts, hothouse tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers that are all grown in carefully tended soil by the Woroniak family (originally from Saskatchewan). You can meet them at the Farmer’s Market on either Wednesday or Saturday or visit their farm store, open 7 days a week from 10am to 6pm.

Freedom Farm
(Tammy, Curtis, Lindsay Ray, Calvin and Deanna Woroniak)
2099 Coleman Road | Courtenay
Tel: 250-898-8413
woroniak@telus.net

After a full day of touring, I had built up an serious appetite. It was fitting that I had dinner reservations at Locals, where Chef Ronald St. Pierre’s entire menu features products from the surrounding valley farms, bringing my culinary journey full circle and right onto the plate. I couldn’t think of a better way to end the day.

Locals
364  8th Street | Courtenay
Tel: 250-338-6493
chef@localscomoxvalley.com
www.localscomoxvalley.com

RECOMMENDED LODGING:

Holiday Inn Express & Suites
2200 Cliffe Avenue | Courtenay
Toll Free: 1-800-465-4329 (HOLIDAY)
www.hiexpress.com/courtenayse

The newest hotel in Courtenay, complete with an indoor pool, hot tub and waterslide. Rates from $110. Includes free wireless and buffet breakfast.

MORE RECOMMENDED DINING:

Atlas Café
250 6th Street | Courtenay
Tel: 250-890-9200
www.atlascafe.ca

Where the locals like to eat. Check the daily specials.

Open 8:30am to 9:30pm Monday through Thursday
8:30am to 10pm Friday and Saturday
8:30am to 9pm Sunday
Breakfast is served until 2pm Saturday and Sunday

SPECIAL THANKS TO: Terry Dekker of the Comox Valley Cycling Coalition, Kate Rogers of Tartan Group, Jennifer Evans of Comox Valley Economic Development, BC Ferries Vacations

Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/2/XmmTs0 media invite and support for preview and promotion

~ PK

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This year, FarmFolkCityFolk’s annual Feast of Fields fundraiser is being hosted at Krause Berry Farms in Langley. The four-hour gourmet wandering harvest festival celebrates the very best from local chefs, brewers, vintners, distillers, farmers, fishers, ranchers, and food artisans. By highlighting the connections between producers and chefs, producers and consumers, farm folk and city folk, Feast of Fields aims to increased the awareness of, and appreciation for, local food and agriculture in order to build a sustainable, local food system.

Krause Berry Farms began in 1974 when the Krause brothers planted one acre of strawberries. Today, 165 acres are under cultivation, producing a variety of fruits and vegetables that are harvested commercially and by U-pick. To keep the soils healthy and productive, Krause employs multiple year crop rotations, enriches the soil with natural compost, utilizes the latest techniques of Integrated Pest Management to reduce chemical use, practices no-till farming for certain crops, and performs many farming activities by hand to minimize external inputs.

Here’s an amuse bouche of what to expect at this year’s Feast…

Feast venue at Krause Berry Farms.

One Love Farms heirloom squash stuffed with Glorious Organics celebration salad by Seasonal 56 Restaurant.

House made charcuterie, compote, and rye bread by Seasonal 56 Restaurant.

For a list of participants, visit the Metro Vancouver Feast of Fields Web site. And don’t forget to stop by the Krause Berry Farms Market after the Feast to take home some fresh produce and food products.

Krause Berry Farms Market.

Metro Vancouver Feast of Fields
September 11, 1-5 pm
Krause Berry Farms
6179 248th Street, Langley
Tickets: $85; purchase info
Sponsorship: contact Dana at mvfeast@farmfolkcityfolk.ca
Twitter: @MVFeast

Other Feast of Field celebrations will be held on August 21 at Van Westen Vineyards and Orchards in Naramata and on September 18 at Marley Farm in Saanichton.

Metro Vancouver Feast of Fields artwork created by Jennifer Stamper.

~ RG

The Local Fresh Food Market has risen out of the ashes of adversity and transformed into a farmer owned store that is fast becoming a vital part of the neighbourhood and a direct link to local farm products.

Formerly known as the Grow-In Grocer, the store almost collapsed when former owner, Deb Reynolds, disappeared with the trust and money of farmers and customers alike.

Luckily, the passion of the farmers prevailed and the many of the former customers have returned to revitalize the store. Designed to avail busy city folk of Fraser Valley’s best produce, farmers eliminate the middle man and deliver the season’s freshest and finest when the harvest is at the peak of perfection. All members are committed to safe and sustainable farming and welcome the opportunity of forging a direct relationship with the consumer.

“Guaranteed access to fresh produce, often picked within hours of selling, lets our customers experience unsurpassed flavours and textures,” shares Bernice Noel, store manager. “The Fraser Valley generates some of the finest food ingredients in the world. We are a community of farmers who are collaborating to bring quality ingredients to our market within hours of harvesting.”

The owners include the Gelderman family, who began farming in 1978 on their property in Abbotsford, raising pigs and growing blueberries. Their environmental awareness is reflected in superior products and the practice of full circle farming.

Another owner is the Taves family, who run The Apple Barn. In 1940 Great Grandfather John decided to farm the fertile soils in the south part of Abbotsford. Grandson Loren and his wife Corinne have continued the orchards full of crisp sweet apples and have added berries and greenhouse vegetables, using integrated pest management for high yields without chemical pesticides.

”Just flavourful healthy beef” is the slogan for Redl’s Home Grown Beef. The two brothers raise cattle the natural way, on pasture, without antibiotics, pesticides or herbicides, or growth hormones.

Wendy Boys is the proud owner of Cocolico, a Vancouver-based company specializing in small-batch, hand-crafted chocolates and dessert sauces. She is an award-winning pastry chef who has apprenticed under world-renowned chocolatiers and designed dessert programs for some of Canada’s top restaurants. As one of the owners of Local Fresh Food Market, Wendy brings her taste for the extraordinary to the store.

Striving for excellence in local product, the store carries Birchwood Dairy gourmet ice cream, delectable cheeses from Amie’s Cheese & Dairy, Wild Coast Edibles teas, mushrooms and berries, piping hot coffee and fresh baked organic goodies from Aphrodite’s Cafe & Pie Shop, and wild sustainable seafood harvested by Blue Comet Seafoods.

The Local Fresh Food Market is the place where folks can buy local, fresh, organic or natural products grown or made in British Columbia. Check them out.

The Local Fresh Food Market
3010 Cambie Street |Vancouver

HOW TO GET THERE

On January 27, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would, once again, allow the unregulated sale of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Alfalfa, which is genetically engineered (GE) to resist the company’s glyphosate herbicide, Roundup. This decision was made despite acknowledgment in the USDA’s final Environmental Impact Statement that the potential for cross-fertilization to organic and conventional alfalfa exists. However, an option to establish geographic restrictions, isolation distances, specific harvest times, and equipment regulations for Monsanto’s GE alfalfa to address this problem was dismissed.

It will only be a matter of time before Monsanto’s GE alfalfa is available for sale in Canada. The Canadian government has already approved it. However, the company has yet to register the seed with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Variety Registration Office, which is the final step before it can be commercially grown here. That could happen as soon as mid-summer.

Organic farmers in both Canada and the United States are opposed to the unregulated use of GE alfalfa because alfalfa is an important crop used for animal feed and for non-chemical farming practices, such as increasing soil fertility, suppressing weeds, and preventing soil erosion. Should alfalfa used by an organic farm be contaminated with a genetically engineered variety, the farmer will, at the very least, lose their certification and the ability to sell to their existing customers.

In the fall of 2009, Canadian flax producers lost 70% of their export market when the European Union banned imports of Canadian flax due to contamination from a GE variety. Although the GE flax had been de-registered before it could be distributed to farmers for general planting, conventional breeder seeds were already contaminated with it. Breeder seed contamination is not new. It was also found in canola within five years of GE varieties being introduced to Canada. Organic farmers had to stop growing canola altogether to maintain their certifications.

To address the huge potential financial loss farmers face from GE contamination, federal NDP Agriculture Critic, Alex Atamanenko, introduced a Private Member’s Bill that would require the government conduct an analysis of potential harm to export markets before the sale of any new genetically engineered seed is permitted in Canada. However, on February 9, Bill C-474 was defeated by Conservative and Liberal MPs on its third reading in Parliament.

Canada is the world’s largest alfalfa producer and alfalfa is the fourth largest crop grown in the United States. Therefore, cross-pollination with conventional crops is certain. As a perennial, genetically modified plants could live on for years, widely distributing their pollen. Currently, farmers have no legal or government protection from GE crop contamination. They are at risk of litigation by Monsanto for patent infringement. This already represents a significant threat to a small farmer. Should Canada sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the EU in its current form, any farmer that is alleged to have infringed a seed company’s patent can be prevented from planting a crop; have their crops, equipment, land, or other assets seized; or their bank accounts blocked before the case is even heard in court.

If genetically-engineered crops are so beneficial, then why the need for such heavy-handedness? Perhaps because the seed companies’ claims are very difficult to verify. They do not allow any independent research of their proprietary technology whose results might refute their assertions. Already, glyphosate-resistant weeds are emerging.

The safety of foods with GE ingredients is a major concern that remains unanswered. Rather than require biotech companies demonstrate that their products are harmless to humans, our governments have approved their introduction on the basis of “substantial equivalence”. This means that a new food only needs to be seen as equivalent in composition and nutritional characteristics to an existing food to be considered safe. As there is no government requirement for food companies to list GE ingredients, the only alternative for consumers to opt out of this experiment is to purchase certified organic products. Is Roundup Ready Alfalfa aimed at eliminating this final refuge? When 93 percent of alfalfa hay is currently grown without any herbicide at all, where is the need?

~ RG

Show your support for organic agriculture and the right to choose, take action now! click here

I remember one time, when buying tomatoes at a Vancouver farmers market, a young woman asked the vendor if they had any tomatoes for sandwiches, “like the ones you find in the supermarket.” Before her lay a cornucopia of heirloom tomatoes in various shapes and sizes, in hues of yellow, green, orange, pink, purple, black, and red. It was her introduction to the rest of the 7,500 varieties of tomato that are invisible to most people.

That the woman did not believe any of the heirloom tomatoes would be suitable for her sandwich speaks to how narrowly we’ve been conditioned by agribusiness in our expectations of what fruits and vegetables should look like, not to mention that they should be available throughout the year. That uniformity is not accidental. It is driven by commercial considerations, such as resistance to pests and disease, durability for mechanized picking and shipping, and ability to be picked before fully ripening. The latter is important because over 50% of the fresh food British Columbians consume is not produced here.

Cheap fossil fuels have allowed us to transcend our geographical limitations and benefit from the economies of scale of global industrialized farming. However, with peak oil looming, we cannot expect to continue to afford relying on places like California and Mexico for so much of our produce. Our most reliable option is to maximize self-sufficiency.

As Alisa Smith and James Mackinnon discovered when they tried going on a 100-mile diet for a year, food self-reliance is easier said than done. Most of our local food production is small-scale and, thus, falls outside of our large-scale food distribution system. Farmers markets are an attempt to fill in the gap, but aren’t sufficiently meeting the growing needs of both consumers and farmers. More is required.

According to Metro Vancouver’s Draft Regional Food System Strategy [1], local policies and programs will be necessary to:

• increase local capacity to produce food
• improve financial viability of farmers and others in the food supply chain
• encourage people to eat healthier diets
• ensure more equitable access to food
• reduce waste in the food system
• protect the ecological health of our region and surrounding waters

Efforts by various agencies and groups in the Lower Mainland to work towards these objectives, however, may be in jeopardy. The Canadian federal government is currently negotiating a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union that seeks to, amongst its numerous aims, “achieve a substantial reduction of production and trade distorting domestic support.”[2] This also includes procurement policies that would bar any public institution from seeking food services favouring a domestic provider or requiring a vendor to source local food.[3]

NAFTA’s Most-Favored Nation clause[4] obligates Canada to extend to the United States and Mexico treatment no less favorable than all other countries we trade with. Therefore, any rights we give up to the Europeans that we have not already surrendered to our NAFTA co-signatories, will be immediately extended to them.

Of even greater concern are CETA’s articles concerning intellectual property rights. These not only cover pharmaceuticals or creative works, such as books or music, but include patented genetically modified organisms (GMO). According to Article 19, any farmer that is alleged to have infringed a seed company’s patent can be prevented from planting a crop; have their crops, equipment, land, or other assets seized; or their bank accounts blocked before the case is even heard in court.[5]

To get a sense of how draconian CETA’s Article 19 is, GMO contamination from a neighbouring field is all that would be necessary for the likes of Monsanto to accuse a farmer of patent infringement. Most farmers would not be able to afford a legal challenge from the world’s largest seed company under such provisions. They would either be forced to buy GMO seeds or go out of business. Such power is becoming concentrated into fewer hands. The world’s 10 largest seed companies control 67% of the global proprietary seed market. Eight-two percent of all commercial seed sales are proprietary. [6]

Climate change and peak oil are fundamental issues that demand local solutions to achieve food security. In the name of free trade, CETA in its current form will surrender our food sovereignty to the corporate interests driving this agreement. It will then be much more difficult to put in place the necessary conditions to improve our self-sufficiency in food production.

~ RG

Footnotes:
1. Metro Vancouver Draft Regional Food System Strategy, pg. 7.
2. Article X-10:6, Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement draft consolidated text, pg. 20.
3. Article IV:1, Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement draft consolidated text, pg. 206.
5. Article 1103, North American Free Trade Agreement.
4. Article 19, Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement draft consolidated text, pg. 252.
6. Who Owns Nature, ETC Group, pg. 46.

A very timely report was released today entitled “Every Bite Counts: Climate Justice and BC’s Food System”. This document is part of the Climate Justice Project, a five-year research initiative led by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the University of British Columbia. This is a must read for anyone concerned about food security and climate change in this province. ~ PK

The official press release:

Every bite counts: Government must set menu for BC’s food system in face of climate change

(Vancouver) A new report is calling on the BC government to take action to make BC’s food system work better for farmers, eliminate hunger, shift away from imported products, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The report, Every Bite Counts: Climate Justice and BC’s Food System, released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), calls for a rethink of BC’s food system in light of climate change. The report acknowledges grassroots efforts to move to local, sustainable agriculture have found support at the local government level. Largely missing, it says, are actions by the provincial government to accelerate change.

The report argues that climate impacts will undermine the abundance of the modern supermarket. “BC imports about half of its food, leaving the province vulnerable to supply disruptions and price shocks,” says report co-author and CCPA-BC Senior Economist Marc Lee. “Our food system is also a contributor to climate change.”

Leadership from the provincial government for a “made in BC” strategy is essential, through a more coherent planning framework. Says Lee, “this is not a task that can be left to market forces alone.”

A key recommendation of the paper is to link local food to the purchasing power of large public and non-profit institutions such as schools, hospitals, universities, prisons, and social housing units. “If a growing portion of food budgets in the public sector were dedicated to local food sources, it would provide a huge boost towards creating a more localized food system,” says Lee.

“BC needs to develop a more just distribution of food, better support farmers, farm workers and fishers, and seek healthier nutritional outcomes from our food system,” says Herb Barbolet, report co-author and Associate with the Centre for Sustainable Community Development. “At a deeper level, this is more about an ongoing cultural transformation in how we think about food, waste, the economy, labour, health and education.”

Alejandro Rojas, Principal Investigator of the UBC-based community-university research alliance Think & Eat Green @ School Project, notes, “Schools have tremendous potential for addressing hunger, improving nutrition and teaching kids where food comes from, through meal programs, school gardens and curriculum development.” The Think & Eat Green @ School Project involves 25 community partners and works to connect Vancouver K–12 students to food and sustainability issues while helping schools lighten their ecological footprint and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Other recommendations include:

• Shift to 80% food self-reliance by 2030: To be more resilient to climate change, BC needs to reduce the amount of food we export and focus on meeting domestic consumption needs. Getting to 80% self-reliance will also require a doubling of our current food production capacity.

• Take hunger off the table: To eliminate hunger, BC needs to raise the incomes of low-income households, beginning with a provincial poverty reduction plan. Ensuring workers can earn a living wage and funding adequate income support programs are essential if we are to reduce hunger.

• Support integrated food, housing and health programming for vulnerable populations: Housing programs should build in flexible food options and infrastructure that meet the nutritional needs of their residents.

“These ingredients point towards a food system that could be, with strong public policy actions, just and sustainable. BC is starting in an excellent position to move forward,” says Barbolet. “But we need strong leadership from our provincial government.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE REPORT

Ok, a share of hands please.  How many of you have ever suckled a baby?  Maybe a few of you…? Ok then, how many of you were breastfed?  In a place I call Happy Fantasy Boob Land, I imagine that 100% of you got breast-fed.  But, like me, I know for a fact that a lot of you didn’t, and that maybe even some of you haven’t seen a baby breast feeding either.  But whatever boob hang-ups we all have, I think we can all agree that breast is best.  Years of research and public campaigning have finally shifted the preposterous albeit prosperous medical opinion that we could improve upon nature by synthesizing a substitute.  Yes, almost every doctor will tell you that boobs are pretty great.  And not only is breast-feeding good for you, it’s a quite a handy thing too.  Here we have a whining crying screaming baby going on and On AND ON and all you need to do is stick a boob in it to shut it up.  It’s a miracle.   You don’t even need to wash the boob before using it.  No sterilizing bottles and nipples and discarding plastic bags.  It’s the ultimate in convenience, and 100% green.  Breast milk is so totally hip.

But what if I told you that breast milk was a health hazard?  What if I told you that your baby’s milk needed to be packed into huge vats and blended with other mother’s milk and taken to a factory to be industrially processed?  First we’d skim off the fat and then add butter fat back to the milk to achieve the desired percentage of fat (e.g. 1%, 2%, 3% etc).  After this we’d pasteurize the whole lot of it, and then run it through a high pressure nozzle upwards of 17,000 kPa in a process called homogenization, changing the physiochemical properties of the milk, turning it into a very different substance.   Then we’d pack it up in cardboard boxes lined with polyethylene or high density polyethylene (HDPE) containers, and about a week after it had been expressed, you could finally give it to your baby.  Does this make any sense to you?

And yet this is what modern milk has become.  The very same substance that comes from a mother’s breast is the same thing that comes from a cow or any other mammal.  Sure, the ratio of fats, proteins and sugars are different depending on the animal, but milk is milk, and real milk is always raw.  Let’s make no mistake here.  Any type of milk that is no longer raw cannot be said to be milk.  In fact milk that is no longer raw is usually yogurt, a process that more or less happens on its own.  But milk isn’t yogurt.  And neither is skim, 2% or homo.

What ‘milk’ has become in modern society is an artifact of milk, a replica of the farm fresh product that the marketing only alludes to.  But it’s about as close to real milk as an Egg McMuffin is to a real breakfast.   And because it’s not milk, but another product that the body doesn’t recognize as food, it is one of the most allergenic and problematic foods in today’s diet.  Not just me but legions of health practitioners including herbalists, naturopaths and medical doctors will all tell you that avoiding milk will improve your health.  By avoiding milk health problems seem to resolve out of thin air – chronic mucus and sinus issues, asthma, joint pain, skin rashes and even anxiety and depression – all these and more just seem to get better.  It is so common to hear that milk causes health issues that I’ve heard comedians make jokes about it.  It’s become a cultural meme, despite all the marketing that “milk does the body good”.  It seems that milk is bad for you after all.  But let’s be perfectly clear.  What we are referring to here isn’t really milk.

According to Ayurveda, milk is best consumed fresh and warm, right out of the milk bucket.  Taken in this way, milk is among the most nourishing of foods, helping to overcome deficiency states, weight loss and a lack of vitality.  In ancient India all traditional hospitals had a couple cows on the grounds, providing fresh raw milk and other milk products for the patients.  But regardless of its virtues, raw milk doesn’t stay that way forever.  As I indicated earlier, if the milk is brought inside, filtered and put into a jar, within a 24 hour period it usually turns to yogurt, or what they call “dahi” in India.  This is a natural function of the lactic acid bacteria that are pretty much everywhere in our environment.  And thank goodness, because if it wasn’t for them, other putrefying bacteria would soon turn that fresh milk into something quite nasty and rather toxic.   Although still a nutritive substance, due to its sour taste yogurt is said to be different than milk in its properties and effects.  For one thing, fresh raw milk is a mild laxative, but fresh yogurt is slightly constipating, which is why it’s good for traveler’s diarrhea.  Milk is a little heavy and hard to digest, whereas yogurt is easier to digest.  Milk is cooling and antiinflammatory, but yogurt is heat producing, and can promote rashes and other skin issues.  I talk about these and other issues on my website.

By the time the milk is turning into yogurt the cream has risen to the top.  The farmer scoops this soured cream off the yogurt and sets it aside, and then after a few days of accumulating it, the sour cream is churned to produce butter and buttermilk.  This type of real cultured butter which is hard to find nowadays is stated in Ayurveda to have nourishing and aphrodisiac properties, and then when clarified into ghee, turns into a heat-stable cooking fat that potentiates the medicinal properties of the herbs it’s mixed with.  And what’s left over from churning butter is real buttermilk, a thin sour liquid with very little fat.  In Ayurveda buttermilk is an excellent remedy for diarrhea and dysentery when prepared with rice and herbs such as curry leaf, hing, cumin and salt.  But what exactly you can do with that thick fatty glop in the grocery store figuratively called “buttermilk” I have no idea.

I provide this basic run down of traditional dairy processing to provide some context.  And hopefully the context should be clear enough: for the vast majority of the time we have been consuming milk as a species, we have observed a fairly basic set of farming practices, processing methods and consumption patterns.  The problem is that none of us are living on the farm anymore.  Most of us don’t even live close enough to a farmer to get it locally.  We hear that we need milk, that it’s replete with calcium that we supposedly need to prevent osteoporosis, and so we are compelled to buy it.

When people began to migrate into the cities to find work, still hankering for those farm fresh foods, local dairies were only too happy to oblige.  Funded by growing demand, these home-run dairies quickly became businesses supplying a commodity, and dairy production went from simple family run operations to dairy mega corps in a single generation.  But there were some major hiccups in the beginning, especially before we had adequate refrigeration, before we had really figured out the level of hygiene that needs to be followed when you operate on such a level.  Very often the product would curdle or otherwise spoil from contamination somewhere in chain of production.  Enter Louis Pasteur and his concept of pasteurization.

Before pasteurization, there were natural limits upon how big a dairy operation could get, but Mr. Pasteur’s process allowed the dairy farm to become a huge operation and still maintain a “reliable” product.  Remember how raw milk becomes yogurt due to the ubiquitous presence of lactic acid bacteria?  Well, pasteurization is an effective method to kill these bacteria and prevent lactic acid fermentation.  It allows for the continued appearance and taste of milk weeks after it has been expressed, but in fact pasteurization doesn’t kill all the bacteria.  In particular, pasteurization leaves some degree of putrefying bacteria more or less intact, which is why after a week or so your milk smells like sweaty biker armpits instead of yogurt.  The gross thing is that you have been drinking it this whole time, and it’s only when it finally gets too gross that you toss it out.

I guess it goes without saying, but real milk comes from real cows.  Fortunately in Canada we have laws that prohibit the use of hormones like recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) to boost milk production, but in the US there are no such restrictions, as well as no specific laws that require labeling this fact.  Antibiotics, herbicide and pesticide residues and even the presence of heavy metals such as cadmium are also worrisome components of commercial milk production. Real cows of course spend their time walking in the fields eating grass, herbs and lots of bugs in the process, and feeding on silage and hay over the winter months.  Real cows are cared for and loved and respected as the true mothers that they are, their teats lovingly pulled by farmers whose joy it is to receive their milky abundance.  Some might think this a pastoral fantasy, but the horror show of the modern dairy cow is very real.

It should be clear by now that the only way to get milk, real milk, is to get it from real dairy farmers that have relatively small operations.  On this level, dairy farming is a small home-based business with a small herd that produces a relatively small volume of milk that can be distributed to the community following simple methods of hygiene.  It’s not that complicated, but for some reason it gets very complicated for government bureaucrats.  Just ask Alice Jongerden of Home on the Range cowshare farm in Chilliwack B.C.  For the past several years, Ms. Jongerden and her family have been providing fresh raw milk to local people who want it.  It’s a very small family-run operation, and if you passed it on the highway it would fly by in a blip.  People who want real milk invest in their cow-share program, and owning a share of the cow entitles them to receive some of its milk.  You can even go out there and say hi to your cow, scratch her neck and feed her some grass.  But according to Fraser Health, Alice Jongerden is committing a crime.  For providing real milk in a way that any real farmer would feel comfortable with it, Home on the Range is under court order to suspend its operations.  And Alice isn’t the only one.  Although having recently won his case in court, Ontario dairy farmer Michael Schmidt is preparing to meet the government’s appeal, and finally strike down the law against real people drinking real milk.  And a similar movement is afoot in the US, where laws depending on the state can be just as draconian as they are in Canada.  Take a look at this recent news report on a police raid on an organic grocery store in California.

In the interest of fairness however, I don’t want to come across completely one-sided.  I understand that the regulatory agencies are mostly just trying to save their butts and protect the public interest.  I will suspend the thought that their actions may just be the result of pressure from the milk industry and milk marketing boards, who would hate to see consumers start to choose real milk instead of the industrial product.   But I too, have some concerns about milk.  For one thing, it’s clearly not a food for everyone, and even raw milk will give some people problems with their health.  And I am also concerned about storing raw milk under refrigeration for an extended period of time, with people drinking it cold right out of the fridge.  Research shows that under refrigeration the lactic acid bacteria don’t out-compete other cold-insensitive bacteria, including potentially pathogenic organisms.  Remember what I said about real milk being fresh, straight from the cow?   Yes, raw milk is a natural product, but the extended preservation of raw milk under refrigeration is not.  As such, I recommend that people who buy raw milk introduce a culture to ferment it, such as a little yogurt culture or kefir granules, or if it’s more than 2 days old, warm the raw milk up to 100C before consuming it.  Drinking cold milk right out the fridge is a 20th century phenomena, and in my experience, gives rise to a number of health issues including weak digestion, chronic mucus congestion and depressed immunity.  According to Ayurveda, boiled milk prepared with herbs and spices such as ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and clove helps to improve the digestibility of the milk, and this is a practice that has been followed in India for thousands of years.

In the same way that I recommend we all buy our meat from local producers, so too should we get our milk from local dairies.  I am confident that if health boards limited the herd size and operations for raw milk dairies, that a high quality and safe product could be easily supplied.  Just ask the farmers – they know how to do it already.  Concerns over spoilage and infection would be easily allayed.  And then we would see the rise of a hundred local dairy farms, maybe even some in the city as they do out at the UBC farm.  Local farms and local milk for local people.  The real thing.

~ Todd Caldecott

toddcaldecott.com

The next time you find yourself on the patio of The Teahouse in Stanley Park soaking up one of Vancouver’s most beautiful views, hopefully before summer’s end, take another look at the lush garden growing around you.

^ Swiss chard, sage, oregano, marjoram, thyme, mint and more.

By request of the new restaurant chef François Gagnon early in the spring, the surrounding decorative flora has been removed at considerable expense and replanted with all manner of herbs, vegetables and fruit trees, effectively transforming the restaurant grounds into a thriving, edible food garden.

^ Dwarf apple trees line the fence

^ Sous Chef Scott McLennan showing the rooftop heirloom tomato and basil garden

^ Green zebra tomato

While, admittedly, the restaurant is far from becoming self-sufficient, which is unrealistic, the move does symbolically honour the importance of fresh local food in the presence of their customers. It’s a wonderful thing to watch a chef clipping fresh herbs directly from the garden and head straight to the kitchen. All the rosemary and most of the basil used in the restaurant comes from their efforts. And with a bumper heirloom tomato crop fully ripening on the sunny rooftop of the restaurant over the next few weeks, now is an opportune time to drop in for a visit.

The Teahouse
Stanley Park Drive, Ferguson Point | Vancouver
Tel: (604) 669-3281
www.vancouverdine.com

HOW TO GET THERE

~ PK

I have copies of all three of the excellent Cook the Hood cookbooks (Commercial Drive, Kitsilano, West End) up for grabs, and as an added bonus during this festive time I will also throw in a copy of the brilliant Vancouver 100-Mile Diet Foodshed poster to the first person to complete the challenge inside.

Good luck! ~ PK

UPDATE: No correct answers yet. Contest is now extended until January 4th. I will collect comments until then and reveal the winner in the new year.

HOT TIP: the mystery restaurant is on Vancouver Island.

1) Who are the author(s) of “The 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating”

2) State 3 important reasons for supporting local food security.

3) What 2 BC cities have joined the Cittaslow movement?

4) Name 5 local foods that are in season this winter.

5) Correctly name the restaurant in the following picture.

Last Thursday, hundreds of people braved the rain to gather at Performance Works on Granville Island in support of the Vancouver Farmers Markets’ first annual RIPE event. Drawing a diverse crowd of locavores, foodies and farmers alike, they were all warmly greeted by the always affable MC Jamie Maw, food writer and restaurant critic, and the Farmers Market Society Board Chair, Amy Robertson. The well-appointed room showcased BC wines, local craft beer, fresh bites and an impressive gourmet-focused silent auction.

“Tonight we are creating a future for local food in Vancouver,” said event organizer, Jackie Connelly. With the continued and growing support of the community, a local and sustainable food future is possible and the proposed New City Market at Main and Terminal could be opening its doors within the next four years.Funds raised at the RIPE event will also help finance the Farmers Nest Egg Fund, which supports local vendor farmers in times of financial need and will also help nurture and expand the network of local farmers.Chef Robert Clark of C Restaurant, alongside students from the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, whipped up regional canapé creations, an impressive menu that featured only ingredients that could be found at Vancouver Farmers Markets: compressed watermelon with sweet chili gel, tomato cucumber salsa with side-striped shrimp, pickled golden beets with melted Alpindon cheese, sirloin beef with radish and daikon dressing, sablefish with basil emulsion and salmon pepper, and sweet cornbread and crème fraiche with pickled relish, to name a few.Over 10,000 lbs. of food is currently distributed to over 10,000 customers each week at various Vancouver Farmers Market locations, which indicates a clear need for a convenient one-stop-shop building that could supply consumers with locally grown food right in the heart of the city.The Vancouver Farmers Markets are open throughout the month of October on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

For more information on locations, visit: www.eatlocal.org.

~ Katherine van der Gracht

From the Department of Hillbilly Affairs archives comes an important ‘How To Video’ from “The Huntress” (circa The Outdoor Channel Show 1999): How to hunt squirrel and make sandwiches.

Let the gun-totting Earth-mother, Heidi Wilson, show you how to safely bag one of these tasty little varmints to help keep your larder full during lean times. “I promised him a squirrel sandwich and that is what he’s gonna get after school.”

Just in time for football season. Happy hunting, kids! ~ PK

I have 2 tickets ($200 value) to this evening’s RIPE: the 1st Annual Evening of Local Food and Libations up for grabs!

The first person to fulfill the following criteria will get them:

1) follow Urban Diner on Twitter: click here

2) become a fan of Urban Diner on our Facebook page: click here

3) name 3 of the other purposes the New City Market will be for, beyond a year round farmers market

4) who is the MC of the RIPE event?

The first 2 people to complete the following reader challenge correctly will win a free ticket ($85 value) to Feast of Fields at UBC Farm, this Sunday, September 13th at UBC Farm.

• How big is UBC Farm?

• Who is the Executive Director of Farm Folk City Folk?

• What year and where did the first Lower Mainland Feast of Fields take place?

• Name the authors of the following five books…

1) “Food Matters”

2) “In Defense of Food”

3) “Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice”

4) “Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller”

5) “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth”

• Name the restaurant below…

Good luck everybody! ~ PK

]]> http://urbandiner.ca/2009/09/08/feast-of-fields-contest-giveaway/feed/ 10 http://urbandiner.ca/2009/08/27/a-visit-to-the-comox-valley-pt-1-smith-lake-farm/ http://urbandiner.ca/2009/08/27/a-visit-to-the-comox-valley-pt-1-smith-lake-farm/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:09:01 +0000 paulkamon http://urbandiner.ca/?p=7871

For anyone driving to Vancouver Island during the summer months, navigating the inevitable BC Ferries gauntlet of vacationing tourista RV’s, transport trucks and wave after wave of passenger cars, can be a litmus test of planning and patience, especially with kids in tow. If I had a dollar for every time that I have pulled up to the ticket booth and was told I had a 1-2 sailing wait and instantly wished I had been savvy enough to make a reservation (a mere $15 additional cost), I would have enough money to buy this. Really, how busy can it be on a Monday morning? Well, how busy is Les Faux Bourgeois on a Friday night?

Pretty damn busy. But all things considered, we are spoiled rotten here in the land of milk and honey. Consider this: BC Ferries is the largest passenger ferry service in North America and the 2nd largest ferry service in the entire world and with the extensive terminal upgrades at Horseshoe Bay and the addition of 3 brand new Winter Olympic branded Super Class C vessels (the largest double-ended ferries in the world), the experience has never been better. One just has to go south and ride one of Washington State’s aging ferries to realize this. So until the fixed link idea ever becomes a financially and environmentally viable option, I consider riding the ferry a integral blue-chip BC experience that is the envy of most of the world.This trip, set up by the Comox Valley Economic Development group, had us staying at Smith Lake Farm, a beautiful family estate on a 90+ acre parcel of land in Merville at the northern end of the Comox Valley, 20 minutes north of downtown Courtenay. The farm, recently purchased by a young couple happily displaced from the constant hustle of the big city were working hard to get the land back into shape for planting. While we were there, we watched them laying down a new drainage system for the main field and had interesting discussions about the viability of growing beer hops, once a thriving industy in BC.

The 2 bedroom guest lodging, complete with full kitchen, sits above a large woodworking shop that overlooks a small and picturesque lake stocked with trout and populated by many frogs.^ Here is Roxy the dog having a staring contest with one of the many amphibians hanging out amongst the lilly pads. ^ Smith Lake Farm is home to an array of animals, including a half dozen Highland cattle which are grown and raised for meat.Without a doubt, the best reason for staying on a farm is the food. And not just the eating and preparing of it, but the learning and reconnecting back with the many skills and hard work that goes into its production. An education that, after reading Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food, has in my mind become more important than ever.^ Fresh eggs, still warm from the nest were had each morning along with a selection of ripe fruits, vegetables, and herbs pulled directly from the garden.After a long day of travel, we settled in for a nice home cooked meal and were content to allow ourselves to slowly align with the very comfortable rural rhythm that had me imagining what it would be like to actually live and work on a farm. I smiled at the thought and the sky rewarded us with one of most brilliant sunsets I have seen in a very long time.

Next up: A Visit to the Comox Valley Pt 2 ~ Local Eating and Drinking