ASK Salt Spring: Answered - Ep 24 Grow Local

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

Ask Salt Spring Answered talks to Polly Orr of Grow Local about food security on Salt Spring.

You're listening to episode 24 of Ask Salt Spring Answered, in which we speak to Polly Orr, who is with the Grow Local group, about food security on Salt Spring Island. Okay, I'm here with Polly Orr who is with Grow Local we've just been sitting in with the Ask Salt Spring group talking about food security and Polly there was a lot of ground covered today basically this the word is that we are not growing enough local food for consumption on Saltisbury Island. What do you see as some of the solutions?

Well, I think one of the big takeaways from today and has been a recurring theme over the last few years of doing this work is building relationships. And there was a pretty great intersection of folks from the community who care about food but have different backgrounds so the relationships that we need to build aren't just amongst farmers but are amongst all the different groups on Salt Spring since we all eat we're all really part of this movement and we need to start having more conversations from the backyard gardener level all the way up to supporting our farmers, how each of us can get involved. There was talk of a number of interesting ideas, I thought. One was adopting the pod system so that we could actually have a farm in every neighborhood

that could feed families in that particular neighborhood. That's a pretty interesting idea, I think. Is that something that you're going to be pushing for? Yes, so we've already been doing some advocacy with this idea at the government level, and we've started receiving some positive feedback. When we looked at the number of salt spring, if 50 farmers are feeding 50 families, we pretty much have it covered. And the good thing about addressing this now is there is still food at the grocery store.

But if we start implementing these programs, getting these farmers set up, getting people in each of the neighbourhood to know who their local farmer is, if there's ever any disruptions in the supply chain and all of a sudden we require these farmers to feed us, it's already there. So that's what we're really kind of looking long term and seeing what we can start doing now. Now there's a figure that's actually quite, I think it's disappointing, that four to six percent of the food produced, or the food eaten on Saltspring is produced locally. What's your goal? Do you have a goal of how much you want to increase that over the next few years?

Well, it was brought up during our meeting today that there was a goal of 30% by 2030. And I think a lot of those numbers and that ambition will come down to the cultural context that we're in. So it got brought up today that there's enough land, there's enough skills, there's enough resources in terms of equipment. It really comes down to labor and capacity. So if things start getting a little hairy in the external world and suddenly people are looking at this and have more motivation to participate, everything's kind of just waiting in the wings. So if things more or less stay how they are now, then 30% by 2030 seems good. But it's a bit of a comfort, at least for me, to know that a lot more could get done a lot quicker

if there's the will, if there's the motivation to do so. Well, there are a lot of hurdles, aren't there? I mean, things came up about affordability on the one hand for people buying locally produced food and the challenges that farmers have with workers and housing and all those kind of things too. It's a pretty broad conversation, isn't it? It's not just about farmers and food, really.

As you say, it's about a lot of different sectors of Salt Spring society coming together because everybody eats food, right? Absolutely. And some of the specific projects that Grow Local took on this year was trying to look a little bit outside of the conventional economic models and societal models for how we feed each other because it's becoming quite clear that those models are broken and eventually something new will have to come about so one thing that we did this year was have local food share gatherings every Sunday at the root and anyone who had an abundance of their garden could come, bring their extra soil amendments, seeds, flowers, food, eggs, and then swap with each other. So it was providing an opportunity to build up more direct relationships and to look at how trading and bartering more directly can also become a more communally based economic system that can respond to people's needs in a more direct way.

And the route also has a Tuesday afternoon sale too, right? Is that right? Local Salt, is it called? That's right. So the Farmland Trust is in partnership with a local business called Local Salt Marketplace. And they're an app that hosts a wide variety of local food producers, farm stands and farmers. And so you put in your orders throughout the week and then you come to the physical location of the route on Tuesdays and pick up your orders. Okay. Now there's a food summit coming up, I gather. What is that? When is that? And how do people get involved in that?

Well, it's still in the last little bit of the development phase. So some of the details are still being locked into place. But if you're interested in being the first to hear about when we have the time and location, which should be very imminent, I would suggest going on to the SSI Farmland Trust website and signing up for the newsletter and you'll definitely get all the details. Okay. And if people want to contact Grow Local, is there an email address that they could contact for more information? Yeah, you can get a hold of me or Nick at growlocalssi at gmail.com Okay, thanks very much for coming in. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Okay, this has been Ask Salt Spring Answered on chir.fm The voice of the Gulf Islands.