Welcome to Part One of my series I call "Revolutionary Ideas for Nova Scotia".
I'll be the first to admit that I'm a loudmouth from away, and what the hell do I know what is best for this province. I don't know what is best. These are just ideas. Maybe there will be something good in here though, you never know.
The first idea I have is more organic farms. More permaculture. In today's Halifax Chronicle Herald, which I read every day, I noticed two interesting things:
1. Ian Thompson, the Herald's Associate Publisher, in his preamble for the Herald Magazine says that "We have more food today, and it's cheaper."
I would like to know where Ian shops, as I've noticed some inflation with food prices (though as we grow more of our own food I'm not too worried about that). The other thing I would point out is that our food supply right now is heavily dependent on petrochemicals for fertilizer and trucking. Is this more abundant, cheaper food nutritious? If it isn't, doesn't that mean it incurs an expense with it in terms of future medical care? In terms of freshwater supply and availability of petrochemicals for trucking and fertilizer, is it sustainable? Won't costs increase as resources are depleted and become more expensive? and what of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) which have snuck into our food system in increasing amounts, there doesn't exist long term proof that this technology isn't harmful for humans. Many conscious consumers are choosing to avoid GMOs.
2. in the Letters to the editor there is one titled "More Farm Jobs Lost" where a reader points out concerns about the closure of a slaughterhouse in Kingston, and the fear of losing prime farmland to residential and commercial development as it is subdivided and sold off.
Great letter. My hometown, Richmond BC was nicknamed "Garden City" with the blackest, richest soil you've ever seen. My parents, who were farmers in Poland, delighted in their productive vegetable gardens and by freezing and canning we'd eat homegrown produce year round. Despite the presence of the Agricultural Land Reserve, much of Richmond has since been busted up for condo developments, forcing a heavier reliance on imported food, especially as the population increases. In a sad twist of irony the fertile 1/2 acre my folks bought in the 60's is now poised to become part of a Wal-Mart site. Big money, yes, but you can't eat money.
So I can't help but look at the mls map of Nova Scotia and suck my teeth. Anyone can see an abundance of farmland for sale. In a previous Herald article someone pointed out that Nova Scotia is actually one province where farmland has been increasing, I think that's great and maybe this is a resource that the NS government can turn into economic growth and jobs.
How about instead of encouraging fracking on that farmland, which would result in more tailing ponds that might contaminate both the soil and water, we promote the province as a mecca for organic farming and permaculture? I can't believe I'm the only former yuppie from another province that flocked here thrilled for the opportunity to own land and grown my own food (a goal that was out of reach for me in BC).
In fact I know I am not. There is a couple from BC who bought a farm in Petite Riviere to do just that. They have a farm as well as a B&B. I met them, they're nice:
Petite Riviere B&B and Heritage Farm
Maybe better still, there could be a way for the government to help its own young people create jobs for themselves in this sector, before more people from away like me show up and snap up all the land. The payoff would be a restoration of beautiful pastoral scenes, abundant local healthy food, increased tourism, decreased health care costs from more Nova Scotians having access to nutritious local food.
Aside from just growing food, there is opportunity here for value added food products. Wine, haskap berry products, sausage, all kinds of things. The seaport market in Halifax is full of great local products. Couldn't the province help promote and enhance this industry in some way, by helping food producers distribute their products to Toronto or other large urban centres. I don't know much about this sort of business.
Maybe instead of being just another place to frack, Nova Scotia could gain an international reputation as a centre of permaculture, organic farming, sustainable living and healthy food products.
How to make this idea economically viable? I'm not sure. I have a couple suggestions though. As a member of the 'private sector' in 2003 when I made up my mind that I really wanted some land, I found an acreage in NS with a house on it. A lot of people in Vancouver thought I was nuts to fly to the other side of the country to buy land, but my argument was I could never own anything like it in BC. I didn't have enough capital to realize my rural dream though, so I rented the house out to a family for cheap. This is how I accidentally found out about the tax benefits of real estate investing. The family got a new wood stove, I got a tax write off, they maintained the house, did some repairs in exchange for rent, and were able to save a downpayment for a place of their own when I was ready to move here 9 years later. In the field of ecology we would call this a "Symbiotic Relationship" - a relationship where both parties involved benefit. Maybe a sustainable future for Nova Scotia will require creating more of these sorts of relationships.
The following may be a terrible idea, I don't know, but maybe the provincial government could step in and buy up some of this available farmland thus creating its own Agricultural Reserve and create lease to own programs for its young people, using vendor take back mortgages. The mortgage interest income from these loans could be used to create programs to promote organic farming, permaculture, and maybe even government run slaughterhouses and other infrastructure. It is just an idea.
Or (sarcasm alert) maybe we could let Mosanto buy up all the farm land, plant monocultures of genetically modified crops sprayed with their pesticides and continue to try to monopolize our food supply.
I'll end this first of my revolutionary ideas with links to some interesting videos:
The first is actually a Hellman's commercial explaining how much of our food in Canada is imported
This one is great, it starts off showing how reliant on petrochemicals our current agricultural systems are and ends with positive, sustainable solutions using permaculture:
A Farm for the Future
For anyone not familiar with what Monsanto and GMOs are all about, here is "The World According to Monsanto"
And last but not least, "Food Matters" a very excellent documentary on how we are what we eat. Learn more about these folks and how to find their video here:
http://www.foodmatters.tv/
I've seen many other great movies, but these are a few of my top picks.
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