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The mission of the Okanagan Institute is to contribute to the quality of creative engagement in the Okanagan through publications, events and collaborations. » Home » Events » Publications » Collaborations » The Institute » Contact  Kelowna BC Canada Telephone 250.870.2690 Email: Click here  Click here to help us improve our programs. |
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RETHINKING THE FOOD LANDSCAPE » Thursday 28 June 2012, 5 pm » Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue, Kelowna » $2 at the door. Refreshments are available. » Space is limited, please reserve yours HERE Click the arrow below or this link to play the theme song for this event. » Get Up, Stand Up, Bob Marley Open Forum to Examine How Local Food Contributes to Community Resilience The present corporate food regime dominating our food systems is environmentally destructive, financially volatile and socially unjust. A dynamic global food movement has risen up in the face of this sustained corporate assault on our food systems. Around the world, local food justice activists have taken back pieces of the food system through local gardening, organic farming, community-supported agriculture, farmers markets, and locally-owned processing and retail operations. The growing trend in local-regional food policy councils, coalitions for food sovereignty, and the increasing attention to practical-political solutions to the food crisis appearing in the media are evidence. The global food movement springs from strong commitments to food justice, food democracy and food sovereignty. This magnificent "movement of movements" is arguing persuasively not only for specific changes to the way our food is produced, processed, distributed and consumed, but specifying how these changes may come about. Local food is a critical economic driver for local economies. Local food businesses provide local jobs and pay local taxes. Every loaf of bread unnecessarily imported means the leakage of dollars outside the local economy and the loss of a local bread business that could contribute to local prosperity. Local food is a powerful tool for sustainability. Farmers are among the most important stewards of local land and environmentally sensitive production of foodstuffs is critical to maintaining healthy habitats, air, water, soil, and ecosystems that ultimately support healthy people. To eat sustainably means growing and processing foodstuffs in a sustainable manner, and doing so within a local ecosystem. On Thursday, June 28th at 5 pm the ongoing Okanagan Institute Express series at the Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue, Kelowna presents Naked Fork: Rethinking the Food Landscape. Join us to explore how the Okanagan food scene is defined by passionate farmers and producers, and how their changing world informs and defines ours. The Central Okanagan Food Policy Council is a group of citizens who are working towards a food secure Okanagan. Membership is open to anyone interested in food-related issues to work together towards common goals. Food policy involves schools, regulations, and eligibility standards for food assistance programs, health and safety, food labeling, and even the qualifications of a product to be considered organic. Food sovereignty begins with policies to support the sustenance economy: land use, water access, transportation, processing infrastructure, skill-building for both producers and consumers, recovery of traditional knowledge and foodways. Members of the Council will be contributing to the disscussion.  Carol Kergan is a mom and engaged citizen working with Kelowna in Transition, the Central Okanagan Food Policy Council, BC Food System Network and the Council of Canadians local chapter. Carol seeks to support a synergy of community efforts toward supporting a healthy resilient and more connected Okanagan, one which supports local sustainable farms and food related production. Believing "we are what we eat" she feels strongly that we all need to walk our talk with our investment money, reducing the divide between what we support with our savings and the clearly unsustainable global financial system.  Marcel Knittel grew up partially on hobby farms and a production greenhouse farm, so has some first-hand experience with both conventional and organic styles of growing. He has many years of business development and sales experience, but more importantly, has a strong interest in local food issues, specifically to ensuring a strong local farming and processing sector.TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT CLICK HERE Naked Fork: Rethinking the Food Landscape takes place at the Bohemian Cafe, 524 Bernard Avenue, Kelowna. This marks the 233rd event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in 2007. Express is presented in association with the Okanagan Media Alliance, Okanagan Regional Library and Okanagan College. Express is directed, convened and hosted by Robert MacDonald, Karen Close, Edward McLean and Neil McKay. It has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, poet laureate and professor John Lent, creative entrepreneur Nikos Theodosakis, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, community activist Don Elzer, dancer David LaHay, architect Jim Meiklejohn, culinary artist and writer Heidi Noble, broadcaster Marion Barschel and many others from a wide range of creative fields.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We invite the participation by all members of the creative community.
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