Tales of a vagrant ant

First day of the youth part of the food security conference just concluded… I’ve been generously sponsored to attend by BLAST (building local agricultural systems today), and I’m slightly blown away, and intimidated at the same time… So many people have done so much in their lives, to create food security within their communities… this one group from the Hopi in arizona…. they were building irrigation… a 1/2 mile long(!!!) trench was dug, 3 feet deep to put piping in!! i was pickaxing an afternoon, and my ass was kicked from that… And this 14 yr old girl who went to attend a UN conference as a delegate?! i’m trying to remember what i was doing at their age… certainly not going to UN conferences…. geez louise! But there are also people who are older than me, and can serve as someone to learn from, so it’s good to have this spectrum… Lots of thoughts, and I haven’t had time to digest all the information properly yet.

lots of really cool people there… it’s funny, because there’s a few from wisconsin, and one actually from right around blue earth, minnesota, and some from the mississippi… so it was cool actually knowing where these kids were coming from, because of my road trip, and all the places I drove past during that time.
I’ve been finding that being surrounded by such positive energy regarding the “food movement” is really inspiring, and really makes me see how something along these lines could provide some sort of livelihood, which is really cool!

Tommorow, all the youth delegates are going to Strathcona Community Garden, and EYA’s gonna put them to work.. haha. naw, we’re just going to let them know what the garden is all about, and share a little bit of my past 6 months with them… but i think i hear rain outside… ahhhh… well, i’ll keep my fingers crossed!!

I’m part of a flickr group for the World Urban Forum, and someone asked what my “hot button” is… the topic that I respond and relate to most strongly, what drives me, and to post one image that indicates my issue.

My Hot button right now is food, food security, poverty and urban citizens reconnecting with the earth.
People are so disconnected from the planet these days, especially in the city. For many, especially those in poverty, all they ever see is the street… which to me is unfortunate, because I believe that everyone should have the chance to connect with other life forms on this planet… plants, insects, birds, etc… People should also have access to cheap nutritious food. What better way than to grow it yourself? To provide them with the means to do this is to empower someone to make a difference in the world. And in so many ways, local food is sustainable food!
This is one of the plots in the community gardens where I work. An oasis of nature near the Downtown Eastside, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Canada. Just behind me, just beyond the blackberry bushes is a strip of industrial warehouses.

June’s been pretty crazy so far, and i think it’ll only continue to get crazier…
The World Urban Forum (WUF) will be happening, from June 19-23, and it was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies and policies. It is projected that in the next fifty years, two-thirds of humanity will be living in towns and cities. A major challenge is to minimize burgeoning poverty in cities, improve the urban poor’s access to basic facilities such as shelter, clean water and sanitation and achieve environment-friendly, sustainable urban growth and development.”

In many ways, this is basically my academic wet dream… what I want to do as my life’s work! haha, i’m such a nerd. Because of this event, the whole environmental/social justice movement is going a bit crazy, and there’s definitely a flurry of activity going on. Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA, who i work for) is essentially organizing the World Urban Forum for Youth, the youth session for WUF, and they’ve asked me to help do some facilitation with the youth delegates who are coming from all around the world, and will be a chance for young people involved in exciting youth-led projects around the world to meet, share best practices, connect and collaborate with each other, and to learn how to make their voices heard at WUF, which will unarguably have lots of bureaucracy and protocol. So I’m quite flattered that EYA chose me to help them out, seeing as the other facilitators are my coordinators and managers! It’ll be such an amazing experience as well.
The gardening interns are also involved with an art project for the World Youth Forum. We’re going to be creating a mandala, something that is typically used an artistic meditative aid, made of living plants. And it shows that public city art doesn’t have to be made of dead soulless metal, but can be made with organic and living things. All the plants are also edible, and so not only does it have aesthetic value, but it also has functional value as well. It really is hard to explain what it looks like… I’ll be posting pictures as we are completing it, it should be really cool! We’re also helping grow plants for this living park bench installation at the World Urban Forum. It has a pretty similar concept to our project, but is this example of public space that is being used to grow food. And its circular nature emphasizes that it is aligned with the cycle of life, death and decay… There’s a compartment for compost, and then there is a gradation of herbs that shows the growth of a plant, and there are two smaller beds that will have more plants. It is also a terrific example of sustainability. It is designed to function without constant human intervention. It has a rainwater collection mechanism, as well as a irrigation system. And another cool thing is that it is made entirely of reclaimed or recycled materials (nails and glue excluded)
Lastly, I’m volunteering as a research assistant with Thrive! Guide, Vancouver’s guide to sustainable living… It’s going to be a 200 page book of resources to help people live more sustainably. They gave me a 15-20 page section to write, so I need to keep up on that…
Some other events that will be coming up this month include the World Urban Festival, the official UNESCO arts, music and culture event for WUF. The Car free commercial drive festival is also happening, as is BEST’s Bike Month. There’s going to be at least two conferences in the fields of urban planning and architecture, and a Dialogue speaker series that just came to vancouver. In Victoria, there will be Gaining Ground, the Sustainable Urban Development Leadership Summit.
So yeah, definitely a lot of environmental consciousness hitting the mainstream in Vancouver these days. I’ve told a few people that if I wanted to, I could probably attend workshops, seminars and lectures on something environmental essentially any day of the month… You just gotta choose your battles, I guess. But yeah, this has essentailly been my life as of late. Just being inundated with environmentalness… I’m starting to feel a bit of burnout though, like I need to take a break from it, and just chill out.