Notes from our June Meeting

Community Room, Fire Hall
Brookfield, Nova Scotia
June 24, 2007

“If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed."
--Chinese Proverb

Gathering agenda:

• Introduction
• Guest Speaker: Mr. Mike Gale, Program Officer, Clean Nova Scotia
• Interest Group information share:
  1. Food/Gardening
  2. Communications/Awareness
• Announcements: Upcoming events and “What’s new” in reference materials.

Attendees: 18 people from Middle Stewiacke, Halifax, Shortt’s Lake, Brookfield, and Birch Hill.
Displays/handouts: The Climate Change display (four poster boards) was available for viewing, with the following new materials:

• Brochures on Colchester County agriculture and the Ecology Action Centre.
• Copies of “10 things to do” taken from nine organizations’ websites, including those of the World Wildlife Fund, Sierra Club, and Ecology Action Centre.
• Copies of the Canadian Living GoGreen Guide (permission to copy has been obtained.
• Handouts from Clean Nova Scotia.
• Contest: "Guess the Date of the Sobey’s Bag"
• "Pet Peeve" and "Share What you Do" poster board.

Introduction

Brief background to our first meeting and how we got started and a reminder that our new website, http://www.greengatherings.org/, holds notes from Green Gatherings, nifty lists of things you can do, and starting in July, a “What’s New” section.

Guest speaker

Mr. Mike Gale, Program Officer, Clean Nova Scotia, reviewed this organization’s programs. Established in 1988, Clean Nova Scotia is a nonprofit, nongovernment environmental organization that emphasizes the importance of individual action to create environmental change. They work with Nova Scotians to help them understand the importance of environmental responsibility and to provide them with the means to make positive decisions about the environment.

Clean NS has activities, programs, and services in these areas: climate change/energy, solid waste, water, health and environment, and activities for children. Some examples of programs and information available:

• Green Yards Sustainable Landscaping. This program of free on-site assessments is currently available only in HRM; however free advice is available outside HRM through the GreenLine at (902) 420-6593.
• Drive Wiser Vehicle Fuel Efficiency is a province-wide program providing driving and maintenance tips for reducing fuel consumption and GHG emissions. Visit http://www.drivewiser.ca/. This program also travels across the province for major events or by request to help educate Nova Scotians about running cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Drive Wiser will be taking part in the Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition, Bible Hill, on August 23rd.
• Eco Energy Retrofit Program (with grant $ available!) is a rebate program in which an advisor makes home visits and tests/assesses for energy efficiency. The visit takes 2-3 hours and is followed by a report with recommendations. Renovations are made and the assessor returns, assesses changes, and writes report to government, whereupon an incentive (rebate) is mailed to the homeowner based on changes for energy efficiency. (Insulation and air sealing are two steps that often generate the biggest improvements.) In future, this program is expanding to cover small businesses. A company called Sustainable Housing Education conducts assessments in Colchester county. The toll-free number 1-877-722-2842.
• The Climate Change Centre provides education and outreach on what people can do regarding energy savings. The current focuses of the CCC is faith groups, First Nations, youth, educators, and students. Water and space heating account for 84% of an average Nova Scotian Household’s energy use.
• The Environmental Home Assessment Program is designed to assess water usage and safety regarding wells, septic systems, and oil tanks. This program is FREE. Two people signed up for this program during the evening.

Clean Nova Scotia may be reached at 126 Portland Street, Dartmouth; by phone, 1-800-665-LESS; by email: cns@clean.ns.ca; on the World Wide Web at http://www.clean.ns.ca/. They have a free quarterly online newsletter.

Interest Group Updates:

The Food & Gardening Interest Group gave a very informative talk on “eating local”, with references to our own Colchester County Agriculture brochure, Community Supported Agriculture, and the Ecology Action Centre’s new cookbook Eating by the Seasons (available for $10 + postage from EAC). The full text of this talk is available below.

The Communications/Awareness Interest Group shared the results of a chat with this group regarding Green Gatherings formats/venues/scheduling approaches. To generate interest, there is a “Guess the Date of the Sobey’s Bag” contest (draw date July 21), and folks are invited to share what they are doing today and to tell us their Pet Peeves about the environment. More great ideas for promotion are just awaiting eager folks to implement them! If you have an interest in helping on a small activity, please let her know. A handout with details is available below.

The Home/Recycling/Energy interest group will share its findings during our September Green Gathering.

An interest group on transportation/vehicles has not yet been formed. If anyone has an interest there, please let us know: greengatherings@gmail.com

Announcements/Upcoming Events

A decision was made to not hold Gatherings during the summer; however, our displays will be available for viewing on:

• July 1 at the Train Station in Brookfield from 12 noon until 3 pm.
• July 21 at the Fire Hall, Brookfield, from 1-5 pm during the Touch a Truck event and also from 6-8 pm during the Cabaret at the Sportsplex. If anyone would like to help out for an hour or so at either of these events, please let us know.

Mark the next Green Gathering on your calendar: Sunday, September 30, 2007, at the Middle Stewiacke Recreation Association, from 7-9 pm. The idea is to alternate between the Brookfield Fire Hall and the Middle Stewiacke Recreation Association to give more folks a chance to use less gas to attend. Please bring along a few friends, neighbours, and/or complete strangers--and remember to car pool!

Tell your friends about our new website at http://www.greengatherings.org/ .

Consider visiting the Sustainable Living Consumer Expo, September 7-9, Exhibition Park, Halifax. http://www.greenlogic.ca/ or 902-832-1176.

A Final Word to everyone

If you have any ideas, comments or would like to “take action” by helping out, please contact us.

We’ve had a very successful start to saving our home, Planet Earth. Please consider becoming ambassadors, spreading the word about how important it is for folks to become informed (see the film, read books, attend Green Gatherings) and Take Action!

Our Food, Our Environment, Our Community

The following was presented by the Food & Gardening Interest Group at the June 24, 2007, Green Gatherings meeting in Brookfield.

Since 1961, the tonnage of food shipped between nations has grown by 400%. In the United States, food typically travels 1,500-2,500 miles before it arrives at someone’s table. This is 25% farther than the same food would have traveled in 1980.

This international movement of food is changing social, environmental, cultural, and economic conditions around the globe. It has a direct effect on the freshness, quality, and variety of the food we eat. It is also having an impact on global climate.

Is buying local all that counts? Most organizations support buying foods that are not just local but also produced by small farms in a sustainable way.

What is local? Some people say that a good definition of “local” is anything grown within 50 miles, others say 100 miles. Another definition is "within a day's leisurely drive of our homes.”

Why buy locally grown, sustainably grown foods from small farms?

Improve the quality and variety of the food you eat

• Fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms taste good, are nutritious, and keep well.
• When foods go directly from farm to table, they are less likely to be treated with products to keep them looking fresh and prevent spoiling.
• Eating simple, unprocessed foods, especially fruits and vegetables, is healthier.
• Eating local foods in season encourages us to vary our diet from season to season, helps us to appreciate foods when they become available, reminds us of our connection to nature.
• Varieties of fruits and vegetables that can be grown by small farmers may taste better than the varieties that can be shipped long distances to supermarkets. Farmers who grow unusual varieties of foods are helping to protect the genetic diversity of our food supply.
• Small farmers generally eat the foods they grow and give them to their families, so they have a personal reason to be concerned about the healthfulness of the food they produce.

Help the environment and protect workers

• Small farmers typically try to be good stewards of their land.
• Foods grown in North America are produced according to North American health and safety standards, with protections for workers that may not exist in other countries.
• When farmers sell direct to the public, they generally use minimal packaging.
• Small meat producers often pasture or “free range” their animals and allow them to eat a more natural diet. This is good for the animals and for the environment.

Help prevent global climate change

• A study in Iowa found that increasing local foods consumed by just 10% could save hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel per year and reduce and carbon emissions by millions of pounds.
• A British study found that farms avoiding both chemical pesticides and artificial fertilizers use 50% less energy than non-organic farms to produce the same amount of food.
• When farmers invest in improved soil, they help to prevent climate change because rich, organic soils store more carbon than depleted soils do.

Build community

• Get to know local farmers, local landscapes, local land-use issues.
• Get to know neighbors at farmers’ market and through community-shared agriculture.
• By eating local foods in season, create and preserve unique local traditions.

Support rural economies

• The number of small Canadian farms declined more than 10% in 5 years from 2001-2006.
• Farmers who sell through conventional means get an estimated 4-18 cents out of every dollar. When farmers sell direct , they keep an estimated 80-90 cents out of every dollar spent.
• A British study found that money spent at a local food business was worth almost twice as much to the local community as the same money spent at a supermarket chain.

What can consumers do?
In February 2007, the Women’s Institutes of Nova Scotia issued a report on the importance of consuming local foods. The WI Buy Local Challenge asked participants to do the following:

• Eat at least two meals per week that use mainly local ingredients.
• Learn to enjoy at least one local ingredient that you’ve never tried before.
• Talk to at least one food retailer and one food producer about local food choices.
• Choose local food products whenever possible.

Some additional suggestions:

• Consider joining a Community Shared Agriculture program.
• Visit local farms and buy directly from them.
• Visit farmers’ markets and buy from local farmers. Locally, we have farmers markets on Saturday mornings in Truro and Upper Stewiacke.
• Consider growing your own fruits and vegetables, using sustainable methods.
• Practice cooking and eating seasonal recipes.
• If you don’t want to “eat local” in the winter, try to do so during the growing season.
• Learn about issues in food production and ask questions about how your food is being produced.
• Encourage restaurant owners to buy local foods.
• Visit SeaChoice to learn how to choose sustainable seafood.

Resources

• The Ecology Action Centre has published a cookbook featuring local foods, with recipes organized seasonally. Eating by the Seasons is $10 and can be ordered from the website: http://www.ecologyaction.ca/food_action/food_action.shtm
• The EAC website also has a good downloadable brochure about local foods: http://www.ecologyaction.ca/food_action/efabw_intro.shtm
• The Atlantic Canada Organic Regional Network (ACORN) maintains a database of organic growers and retailers: http://acornorganic.org/acorn/databaseregional.html

More organizations worth knowing about

• 100 Mile Diet movement, “Local eating for global change”: http://100milediet.org/home/
• Canadian Organic Growers: http://www.cog.ca/
• Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada division for Atlantic Canada: http://www.organicagcentre.ca/RegionsCanada/atlantic_welcome.asp
• Slow Foods Nova Scotia: http://www.slowfoodns.ca/
• Nova Scotia Organic Growers Association: http://www.nsoga.org/
• Farmers’ Markets Cooperative in Nova Scotia: http://www.nsfarmersmarkets.ca/
• Sustainable Table has lots of information and resources: http://www.sustainabletable.or/

Sources:

• 100-mile diet, "Why Eat Local"
• Worldwatch Institute paper #163, “Home Grown: The Case for Local Food in a Global Market”
• Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
• “In Search of the Ripe Stuff,” Christian Science Monitor May 14, 2003
• “Is Buying Local Always Best?” Christian Science Monitor July 24 2006
• Local Harvest
• Sustainable Table, "Buy Local"
• The Soil Association, "Get Involved"
• Statistics Canada, “The Financial Picture of Farms in Canada”
• Women’s Institutes of Nova Scotia, “Step Up To the Plate”

June Report From the Communications Interest Group

The following report from the Communications Interest Group was presented at the June 24, 2007, Green Gatherings meeting in Brookfield.

Responsibilities of the Communications Interest Group include our Green Gatherings, notices of upcoming sessions to those interested, and preparation of display and reference materials.

Green Gatherings activities

Approach: Have fun!

• Scheduling dates and venues (alternate between Stewiacke Valley/Brookfield)
• Inviting guest speakers
• Setting up display and reference materials before meetings
• Obtaining reference materials as needed: free where possible, and small charge to cover photocopying as needed
• Preparing and distributing advertising (posters, radio, newspaper, newsletters)
• Email updates to attendees

Reference materials

Approach: Share what we learn from other sources, rather than “reinventing the wheel”; make available via the Internet and hard copy.

• Displays of global warming, climate change, and “what you can do” materials
• Use the World Wide Web to share information: http://www.greengatherings.org/ now contains notes from Green Gatherings, a What’s New section, and a How to Get Started section (includes related web-sites, and lists of “things to do”)
• Hard copies of reference materials
• Handouts from organizations

Awareness includes promoting awareness of global warming/climate change through showings of An Inconvenient Truth and display materials. It also includes developing an “image” for our Green Gatherings group.

Showings of An Inconvenient Truth

Plans are in process to show to the Stewiacke Valley area in the fall.


Global Warming/Climate Change Displays

• On July 1, Canada Day, Green Gatherings will have a display at the Brookfield Train Station
• "Guess the Date of the Sobey’s Bag" contest
• "Pet Peeve" and "Please Share What You are Doing" lists
• On July 21, during Brookfield Homecoming week, Green Gatherings will have a display at the Touch a Truck event.
• There has been a Cabaret request from Stewiacke for fall, 2007.

Promoting awareness -- ideas, activities, image
Approaches:

• Acknowledge accomplishments
• Provide motivation
• Obtain ideas from everyone ("Pet Peeve" and "Please Share" lists)

Ideas:

Go Green walk – pedal event

• Paint/put our website on the side of an empty building
• Have a business card/slogan/brochure
• Invite business to share what they are doing to be green
• Event to showcase song/poetry writing on Earth theme. Possible fundraiser?
• Offer to help “green” community events
• Have a “green” insert in a community calendar
• Possible interest group for green book reviews
• Merchandise ideas (useful items):
  * Make cloth bags with "Green Gatherings" on them
  * Make signs for cars: “slow down, save money, save the earth”
  * Car sign: “stop idling, save money, save the earth”
  * T-shirts: polar bears, earth?