The Last Bite

Hello All,

I’m writing to say THANK YOU for making this student directed seminar a huge success. Firstly, people came to class AND did the assignments That in itself is a big deal because independent study is something most people won’t do. So you all get big digs for that.

Unfortunately, this will be the end of the blog for now. Hopefully Vancouver locals can continue to use this page for information on gleaming the cities abundance of food, deciphering whether to buy local or organic, learning how to best raise backyard chickens or reading up on all things food related. If you would like to comment with questions I am still getting e-mails when they are made so don’t stop posting

One key success of the seminar is that UBC Farm is now on the map. This is the first time ever! It’s pretty cool because after a year plus of rallying to show the worth of the place it now sits in semi-permanence on the website. And we had something to do with the final push. One of our students read a UBC Student Media article and called Campus and Community Planning for clarification. A short time later, there it was, on the map. A wonderful community put in a massive effort to help keep the UBC Farm in full and we are glad to be a part of that community. We look forward to watching the Farm continue to grow long into the future on the soil it stands now.

Secondly, The event at Agro Cafe was sweet! It was a lot of effort putting together all the details for the night and I’m glad we all tried. It was a fun time, good food, good music and great people.

Lastly, I wanted to say that we put together some really cool projects and it was interesting to see you all take charge of a project and go with it. We put together 2 films, one podcast, 1 zine, maintained a blog and had a farm visit all in one semester. This class was nothing without you all, thanks for being a part of it. We learned that sovereignty is not something you fight for and win and then it’s complete until something physically changes. It is something that we must work for continually, relentlessly and time and time again. Complete sovereignty is nearly as possible as drawing a perfect circle. Yet, the pursuit of perfection is an exhilarating ride. I know that we all learned that we create our own world. The rest of our lives is a self-directed study. In order to succeed we must be strong independent workers capable of collaborating our efforts with other passionate people. And of course, we all learned to appreciate our food, at least, just a little bit more. It’s the source of our existence, a great gateway into environmental understanding, and if eaten locally each bite can be an act of solidarity to help take a bite out of inequity. A mouthful, I know. But basically, food is a powerful tool for community building. Disrespecting food is like angering your neighbor. Thank you seminar-neighbors for helping me discover that when plagued with the decision at the grocery store, local vs organic, it’s a usually a better bet to buy the local. Now let’s get out there and show people that how fun it can be to take action on your block.

In the words of Jake Cohn, let’s get vocal about eating local!

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