post carbon meal

It is now the Fall. The first frost has come, marking the end of the season of growth, and the beginning of a time to draw inward. The garden is being laid to rest – fed with manure, planted with rye and clover and covered with straw and leaves; the soil carefully tucked in for the long months of rain, wind and snow.

A few hardy crops remain – parsnips, cabbage, rutabaga, kale, chard, collards, Brussels sprouts, leeks, carrots and beets, sweetening as the temperature drops. As the garden winds down, the team takes time to make notes about the successes and failures of each crop; we are eager to glean the learnings of the season and begin to look towards next year. What can we do differently? What will be the same?

As I reflect on the past season, and this space that has nurtured my learning in action, I ask: What am I willing to stand for? For whom will my voice rise? I live with the privilege of incessant abundance and the ever-present option of choice. In my daily actions, I wonder what will bring me to a consistent place of integrity, where my sensuous desires can be crafted to witness and convey.

In addition to our own garden planning, I am making contact with our local food producers, meeting to discuss how we will work with each other next year. The proximity of supply of a local food system enables but also requires greater investment in the relationships. By meeting face-to-face and listening to the stories, I learn that what we are being offered, from potatoes to apples, to wheat and lentils is truly a labour of love.

The farmers I know are deeply committed to the work of growing good food. And for that commitment they are willing to work 16-18 hours a day and live in poverty (the average farmer is either in debt, or if they are lucky – making on average 50-96 cents per day).

Hardy kale being bathed in water and Light

Most of the food produced through industrial agriculture is highly subsidized and as a result has externalized much of the environmental and social costs. In North America, we allot about 8-10% of our monthly budget to food – a relatively small amount compared to 20-25% for entertainment.

A study conducted by the University of Essex concluded that to pay the true cost of food (meaning paying a fair share of the expenses most often carried by farmers and then taxpayers), we would, as consumers have to pay an additional 16% for conventional industrial food and 4% for local organic food. The difference in the price is indicative of the costs born by local farmers, who while asking more for their food, still fail to pay themselves a living wage and often require one member of the household to subsidize through off-farm income.

One-way to provide a consistent reliable income to farmers is for us as consumers to share in the responsibility or risk for our food. There are many ways to do this and often the easiest in through economic support. As consumers we hold great power in how we spend our money. In stores and at farmers’ markets we can make the consistent choice to buy local, recognizing the value of the work and services offered by farmers.

Visiting Full Circle Farm

Another way is to join Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), a model that allows consumers to become engaged members in the cycle of food, participating not only financially but also in many cases in work and marketing too.

Three years ago, a group of residents identified a grain gap in the local available food of the Kootenays. The Flats of Creston has long been a significant grain growing area, but not at the local scale. Thus the Creston Valley Grain Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) was formed with three growers from the Valley selling their grain to shareholders across the region. The ashram proudly purchased 150 of 450 shares.

It is exciting for me to see how we as an organization are significantly contributing to the re-localization of our regional food system. As a large consumer (over 53, 802 meals served & eaten each year!) our purchasing power allows us to effect change in our community, particularly for small producers, the pillars of a resilient food system.

Some of our local food system partners include –

• Jim Pooch, a retired electrician who farms an acre in Crawford Bay and supplies our kitchen with carrots, squash, garlic, cucumber, corn in exchange for karma yoga help.

• Jennie Truscott, local miller and distributor, who has become an invaluable resource for the ashram helping us connect with producers in and around Kootenay Lake. Jenny provides the important societal service of ‘glue’, gently inquiring with all those she encounters, offering suggestions, carrying messages and making connections.

• Roy and Sherry Lawrence, grain growers. Now in their third year of production, the Lawrences have received their T3 certificate which means that they are certified organic and can distribute across Canada. Through the CSA and the guaranteed income, they have been able to bring electricity and water to their farm and now they are planning to build a home on site. They are grateful to the CSA as it makes their small business viable. Currently the 40-acre farm includes a mixed production of green lentils, companion planted with wild oats to provide shade, spelt, wheat, barley oats, and peas.

• Joanne and Drew Gailius of Full Circle Farm. In addition to grain, the Gailius’ also grow garbanzos, yams, corn, green beans squash, navy and black beans. They are trying to operate without fossil fuels and instead use human and animal (horses) power for digging and plowing the fields and use gravity fed irrigation from up the hillside. The animals not only help with the physical work, but the horses, chickens and lamas also support an integrated cycle of waste and resource management, this decreases Full Circle Farm’s need for external inputs.

The Creston Valley

These people are willing to live the edge of integrity and risk because they believe in the importance of supporting not only their human communities but also the ecological systems that maintain our food system. They see themselves as part of a larger cycle of responsibility.

We as consumers can also choose to participate in this circle through the recognition of the service offered by the people and places that grow our food. We can support living wages, healthy ecosystems and vibrant communities, both locally and globally. When we make conscious choices, we can create the space for others to do the same. It’s our choice, each time we eat.

I am grateful for my opportunity to be in relationship with all aspects of a food system, to dig into the soil and to pause to consider what it all means. How then do I bring this gift most fully into service?

Indeed in my struggle with the inequity of uneven access and wealth, I recognize the privilege to practice karma yoga. It is the opportunity to give back, and the chance to rebalance the great blessings that have been received. Selfless service. This is the Work. As I walk on, I am grateful to have the freedom to choose my way forward and guidance to find the right path.