Tag Archives: food security
An Array of Emergency Projects
With summer having come and gone, some projects in which I have been engaged are heating up again. Here’s a sample: In British Columbia, the provincial legislation requires all local governments, large or small, to have emergency plans. Admittedly, some are very robust, and others might simply be captured in an 8 by 11 ½ […]
The Great Foreign Aid Debate
You may recall that I’ve worked in a dozen developing countries. During that time, I witnessed the complex world of foreign aid. In fact, my very presence in Africa or Asia was a form of ‘foreign aid.’ Now that’s a bit scary! On one level, we applaud aid as an attempt to relief suffering and […]
Our Fragile Food Chain
How easy it is to forget what was involved in getting that bagel or slice of toast on your plate this morning! Ok, for most of us, we never have really known its complexity. Surely this is true of my 14 and 16 year old teenagers. If they could get their noses out of their ‘screens’! At least long […]
Bird Flu raises its ugly head in Canada
In early December, an outbreak of Avian Influenza suddenly hit poultry farms in the populated Fraser Valley, near Vancouver, British Columbia. Immediately, several countries banned imports of poultry products from either BC or Canada. The BC Ministry of Agriculture, Emergency Management BC, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the RCMP, and local authorities were mobilized. […]
Relief vs. Development: The Agony and the Ecstasy
Most relief responses by international agencies take place in settings where the groups already have a presence, primarily implementing development programs. However, the approach to relief and the approach to development are different by their very natures, which has the potential to cause tension between the programs. These tensions can and must be mitigated before they escalate into […]
Food Security and Emergency Prep (Part 2)
On an earlier blog, I made a case for local vegetable gardens as an important step toward food security after a disaster. They resemble WWII ‘victory gardens’, since food was rationed during the war. Productive soil is the key to localizing food security. A 5m x 5m plot is more easily accessible than a large plot, especially […]
Food Security and Emergency Prep (Part 1)
An immediate human need after a disaster event is availability of food. We can’t live long without it. I live off the Pacific Coast, on Vancouver Island, where the vast majority of food is imported. This is true in almost all metro areas of North America, but is accentuated because of the water barrier to […]
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