What can we do individually and collectively to reduce harm and bring about climate justice?
Our food system has a huge impact on climate. Food production is fraut with racism and oppression of the people who grow our food. It is also a very complex system. Eating less meat, particularly red meat, has clear health and climate benefits. Large scale change needs to come from good policy and public pressure to create system change. The following organizations are working to create real change for those who produce and harvest our food as well as the impact of agriculture on our planet:
- Food Justice goals from Canada’s Food Workers Union
- Soul Fire Farm an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. Two of their insightful documents apply to rights activists across North America:
- Migrante BC, organizing around the protection and promotion of migrant worker rights in BC. Migrante BC is calling on the Trudeau government to move to a single tier immigration system. Move to Canada for any reason? Everyone should have landed immigrant status and protections.
- Earthsave Canada – Vancouver – advocating for the move to a plant-based diet for environmental sustainability, better health, and compassion towards animals.
- Farmers on 57th – a non profit organization which operates an urban farm with a CSA program, educational community gardens, and therapeutic accessible gardens in Vancouver, B.C.
- KPU Department of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems – opportunity to complete a Bachelor of Applied Science in Sustainable Agriculture at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Richmond campus, with lots of hands-on learning!
- KPU Institute for Sustainable Food Systems – research and outreach programming, including analysis of local food systems.
These are good places to start for information and action. Stay tuned for more!