Well, it’s all done.  I wasn’t going to write a final entry, and maybe it’s not really the last one, but it’s the last bit in this chapter.  I recently submitted a directed studies paper, and as I read through it, I thought that it had some excellent closing comments for my degree overall.  So here it is.

Confessions of a BSc Who Wants to be a Frmr.

When I started out, I wanted a degree that would allow me to travel. I looked into international relations at UBC, with the thought of becoming a translator. And then I stumbled upon the faculty of Land and Food Systems, and the major entitled, “Global Resource Systems”, which would allow me to focus on a topic, a region of the world, and a language. I was in. I applied and came to UBC the following September to begin my five year pursuit of knowledge. What have I learned in that time? Well, mainly that there’s a lot of work to be done in the world, and not enough people are willing to dig their hands into the dirt and grow the food that allows our cities and societies to thrive.

I took courses in Soil Science, Ecology, Land Food and Community, and filled my language requirements with French. The summer after my third year, I spent four months in the city as an intern with Inner City Farms, to get an idea of what the physical aspect to my degree might involve. I come from an agricultural background of sorts – my mum raised horses in the Okanagan while I was growing up, but our farm never involved food production, aside from hay. The summer I spent gardening opened my eyes to the connections, camaraderie and community that urban farming can create. Not only did my opinions change, but my tastes too! At the beginning of the summer, I lamented the fact that we were sowing what seemed like endless amounts of zucchini plants. “Camiiiiiil!” I complained, (he was our head farmer and chief of operations), “what are we going to do with all of these? Nobody likes zucchini this much. Do you know what happens with zucchini in the country? It gets “gifted” to people via their unlocked cars. People bring over their gigantic “prize” zucchinis and try and pawn them off on any unsuspecting visitor. This is ridiculous; we’re going to have truckloads of composted zucchini carcasses.” He ignored my antipathy, and we planted rows and rows of “summer squash” despite my repugnance, and the summer began to unfold…

Working for Inner City Farms, whose mandate is to go around the city and turn people’s lawns into veggie gardens and sell the produce in a CSA, opened my eyes to the world of urban farming, and to its many benefits and challenges.   One of the most beautiful benefits I experienced was the social aspect of growing food within city limits. Our urban centres are increasingly individualised, and technology seems to make us simultaneously more connected, and yet distant and aloof in the real world (Price, 2011; Alleyne 2009). Working in the gardens facilitated conversations and connections quickly and easily. I was constantly amazed at how differently people reacted as they walked by when they saw that we were growing food. From questions about the vegetables and what they were, to the most common question of, “Aren’t you worried they’re going to be stolen?”, the veggies seemed to break down the walls of separation that seem to exist in many neighbourhoods. All age demographics stopped to talk, and even people who barely spoke English were compelled to point and make broken conversation about weeds and lettuce.

There seems to be an inherent aspect of trust and reciprocity in farming. People have to rely on one another, and it creates connections and networks. Not only do farmers have to rely on off-farm inputs, like seed companies and fertilizer sources, urban agriculture often has to rely on volunteers. But it’s not all sunflowers and sunny days. Urban farmers, like most farmers, often struggle to break even or make a living. This was the case with Inner City Farms: almost all of the labour force is made up of interns. Read: volunteers. And volunteering often affects workers’ relationships in a positive way – there is a certain level of mutual benefit and satisfaction that must be obtained for people to continue to contribute. However, it’s easy enough to read about the tough economics of farming in textbooks at university. It’s another thing entirely to be faced with the fact that what you love doing will not pay the bills because our society values material goods more than the food which they subsist on. As Philpott and Jones et al. point out, “the smaller the farm, the less profitable it is” … “farm operating margins become more negative and share of household income from farm sources decreases as farm size diminishes.” These statistics and realities not only make it difficult for rural farmers on small acreages, but also for urban farmers with the limited plots and spaces they must work within in our increasingly populated urban centers (UN DESA, 2014).

Urban agriculture doesn’t just reflect the economic aspects of larger-scale farms, though; it also represents the environmental aspects. We live in cities full of mini mono-cultures in the form of perfectly landscaped lawns. Heaven forbid a dandelion head should explode. The front yards taken over by Inner City Farms are anything but monocultures. Many had intricate rows of lettuce, beans, kale, flowers, and of course, zucchinis. But these yards were the ones people stopped to look at, to chat about, and to admire. When you grow up in a world of concrete and astro-turf aspirations, I can only imagine that the vibrancy of a yard full of miscellaneous, unknown plants is compelling enough to break the fourth wall. It’s enough to get the passers-by interested in what we’re up to.   They see us digging around in the dirt, laughing and chatting, and hopefully it could spark more interest in farming in general. As Halweil points out, “Our urban-centered society has even come to view rural life, especially in the form of small family-owned businesses, as backwards or boring, fit only for people who wear overalls and go to bed early – far from the sophistication and dynamism of the city.” I think it’s safe to say that farmers are fast becoming an endangered species (Halweil, 2013; Beaulieu, 2015), and we need to do something about it. Understanding is the first step, and a step in the right direction for our food systems. Urban farming is both a great place to start and a great thing to work on expanding.

That being said, I don’t mean that everybody should need or want to become a farmer. It certainly isn’t for everyone! And urban agriculture may have a lesson to teach there too: getting your hands dirty once a week and learning what it means to be bent over raking and tilling, crouched down planting, crawling along weeding and thinning, and doubled-over harvesting, may be enough to make some people realise that agriculture just isn’t their jam. That’s fine too. So long as these urban acres lead more and more people to the understanding that farms and food are the foundations of futurism, and that without them we are feral.

For me, urban agriculture opened my eyes to how food connects people, and how it shapes our interactions and society. It made me realise that my degree, which I pursued without intentions of a career, has turned into a passion that I intend to pursue through life.

I’m graduating from GRS this spring! This has put me into a state of severe turbulence. Or perhaps it’s that I’m 25 and it’s a quarter-life crisis, I’m not quite sure which. Regardless, it seems that every other day I have a new idea, and every week my plans change as to where I want to go and what I want to do once I graduate. I’ll perhaps write more on this in another post, but for now I want to focus on exploring one idea that I’ve had for actually much longer than the last semester or two. I have always wanted to shave my head… maybe not always, but for several years now. I thought to do it in grade 12, but chickened out because of grad photos. Instead I compromised by cutting my hair short and donating the ponytail. The next time I came close was when I cut my hair the shortest it’s ever been to remove my dreadlocks. Once again, but for different reasons at the time, I backed out of buzzing it all off in a Sinead O’Connor-esque style. Looking back, I think that both of those decisions were best at the time. But that leaves me with the perdurable desire to experience what it’s like to have a buzz cut.

When I started to think about writing this blog, I was reminded of my dreadlocks, and a post I’d written when asked about them for a radio show. The questions I responded to then included, “…what is your ethnicity?  Did your ethnicity have any influence on why you decided to dread your hair? (Why did you decide to dread your hair?)  What do they mean to you?  Do you associate yourself with a religious/spiritual connection because of them, or has wearing them changed you in any way (diet, beliefs, empowerment, etc.) And if you could see yourself ever cutting them (why/why not?)”. Being bald is an entirely different look, and would be perceived very differently within society. Nevertheless I’m sure similar lines of questioning would arise, and also my motives would be somewhat overlapping. For example, the drive behind both is ^aesthetics and curiosity.   I never felt connected to an external motivation. However, I did write in my post about having them: “Since I got my dreadlocks, they have become more and more a part of who I am. They definitely affect the way people see me and judge me, I noticed that the day I got them. But personally I feel that it is for the better. Wearing them has definitely influenced me in a lot of ways. I believe that the people I meet are different because of them, … As with any learning, this has led me to see things, and a lot of aspects of life, differently.” On that note, I have a feeling that shaving my head will also create reaction and judgment. As Kate Fridkis wrote in her blog post about shaving her head, “Women are supposed to be attached to their hair, and their hair is supposed to be attached to them. It’s one of the most obvious signs of femininity and if a woman shaves it all off, she either has cancer, is majorly depressed, or is rebelling against society. My decision to buzz my hair was not for any of those reasons. I am not dying of anything. I’m not that rebellious.”

She went on to explain, “The only reason I am “getting away with it” is because I did it anyway. A funny thing happened once I got a buzz cut. I feel sexier than before. I feel more feminine. I started wearing higher heels, I started dressing up more. I was suddenly striking, and it has been incredibly fun. My closely cropped hair draws attention to the little things that make me different. It highlights my strong nose, my profound love of big belts, my smile.” And that, “Buzzing your hair knocks down that fourth wall.”

Another great blog post by Shannon Haley expresses the same reaction I get from people when I say I’m going to shave my head. They think that I am being “brave” or “daring”, which is simply not the case. Shannon writes, “So when I shaved my head, nothing annoyed me more than being told how “brave” I was. Sure, it was a drastic change, but I don’t need anyone complimenting my decision as brave. I understand the intention behind the word is good; I know that to the people who said something, going against a societal norm seems daring. I appreciate the sweetness and kind words that have been directed at me, but I just can’t get on board with the idea that it’s brave. I cut my hair because I wanted to.  Not because I’m sick or anything to do with sexual identity or trying to make a point. I did it simply because I wanted to and I could.”

She continues that, “It’s easy to associate long hair with femininity because this is what we’ve been told since childhood. But, I have very short hair and I’m still a woman. I still move, create and love as a woman does.   I’m not trying to imply that all women should shave their heads to feel liberated. But using a word like brave to describe a haircut shows just how screwed up our society’s ideas of what constitutes beauty — and bravery — are. I am brave, but not because I cut my hair.”

I’ve stolen quite a lot of words from Kate and Shannon, partially because I don’t have those experiences yet, but also if I do shave my head, I have a feeling that my sentiments will be similar. Perhaps not, but their words resonated with me. I suppose there is only one way to find out…

Fridkis, K. Girl Talk: Why I Got A Buzz Cut. 2011.

http://www.thefrisky.com/2011-10-12/girl-talk-why-i-got-a-buzz-cut/

Haley, S. It Took Me 10 Years To Shave My Head. This Is What Annoyed Me Most After I Did. 2015.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-21387/it-took-me-10-years-to-shave-my-head-this-is-what-annoyed-me-most-after-i-did.html

During development week, I wrote this.  I was uncertain about sharing it.  But decided to be brave.

Others’ Silence

Us.

Them.

They, we, those.

They sound different.

Music, laughter, words of braille.

Us. We are similar.

Common grounds.

Shared earth.

Fractal differences.

Language barriers, divides,

Chasms.

Of misunderstanding.

We should help.

Help them.

Help us.

Help those who…

Falter.

Mistrust.

Uncertainty.

Undecided. Indecisive.

Different eyes. Different Worlds.

One earth.

So many divides.

Help us, help them.

Help who?

Language, laughter, love.

Silence kills.

Afraid to reach.

Afraid to touch.

Afraid to change the changing.

Souls shrouded in earthly difference.

Seeking. Longing.

Subdued.

Strangers.

Between the music,

the laughter,

the audible utterings,

those fractal differences so sharp and telling….

is Silence.

Shared silence. Silence between us. Silence amongst us.

In silence we are one.

I wasn’t able to make it to an event during development week at UBC, but as it happened, an interesting video came up in my news feed around that time which got me thinking about development issues. It is my perception that development agendas have come a long way: people have a more nuanced sense of what the word means in different contexts; how it can be a catalyst for very positive change, yet also detrimental if wielded unwisely… although perhaps that is the biased perspective of a GRS student!

The video which caught my attention was entitled, “Adopt-A-Dane Foundation. Africa is rescuing old people from Denmark.”   In it, the founder, Jackson Nouwah, echoes the worries expressed by many Danes on Facebook and on other social media platforms: that Danes are spending too much money on Africa and not enough on their own aged community members. He says, “Old people are not a burden, they are a wonderful gift – in Africa we cherish our old people.” He goes on to state that despite their many social and physical problems in Africa, according to Facebook posts, it seems elderly Danes are worse off. So the African communities are rallying together to adopt Danish seniors and welcome them into their communities with open arms.

The video is satirical, and was funded both by DR-P3, a Danish radio station, and Danmarks Indsamling (DKI) (which is an aid organization) in order to raise awareness about development issues. It was also sparked by the “jewellery bill” that, “would permit Danish officials to confiscate valuables from refugees” (Huffington Post, 2016). This bill obviously drew considerable attention and criticism, as Denmark is known to be “one of the richest countries in the world per capita” (Huffington Post, 2016).

The video was certainly provocative, and I am surprised it did not receive more attention from the media and social media networks. But perhaps the reason it did not stems from some of the discussions we had about Ujjal Dosanjh’s post, “The Silencing of the white men of the west!” In some ways, discussing this video may bring up tensions that are uncomfortable and difficult to navigate. Why is it so ironic to think that African countries might be able to help people from wealthy European nations? It’s definitely contrary to our doctrines and the perspectives we have grown up with. I felt the video imparted a provocative statement about how development affects our world, and its power and financial/resource imbalances. This video should have received more attention and discussion than it did.

Bellware, K. 2016. “Satirical Video Urges Africans To Rescue Old People From Denmark. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/adopt-a-dane-video_us_56b0eac9e4b0a1b96203d453

I spent my spring semester last year in the Netherlands, at the University of Wageningen (WUR). The town of Wageningen is very small, and is essentially made up by the student population base. However, I thought that the university was outstanding, and would highly recommend it to anyone studying food in any capacity.

While there, I took Globalization and Sustainability of Food Production, Lifestyles and Consumption, Organic Agriculture and Society and The Psychobiology of Food Choice and Eating Behaviour. I do not yet know what these courses will transfer back as, but when I do, I will post what UBC accredits them as in the comments for anyone interested!

The Psychobiology of Food Choice and Eating Behaviour was by far my favourite, perhaps partially because I haven’t looked at food through such a lens before. We focused on topics such as physiological signals of satiety, food reward and hedonic Eating, the role of context on food choice, and food choice across the lifespan.

I am not only interested in how our food choices affect the environment, but also how they affect us personally, both mentally and physically. My term project for the course was about the “Milkshake Study”, as it is known – a study that showed that what we think about our food actually affects biochemical changes and markers in our bodies when we consume it. The placebo affect is of course nothing new, but it was a groundbreaking study in the field of nutrition, where so often things are black and white – calories in, calories out. If I were to continue my studies, I would consider a masters in food through either a sociological or psychological lens, or perhaps a combination of both. I am hoping to live and work in Europe for a while once I have completed my undergraduate degree here at UBC, and intend to look into the options offered both at WUR and elsewhere.

I was very happy to have had the chance to study abroad, and would urge anyone that is interested to apply and go!

One thing that I ended up doing a fair bit of research about this semester was Veganism. Both personally, as well as for class: I set myself a goal of being vegan for one month for my International Nutrition class as part of an assignment with the goal of helping alleviate world hunger. The reason that I chose to be vegan, as opposed to any of the other suggested ways to make a difference was mainly because I believe that change must come from each of us, alongside the efforts of specific groups and governmental policies.

Veganism is touted by many people in our western world as a supreme diet in for three main reasons: it’s cruelty-free, better for the environment and better for our health. For my purposes, I focused on the fact that it is said to be better for the environment, as this is what has the most effect on world hunger.

The production of livestock, poultry, dairy and eggs is known to have huge effects on the climate. As Kim Barnouin, a strong vegan advocate who has now written several persuasive books on the subject, succinctly lists the, “five major ways that food systems are contributing to our demise: 1. Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 2. Water Supply and Pollution, 3. Deforestation, 4. Lack of Biodiversity and 5. Fish Depletion.” (Barnouin, 2010, pp. 17-20) Of course, I think that many of us as GRSers are well aware of these impacts.

With this in mind the fact that “Animal agriculture makes a 40% greater contribution to global warming than all transportation in the world combined,” and, “is the number one cause of climate change.” (Foer, 2009) means that one way to make a difference is to try and mitigate climate change through diet change. Stehfest et al. (2009) in their research on the, “Climate benefits of changing diet”, found that, “a global food transition to less meat, or even a complete switch to plant-based protein food [would] have a dramatic effect on land use, …methane and nitrous oxide emission would be reduced substantially.” And concluded in their study that, “dietary changes could therefore not only create substantial benefits for human health and global land use, but can also play an important role in future climate change mitigation policies.”

However, being vegan was extremely difficult for me. I did not expect the unpleasant effects on my digestive system which resulted from such a sudden change in diet. The physical difficulty made the challenge I’d created for myself more difficult than I had expected. However, when it came to making meals and food, I found that I was quite inspired to create new concoctions in the kitchen, and to ‘veganize’ some of my favourite recipes. I discovered early on, thanks to the abundance of foodie blogs on the internet these days, that cashews make quite a good milk, cream or cheese substitute in many recipes, and this allowed me to avoid the over-use of purchased nut milks (which I’m not convinced are healthier than dairy!).

The whole process definitely opened my eyes to the fact that I am able to eat a vegan diet without too much effort in that regard. I found new recipes and options for breakfast, which have definitely inspired me to continue experimenting with a more plant-based diet.

In the end, however, I didn’t feel like I really made a difference. Not only because I failed to meet the goal that I had set out to, because I think that perhaps I would feel similar even if I had. It’s not that I don’t believe that the action I took doesn’t change anything, but it’s so hard to quantify such an impact. Stats and figures can lay it all out: “A low-fat vegetarian diet requires less than half an acre per person to produce that food. Compare that to 2.1 acres per person for the meat eater.” (Barnouin, 2012), “the current world grain harvest could support 2.5 billion at the average US level of consumption…and in the US, ~12.5% are consumed directly, [while] most are used at feed, and that’s where the big difference comes in” (Rideout, lecture notes, 2015), “livestock accounts for 70% of agricultural land and provides 15% of total food energy” (Rideout, lecture notes, 2015), etc. but it’s obviously hard to see the effects of this. They are not tangible. This though, is perhaps the crux of the problem: what we cannot see or understand, and do not feel, we have trouble caring about. Not to say that people don’t “care” or aren’t empathetic, but it’s difficult to take action when your actions seem futile. Perhaps if we were somehow more interconnected, and could feel the impacts of our choices more profoundly, either morally or physically, things would change.

Interestingly, I discovered through my research that the debate about whether or not humans should be eating meat has been going on for almost as long as agriculture itself: Plato wrote a dialogue between two characters almost 2, 500 years ago debating the consumption of animals, in which one character, Socrates, tells the other, who wants to feed his citizens meat, that, “ this luxurious city will be short of land because of the extra acreage required to raise animals for food. I thought that this was incredible!! We’ve been having this debate for almost as long as agriculture has been around!

The thing that connected with me most strongly was reading a book called The Vegetarian Myth. I am undecided as to whether or not this was because we tend to find reasons to support things we already believe in (Plous, 1993), but regardless, it had a profoundly impacted the way I see things. It doesn’t help solve world hunger. But it made me think about food choices a little bit differently. The author, Lierre Keith, had been vegan for twenty years before she wrote the book, and had switched back to an omnivorous diet for several reasons. The part that hit home was I her introduction, where she described how, in her early twenties, as a keen and principled new vegan, she had tried to start a backyard garden. To her dismay, her plants were not doing well. In order to remedy the problem, she began to search out soil amendments. However, she then was faced with an interesting choice: either buy industrially-manufactured minerals, or add bone meal, or blood to her unhappy tomato plants in order to get them to grow. And so she was faced with an inevitable fact of life: things must die in order for other things to live. Without death, the carbon cycle is not complete, and things would not go on as they do. Veganism is an attempt to remove ourselves from this inexorable circle of life. This also sheds light on the fact that even plant-based diets require inputs that are not always positively affecting our world.

On a less profound scale, the nutritional side of it also made me re-think things a bit. There are many vegan books which claim that a purely-plant based diet is the route to the holy grail of health, and despite the fact that I do think I would perhaps have to give it a longer period of time before really knowing how I truly feel once my body adapts – Campbell, T. & Campbell II (2006) state in their book that, “the first moth can be challenging, but it gets much easier after that”.

Despite already being aware of the damage which our food systems cause, and the implications of our diets, this project made me much more acutely conscious of my food choice. I have already researched where I can get raw milk in the lower mainland (illegal, I know, but I do believe that more natural products are healthier), and last time I went to the supermarket, purchased organic eggs and local, grass-fed yoghurt. I am also aware that my choices are being made from a place of privilege. In the future, I would like to have my food choices be flexible. I intend to incorporate more plant-based foods into my diet, and focus on eating locally. I realise that eating locally isn’t always the most sustainable option, but I firmly believe that being more connected to the whole process – from the seed to the production to the harvesting and sales – is an essential step in understanding and thus transforming our food systems. My goal is to one day have a farm, where people can re-connect with their food. I have always wanted to have a mixed system (plants as well as animals), as I believe that that is what functions most holistically. Stehfest et al. (2009) also point out that, “a global transition to a low meat-diet as recommended for health reasons would reduce the mitigation costs to achieve a 450 ppm CO2-eq. stabilisation target by about 50% in 2050 compared to the reference case.”

This knowledge, combined with the echoes of Lierre Kieth’s book The Vegetarian Myth, have led me to the conclusion that awareness, balance and understanding are the most important things when it comes to making change: without awareness, there is no reason to start, without understanding there is not motivation to continue, and without balance, we soon lose sight of the goal as we struggle to find the pieces without looking at the whole puzzle.

References

Barnouin, K. (2010). Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. Philadelphia, PA: Running Press Book Publishers.

Campbell, T. & Campbell II, T. (2006). The China Study. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, Inc.

Foer, J. (2009) Eating Animals. New york, NY: Hatchette Book Group

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2015). Agriculture and Food Security.

Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docrep/x0262e/x0262e05.htm

Freedman, R. & Barnouin, K. (2005). Skinny Bitch. Philadelphia, PA: Running Press Book Publishers.

Murphy, T. (2012). Do the Math: Using physics and estimation to assess energy, growth, options. (Web log comment). Retrieved from http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/04/flex-fuel-humans/

Plous, Scott (1993). The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Scarborough, P. et al. (2014). Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK. Climatic Change. 125:2, pp 179-192

Stefest, E. et al. (2009). Climate benefits of changing diet. Climatic Change. 95:83–102

DOI 10.1007/s10584-008-9534-6

When I found out that one of the options for LFS 350 was a project on Galiano Island, I was determined to be part of the group that went. Luckily for me, one of the people in the group wanted out because of his work schedule, and I managed to trade in.

Visiting Galiano was absolutely amazing, and I was so inspired and excited by the farmers we met. I would like to have a farm one day, and part of the reason I am pursuing a degree is to figure out what I want that to look like, and where I’d like it to be.

Two farms in particular were of incredible inspiration to me. The first was Cable Bay farm, where the group and I stayed for the weekend. The most exciting thing I learned about there was farming equipment that I had no idea existed – one which builds the beds and covers them in biodegradable plastic, and another which plants the seedlings via a large hydraulic wheel (and two people sitting on it to place the seedlings onto the wheel). These two simple pieces of equipment drastically reduce not only the time to plant in the spring, but also reduce the workload all season since the beds don’t need weeded given the plastic covering. The system also uses drip irrigation, which is put in by the bed-building machine, and thus reduces water usage by 80%!! Amazing.

The second place that truly inspired me was a a farm run by a lady who had moved to the island with her husband in the seventies. They had two children in diapers, and when they got to the property, lived in a canvas tent for the first year. This proved rather miserable in the rainy winter, and so they built a 12×16 cabin in which to live while they built their home. There was no power, and no running water. They had five forested acres, with a steep slope in the middle. Logging the lower portion created an area for the gardens and orchard, where there are now three large garden beds and an orchard of over 50 varieties of apples, all of which they planted. The logs were hauled up the hill and they built their beautiful family home by hand.

When we walked in the driveway, we met this incredible pioneer woman picking figs off of two of the biggest, most beautiful fig trees I have ever seen. She then took us on a tour, showing us the greenhouse with grapes that exploded with flavour, and tomato plants tied up with strings to the ceiling. Her husband was outside with a couple bins of grapes, de-stemming and sorting, as they make their own wine from the vines. Window-box squares with greens growing happily in October were spaced out on the lawn. On the back side of the house, which was south facing, we were shown three massive kiwi trees: two females and a male, absolutely loaded with kiwi fruit, which we were told would be ready for harvest in January.

We finished up the tour with a glass of her homemade kombucha as we sat in the sunshine on the porch of the little cabin that was currently housing a dehydrator full of apple slices and multiple musical instruments. She told us of the incredible amount of hummingbirds she feeds, and we sat and chatted, soaking in her amazing story.

Before leaving we had a rummage through the jars that lined the back porch: preserves and treats of all kinds that she makes on a two-burner hot plate in their wood-heated home. Jams and jellies, all kinds of pickles, dried fruits and even echinacea tincture which she grows and extracts.

I had no idea about Galiano’s incredible micro-climate before going there. It’s an amazing place to grow food, and I found the tiny community to be so hospitable. Waiting for the ferry, I had a look at the real estate listings…

As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, one of the main things that attracted me to the GRS programme was that we had to do either an exchange or an internship in order to gain local/hands-on knowledge in relation to our degree. For my exchange, I went to SciencesPo in Paris for the first semester, and to Wageningen in the Netherlands for the second. It was two very, very different experiences! For anyone who is thinking about going on exchange, I would urge you to do it. And for anyone interested in going to either France or the Netherlands, I will share some thoughts.

Paris is a very expensive city, and was a difficult place to be a student, due to this, but I had my heart set on living there for a short time. It was an easy city to walk, and I loved having access to all of the museums and art galleries with my student card. To sum Paris up, I would say that it lives up to every one of it’s stereotypes. Because it is a university of political science, my classes there were SciencesPo almost all electives,. Professor Carol Lock was amazing, and I would definitely recommend taking anything that she teaches – I took The Business of Wine in France and A Table! Why Mealtimes Still Matter in France, and really enjoyed both.

Whenever someone asks me about Paris, I tell them that I wouldn’t have said I liked the city while I was there, but then when a friend who was travelling through asked me what he should see on his way through, I sat down to write back to him from my new place in Wageningen, and suddenly all the amazing memories poured in. I looked back through my messages to find what I’d written, and decided just to include it here, since it’s what I would have told anyone after having just left!

Paris…. hmmm. Depends what you want to do and see. I would recommend a month in a city, minimum. haha But on a tight time budget… maybe three days? The Louvre is worth seeing, but Musee d’Orsay was my favourite. It’s good to have a day up in Montmartre (older part of town, up on the hill). A great view of the Eiffel tower is from Trocadero. The Jardin du Luxembourg is a very classic French park, nice to walk through, and the Tuileries are similar (and my favourite statue in Paris is in the Tuileries).

Definitely need to have a baguette, and hit up a market (that’s where all the French people do their shopping – cheese there shouldn’t be too much more expensive than in the supermarket). My favourite patisserie place is called Sadaharu Aoki – its Japanese fusion and makes incredible macarons. Another really good one is Un Dimanche a Paris. If you’re interested in food culture or shopping culture at all, the Bon Marche is a huge department store, somewhat similar to Harrods in London – some pretty amazing stuff, but very pricey.

French people love to picnic down along the seine, and taking a bottle of wine is pretty much required (if its warm enough). I would recommend buying wine around the 7/8 euro mark – it should be a good quality/price ratio. Although, the 2 euro bottles are sometimes worth it… you just never know. haha

I never did the Eiffel tower, but its worth walking around for sure, and standing underneath. Oh! There’s also a very Parisian falafel neighbourhood, and if you like falafel I can give you the name of the best one. Musee Rodin is quite good, and has The Gates of Hell (very famous sculpture by him). You can also go into the opera house which is beautiful, but you do have to pay – depends if its worth seeing a halls of chandeliers and mirrors for you or not.

Let me know what neighbourhood you’re planning to stay in – might be able to make some local recommendations. Also, I have a friend who is still there this semester, and if you’d like a tour guide for a day she’s really lovely and I could put you guys in touch.

It’s choppy, as I wrote with images and experiences flashing back through my mind, but in writing it out, I realised that there were definitely things about Paris that I loved.

I have recently gotten a position as an intern for Inner City farms in Vancouver, and I am very excited by the prospect of growing vegetables in the city this summer! The business was started by graduates of my faculty, which is incredibly inspiring. Since I am currently daydreaming about being a farmer someday, I am looking forward to having a chance to get directly involved with urban agriculture.

I feel that my connections to sustainable agriculture and food systems are strongly linked to where I grew up – on a farm in the heart of the Okanagan. In travelling and coming to the city to study, I realized that where I felt happiest and most at home was wandering around the farmer’s markets, admiring local produce and talking with the local producers. Here at UBC I have chosen to focus my degree on the agricultural components of the food system, however, I strongly believe that the disconnect we have from food in our current day in age is linked to a whole host of problems, from eating disorders, to diabetes, to high levels of obesity and depression. I greatly enjoy the ripple effects that local, organic food has within a community, and I truly believe that what we eat has a massive impact on our overall health. And not just physical health, but mental and spiritual well being as well. So many problems we encounter are linked to our diets and our fast-paced lifestyles. I truly believe that starting at the level of growing one’s food, be it meat, dairy, or produce, in a healthy, happy environment (or purchasing it from someone whom you know did) are the beginnings of a healthy, happy life. Thus I am really looking forward to being a part of Inner City Farms this summer. The idea behind their business is to revive unused pieces of land around the city and turn them into veggie-growing plots. This requires the consent of the landowners, of course, but in return they get a beautiful green space and some delicious vegetables! Land is one of the most inhibiting factors for new or would-be farmers, and I think that the model of Inner City farms is an exemplary way to get around that. The veggies are then sold in CSA boxes (Community Supported Agriculture), and thus locals are able to get fresh produce that has been sustainably and happily grown!   

Reflecting on our class of February 12^th, there were several things that came to mind about careers and the choices and sacrifices that we make for them. The alumnus who came to speak with us made a few statements that really got me thinking about these choices. To quote, he said, “Part of the work-life balance is trying to figure out where ‘home’ is” and “You give a piece of yourself, but you leave a piece of yourself. Everywhere.”

I feel that being at such a large university that is internationally connected, many of us students aspire to careers in far-flung regions of the world, or careers linked to international organizations with the hope of being able to travel with our work. Perhaps this impression comes in part from being a GRS student? I don’t know. But what I do know, is that for many people, the choice between life and work can be a difficult one to make. It seems as though there should be a happy medium – a balance that one could strike between the two, but often it seems to be presented in life as either or, not both. Work is so much a part of our lives – indeed for most of us it is our life. In some ways this isn’t a bad thing, so long as you enjoy what you are doing. I do believe that it is of the utmost importance to love your job. Not just to feel somewhat ambivalent about it, to be ok with it, or think it’s alright – but to really love it. Because no matter what, there will be bad days. In addition, working a minimum of 8 hours a day, five days a week, 49 weeks a year for forty years, in my opinion you better be enjoying work, because, like it or not, it is your life. Work tends to define and shape our lives, like it or not. I suppose that’s why a lot of us are at university – with the hopes of being able to find a job we enjoy at the end of it. Or perhaps just to find one with a paycheque that seems to make it all worthwhile. But I would argue that no matter how much compensation you’re getting, with a ratio of 120:1960 (hours off vs. hours worked in a year), you’re better off doing something you love.

It sounded to me as though ­our guest speaker truly loved his work, despite some misgivings about where “home” was for him, and it was inspiring to hear someone speak about their life’s work with such passion.