On our second day of CFE, we began our morning with an informative presentation by Julian. He provided much insight about the inner workings of food systems, such as production, distribution, acquisition and the consumption of food both a local and global scale.
Throughout Julian's presentation, we had several intriguing discussions and activities about the foods we consume and the complexity behind the microcosm food system. During one of our discussions, our task was to brainstorm the flow of inputs and outputs within a home and its relationship to food acquisition. For example, when farmers produced crops, they need to consider factors such as land surplus and energy used as a result from machinery to harvest their crops before sending their crops to distributors. Essentially, there is more behind how food gets onto the shelves of grocery stores.
Furthermore, some of the core terms that heavily influence the theory behind food system include political ecology (considering the structural imbalance of power), food security (having sufficient quantity/quality/culturally appropriate food), food literacy (having knowledge of how food is produced) and, food sovereignty (people having the right to eat culturally appropriate foods).
In Julian's presentation, we also discussed as a class what actions could be taken to make a difference (an ideal food system). Some of the points that we felt strongly about included reducing meat and animal produce, being an environmentally friendly/socially consciously consumer in regards to our food choices, and to eat locally in order to reduce our carbon footprints.
In the afternoon, we went to the Orchard Garden to make a hospitable environment for our soil/plant beds by pulling out weeds that would take away nutrients from our crops. Also, there were many steps we had to take in order to prepare the soil/plant beds to transplant our vegetables. We first prepared the soil by making markings in the soil to indicate how much space there would be between each plant, added organic mushroom fertilizer, mixed up the top soil and the fertilizer together before transplanting our zucchinis and watered them.
In the afternoon, we went to the Orchard Garden to make a hospitable environment for our soil/plant beds by pulling out weeds that would take away nutrients from our crops. Also, there were many steps we had to take in order to prepare the soil/plant beds to transplant our vegetables. We first prepared the soil by making markings in the soil to indicate how much space there would be between each plant, added organic mushroom fertilizer, mixed up the top soil and the fertilizer together before transplanting our zucchinis and watered them.
Overall, it was a both an informative and productive day!
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