Food Security
At LoonSong we are working with a big-picture, long-term outlook in what we do: we want to work in ways that are going to make a difference in our communities and inspire others to transform their communities in relation to food, nutrition and health, and resilience. That all feels even more important since 2020.
Food Security has a household dimension, which is often translated by people in ways such as “food needs to be less expensive so everyone can afford it”. But the true costs of food are not generally reflected in grocery store pricing, and the push for always “cheaper” food most often has detrimental impacts on farmers, farm communities, human health, local economies, and the environment. So, for us, household food security means that everyone should be able to make a living wage doing something they feel is contributing to society, and be able to access and afford healthy, nutritious, culturally appropriate food. This may be by developing the skills to grow food themselves, trading it with their neighbors, or by purchasing it in their region. For those growing food, this means access to the resources necessary and the ability to derive a meaningful, living wage from the work.
We are also working on the community dimension of food security, which means to work toward understanding what the food needs are in a region, and how as much as possible of the region’s food can be produced nearby, using processes and methods based on sensible (and renewable) energy use, and developing the fertility of soils and productive capacity of land and the food/farming community in healthy and sustainable ways.
We have been collaborating with initiatives locally and provincially in education, food security, and community resilience around food since we started LoonSong in 2003, and finding more opportunities for shared work and dialogue around these issues are really why we do what we do.