Cycle of Weeds, Permaculture Opportunities, UVIC Environmental Restoration, Wwoof and Soil Apprenticeships, UVIC Food Courses, Gaia College and SOUL

March 27, 2011
I spent most of yesterday pulling weeds out two flower beds around the house. It was an activity not directly related to food production, but related to yard maintenance (by way of showing that neglecting the yard for a year does not yield good results). The soil was disturbed and bare, allowing early successional, colonizing plants (weeds) to take over. Pulling them up, further disturbs the soil and the seed bank, which leads to further weeds and more pulling...it is an endless cycle.

The Need for a Food Policy

As someone who is passionate about food security and lives in the CRD I was interested to find out about their policy. I came across the Regional Sustainability Strategy Policy Options Series on Food Security. The CRD is currently examining the links currently investigating the links between: Food, health and well being, local agriculture protection and reducing the impacts of food production on climate change. Below is the food charter that guides their approach to food policy.


The paper provides suggestions for moderate and significant policy change approaches

Moderate changes:
• Strengthen land protection policy
• Set targets to increase local food purchasing
• Encourage consumers to buy local
• Promote urban agriculture with increase use of community gardens for food production
• Promote partnerships to support local food access and education