Searching for like-minded individuals and groups in Calgary

[avliet]

Hello all,

I found this group by chance on google and thought I'd drop a line in
to see how active it still is. I'm interested in urban permaculture,
hydroponics, and aeroponics, micro-scale fish farming, algae farming -
all manner of bio growth methods really. If I had to define a current
and immediate interest, it's more specifically how to make gardening
easy for people to get into en-mass. As I'm sure we're all aware,
things in the economic/social sphere aren't exactly coming up roses
right now, and I think groups like this one and the one I'm a
coordinator for will go a long way to mitigating the damage and
preparing the average joe/jane for what seems to be headed our way.

So, that's my brief hello. Looking forward to talking with you all.

[Paul Hughes]

food policy is working on LIFA: Land inventory & Food Assessment

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[Andrew Vliet]

"food policy"? Sorry - is this a subgroup of CUA?

Andrew Vliet
Cell: +1 403 667 3201

[Paul Hughes]

Calgary Food Policy Council(CFPC) is a a member of the City of Calgary's Environmental Advisory Committee which reports directly to Council. The CFPC introduced the Food Policy Notice of Motion and helped create the conditions for the authoring of the Calgary Food Policy Report, which was accepted by Calgary City Council. The Food Policy Working Group is now working to implement part of that report which is primarily focused on LIFA & terms of reference.

Hardly a sub group of anything, this is new ground in the policy world so citizens might actually have access to new ground.

Paul Hughes

@paulinate @Hughes4YYC

403.383.3420
pa...@paulinate.com

<avliet.vcf>

[Andrew Vliet]

Sorry, I'm a little out of touch with political policy, councils meetings, etc.  Thank you for the info, I'll try to dig a bit deeper into it.

"...access to new ground." as in access to new physical property - I assume for the purposes of community gardens, etc.?

Andrew Vliet
Cell: +1 403 667 3201

[Rachel Simpson]

Hello there!

It's cool to hear from you Andrew! What group are you the coordinator of?

CUA is an entity that Grant and I started a couple years back. It's not really an organization of any kind- it's just a network for people who want to get more involved in Urban Ag in Calgary. We've held meetings in the past, and I'm sure we will again. In the meantime, this mailing list is a way to remain connected.

Cheers!
Rachel

[Paul Hughes]

There is no food policy municipally, provincially or federally. 

Food Policy Councils are local initiatives. There are over 100 across North America and they lead the food revolution in policy changes so citizens can access land & resources, et al.

Access to land for the purpose of Urban Agriculture, whatever shape or form.

Paul Hughes

@paulinate @Hughes4YYC

403.383.3420
pa...@paulinate.com

[Andrew Vliet]

Hello Angela, Rachel,

Angela, I responded to your message earlier, but it seems that it may not have gone through.  Rachel - your questions were answered as well.

So here it is again:

--- BEGIN ORIGINAL MESSAGE ---

Hello Angela,

Oops - my bad, I'm a co-coordinator actually. The Zeitgeist Movement,
Calgary Chapter. It's tough to trim what we're about down to a 5 second
sound bite - it's always misinterpreted. So, with that, I'll give you
the quick-and-dirty of it so long as you understand that the concept is
very large and broad in scope: Without further discussion, you probably
won't have the full picture.

My personal goal is to feed, clothe, house, and educate every person on
the planet.
From my perspective, The Zeitgeist Movement fits that goal because it
promotes and is soon to offer proof of the concept of a resource based
economy. Though it initially seems very foreign to many people, a
resource based economy is non monetary, non religious, non
denominational and non divisional. It declares all the world's resources
the common heritage of all the worlds people - every person has equal
right to every resource, and acknowledges that every person has the
responsibility to aid the wellbeing of every other individual on the
planet.

Anyway - without me breaking into a very long discussion on what this is
and how it works, it's very difficult to get the complete idea across.
Suffice it to say that a resource based economy is nothing less than a
wholesale redesign of our entire society such that most of the social
ills we've come to accept in our daily life become not just
unacceptable, but utterly intolerable.

There is a general meeting on Friday December 10th at 18:00 hours at the
Eau Claire market community centre in downtown Calgary. The details can
be found as an event on Facebook under the group "Zeitgeist Calgary", or
you can contact me directly for further information. Anyone interested
in hearing more or even arguing against the movement is welcome to
attend - in fact, if you wish to argue against the movement, you won't
find a better place to make your voice heard as there are regularly
between 20 and 30 people in attendance - roughly a third of them are new
at any one meeting.

OK - that's not exactly a 5 second sound bite, and I hope it doesn't
come off sounding like a sales pitch - I talk to so many people about
this that this quick summary is getting pretty polished.

With all that said, I didn't actually join this list on a recruitment
campaign - I'm genuinely interested in learning more about growing
foodstuffs - including all forms of in-the-dirt gardening and/or
hydro/aeroponics and/or aquaculture.

Has anyone heard about bill S510 in the US and whether there is an
equivalent in Canada?

--- END ORIGINAL MESSAGE ---

Andrew Vliet
Cell: +1 403 667 3201