After Edible Action

While I was excited to meet Sally Miller and hear all about her new book, I was also a bit wary about going into Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation, fondly known as CSI. My past experiences with eco-movement fans have not always been fun: I have found most activists (of any kind,  not just food) to be an angry people who enjoyed sarcasm, shouting and judging others on their pitfalls.

When I was with them, I felt like I didn’t belong and that I couldn’t have fun because they were somehow ideologically opposed to everything I did and I enjoyed.  Naturally, by Friday afternoon I was worried that in the CSI I would be the only girl wearing make-up, carrying a purse and wearing shoes made of leather.  Thankfully, I was wrong!  Not only were people–for the most part–well-dressed, but they were friendly, smiling, they ate food, drank beer and generally enjoyed themselves.  They even made self-deprecating jokes!

Sally was a bit more serious and while she said that we should enjoy our food, we can also view it as a medium for change.  She pointed out that in North America, 10% of our population suffer from hunger. She asked us to reflect on what we have done and are currently doing to change this and to brainstorm about what we can do next.

The overall message was that we often take our food for granted; we don’t always think about where it comes from. However, she also argued that food is good–a precious natural resource that needs to be protected so that we can continue to enjoy it with our families and friends.  Afterwards, we were encouraged to eat and drink at the centre and it was at this point that I met some really interesting people from Canadian news source Rabble. I also met the fantastic Toronto-based activists who founded The Movement that night.  Overall, it was a positive experience capped off with a mango-banana-strawberry smoothie from Fresh with my new food-pal, Meghan.  Now I just have to read Sally’s book…