MSVU Meal Exchange Chapter participates in a Virtual Classroom with David Suzuki, J.B. MacKinnon and more!

By: Katie Cvitkovitch, Meal Exchange MSVU Chapter Coordinator

On Monday, October 6th, FoodARC hosted the MSVU Meal Exchange Chapter for a Virtual Classroom with environmentalist David Suzuki, co-author of The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating J.B. MacKinnon, Food Justice Manager for Food Share Toronto Utcha Sawyers, and poet Tanya Davis called Our Food Systems: Are you Hungry for Change?

Some really interesting conversations were had about food justice, and how we can work together to achieve food security in Canada. J.B. MacKinnon also made a really interesting comment that when people ask about his 100-Mile Diet, which meant he and his partner and co-author Alisa Smith only consumed local foods for one year, people always assumed it was hard and they were making sacrifices. He confidently stated otherwise, and boasted about the delicious and fresh food they “survived” on!

There were also a lot of interesting questions asked about the current state of farming, and whether the panelists believe it is possible to ever go back to small-scale community farming. David Suzuki commented that he believes it is absolutely possible, and the way that we are producing our food right now is not conventional, or sustainable.

Meal Exchange MSVU member Kristin Lutes posted on Facebook,

“I had a wonderful opportunity yesterday to listen to the webinar with David Suzuki, J.B. Mackinnon (author of the 100-mile diet), and food justice expert Utcha Sawyers, and it made me realize even more how disconnected from our food and food systems we are. So sign this if you believe that it is a RIGHT to have clean water and healthy, safe food!”

Other members of Meal Exchange commented on what they learned from the webinar below.

A big thank you to FoodARC for hosting Meal Exchange for this amazing, informative session!