| 11:00 am - 12:00 Noon
Main Stage Events & Food Demos Schedule
Sponsors:
Hemp & Company,
The Good Planet Company
| JOIN THE F.U.N. -- Farming in Urban Neighbourhoods
PANEL DISCUSSION: Caroyln Herriot, The Garden Path Nursery; Paula Sobie,
City Harvest; Kezia Cowtan, LifeCycles Project; Shannon Cowan, UBC
Global climate change is an enormous concern, and threatens our future global food security. All the food that we import carries a large carbon footprint, and all food that is not organic requires the use of fossil fuels.
Growing more organic food locally is a very immediate, simple step that we can all take to contribute to the solution, while also improving our health, and the health of our urban ecosystems.
Join our panel of food production experts and activists for passionate dialog and practical tips about how urban dwellers can
get started growing their own food.
Participants include:
- Panelist Carolyn Herriot is author of A Year On The Garden Path, a 52-Week Organic Gardening Guide, and President of the
Victoria Horticulture Society. She is a regular garden columnist for GardenWise and CommonGround magazines. Carolyn grows her
certified organic seeds called 'Seeds of Victoria' at The Garden Path nursery. In 2008 she created 'The New Victory Garden'
with info on-line at www.gardenwise.ca, and teaches a new programme, 'Twelve Steps to Sustainable Homegrown Food Production'.
- Panelist Paula Sobieis co-owner and operator of City Harvest, a company that sustainably produces food in urban locations using
SPIN-Farming methodology (S-mall P-lot IN-tensive Farming). SPIN is an organic-based growing technique that adapts commercial
farming techniques to sub-acre land parcels in rural or urban locations. Its greatest environmental and social benefits come when food
is produced close to urban centres where most consumers live. Some home owners rent their yards to SPIN Farmers, however most receive some of the harvest
bounty as payment instead.
- Panelist Kezia Cowtanis Executive Director of LifeCycles Project Society, and has a wealth of knowledge and expertise
local sustainable food systems and community based programming, urban agriculture and global food issues. LifeCycles
is the go to nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating awareness and initiating action around food, health, and urban
sustainability in the Greater Victoria community. Lifecylces' work includes: organic school food garden creation and education,
community garden creation, aboriginal food sovereignty, redistribution of food assets (to avoid waste) and coordination of food policy work
for the region.
- Moderator Professor Shannon Cowan, B.Sc., Ph.D, in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at UBC, does scientific research in crop improvement for botanical medicines,
community food security, sustainability and aboriginal health. She is a published author in peer-reviewed scientific journals,
international speaker and passionate course instructor in UBC's undergraduate Agroecology program. She is co-founder of
EcoReality, an emerging ecovillage on Salt Spring Island, BC.
|
| 12:00 Noon - 1:00 pm
Natural Chefs Food Demo Theatre | BILL JONES, Deerholme Farm, Cowichan
The POWER of LOCAL FOOD
Join Bill Jones, renown chef, author and educator as we explore the benefits of local cooking. It's a well-documented fact that
the time and distance from field to table have a profound effect on the levels of nutrients and flavour. Certain foods also have
a pronounced effect on your wellbeing through boosting your immune system and delivering powerful phyto-nutrients. Regional
sources of these products will be discussed in an informative and tasty demo. In addition, we explore how local food helps
reduce the environmental footprint due to transportation and packaging, support the local economy and preserve
our valuable agricultural lands for future generations.
Bill will demonstrate two dishes to dazzle your tastebuds. Deerholme Farm salad
with mixed greens, arugula and sweet peas with a big leaf maple syrup vinaigrette. Braised mushrooms with seaweed and herbs in a
sweet and sour hemp seed sauce.
Bill is a two-time winner of a world cookbook award, a French-trained chef and owner of Deerholme Farm - a culinary destination
amid the wine region of the Cowichan Valley. Please visit www.magnorth.bc.ca for more information.
|
| 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Main Stage
Sponsors:
Hemp & Company,
The Good Planet Company
| JEREMY FISHER
Musical Entertainment
Jeremy Fisher is a troubadour and a storyteller. He has spent the better part of his life logging hours on the road and making sense of the unique experiences that can only be conveyed by having a Bedouin-like existence, through his music. Riding his bike from coast to coast to support his first release, Back Porch Spirituals in 2001 and then throughout his time supporting his major label debut, Let It Shine on Sony Music, the Vancouverite (and native Hamiltonian) has enjoyed every unknown stretch of the road. The first single from Let It Shine, 'High School', garnered great radio and video play across the country and established Jeremy as one of Canada's brightest new talents.
His free-roaming style of battling indifference by staying true to his artistic sensibilities eventually led him to Aquarius Records, the new address of his third release, Goodbye Blue Monday.
Jeremy's music and writing compels the listener to take a stand and look a little closer. Like some of the most prolific musical journeymen that have influenced him - whether he is compared to JJ Cale or Neil Young or even Paul Simon - Jeremy finds truth and meaning in the details and his songs are the engine that drives his artistic expression and exploration.
Visit www.theRealJeremyFisher.com for more info.
|
| 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Main Stage
|
WHAT are GE FREE ZONES, and WHY do we need them?
PANEL DISCUSSION: Special Guest: Percy Shmeiser, and Panelists: Josh Brandon, Greenpeace; Tom Rudge, Farmer/GE Free Yukon; Colin
Palmer, Powell River Regional Board
The global movement supporting local and organic agriculture is gaining momentum as communities contemplate the
threat to food security posed by GE (genetically engineered) crops that can be owned and patented by corporations. Join our panel discussion to find out
why GE free zones are needed, and how the establishment of a GE Free Zone in your community can ensure local farmers grow your food safely without harmful chemicals
or gene manipulation. Learn about the implications of genetic enginering, and how Powell River became the first area in
BC to have a genetically engineered free crop zone.
Panelists include:
- Special Guest Percy Schmeiser is a farmer from Bruno Saskatchewan Canada whose Canola fields were contaminated with Monsanto's
Round-Up Ready Canola. He took Monsanto to the Supreme Court after Monsanto sued him for using their product without
purchasing it. Schmeiser never used the product, and the Supreme Court supported Monsanto because their Round-Up Ready
Canola was protected by a patent. However, in an out of court settlement in March 2008, Monsanto agreed to
pay all the clean-up costs of Schmeiser's contaminated fields, and Monsanto can be sued again if further
contamination occurs. Schmeiser and his wife won the Right Livelihood Award in 2007. More info at: www.percyschmeiser.com
- Panelist Josh Brandon is an Agriculture Campaigner with Greenpeace. He serves on the
steering committee for Society for a GE Free BC, and is editor of their newsletter. Recently, he acted as a civil society representative at a United Nations
led International Agriculture Assessment in South Africa. Josh served on various committees of the
National Council for the Canadian Environmental Network including Agriculture and the Convention on Biodiversity. His
numerous articles on sustainable agriculture and genetic engineering have been published in national publications.
- Panelist Tom Rudgeis a full time farmer on a mixed organic farm in the Yukon, food security advocate and community market founder. He graduated
from the University of Alberta with a degree in Agriculture, and is currently chair of the GE Free Yukon movement. He was
instrumental in gathering over 1500 signatures last fall to present to the Yukon Legislature for the creation of a GE free zone.
Tom is also the Whitehorse Slow Food convivial chair and secretary for the Whitehorse chapter of the Canadian Organic Growers.
- Panelist Colin Palmer, Director and Chair of Powell River Regional Board for the last 9 years, supported the GE Free Crop zone
resolution. He has served in governmental organizations for decades including as Mayor of Powell River, member of the Provincial Environmental Appeal board and alderman.
He was a founding member of the Powell River Anti-Pollution Association. Colin owns and operates a commercial printing business
in Powell River.
|
| 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Main Stage
Sponsored by:
Hemp & Company,
The Good Planet Company
| SHANE PHILIP
Musical Entertainment
Swelling in primordial pulses and wholloping whoops, the tacit tones of Shane Philip's didgeridoo hold the power to still listeners into silence or encourage audiences to rise up in a tribal swell of intoxicating spirit -- with sometimes but a heartbeat in between. Meanwhile his hands will be skillfully juggling between shaking up rhythms with his aslatua, driving the dance floor with his djembe and sliding out grooves on his Weissenborn-style guitar while his foot taps in earthshaking electronic kicks wherever they might fit. He is a one-man show weaving sounds that inspire audiences anywhere he goes.
From early childhood moments of drumming kitchen tables and car dashboards, to January 2008's release of his latest album, "In The Moment" Shane's musical stylings have been self-taught and self-motivated every step of the way. Borrowing from folk, reggae, blues and beyond, he blurs the boundaries of expectation and music into an altogether unique soundscape. "We are influenced by everything we listen to, see and do," Shane reminds. "So much of what shapes the music, vibe, content, and overall feeling of the songs is unconscious. I write music that results from everything that goes on in the life I live."
Visit www.ShanePhilip.com/ for more info.
|
We did come and enjoy the music, food, people and the festival this weekend. It was
awesome! The music was great, food was incredible and we left with a fistful of information and a gratifying
feeling about being part of something good.
