[Pil-pc-oceania] At last a positive (mainstream) response

[Ilan G]

This is a real good news story from Canada, companies selling vegetable 
seeds to home gardeners are reporting record demand, I like the last 
sentence:
> "Enormous changes are afoot," he says.


from:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2008/05/05/ZeroMileDiet/print.html
>
>
>   'Zero Mile Diet' Blooms in BC
>   <http://thetyee.ca/News/2008/05/05/ZeroMileDiet/>
>
>
>     'Dramatic' rise in food gardens, say seed vendors.
>
> View full article and comments here 
> http:///News/2008/05/05/ZeroMileDiet/ 
> <http://thetyee.ca/News/2008/05/05/ZeroMileDiet/>
>
>
>         By James Glave <http://thetyee.ca/Bios/James_Glave>
>
>
>         Published: May 5, 2008
>
>
>       TheTyee.ca
>
> Against a backdrop of global food shortages and the spectre of five 
> dollar lettuce at the checkout, there are signs that more Western 
> Canadians are tearing up their lawns this spring to plant vegetable 
> gardens.
>
> It's still early in the planting season, but the region's organic-seed 
> distributors report a dramatic increase in business.
>
> "We put out the catalog at the beginning of January, as we always do" 
> says Jeanette McCall, a sales representative at West Coast Seeds, 
> based in Delta, B.C.
>
> "Then, boom. We had many, many, many more orders than we anticipated. 
> [Our computer system] simply couldn't handle the load," she adds. "It 
> just sort of crashed."
>
> It's the same story at Salt Spring Seeds, which specializes in 
> heritage and heirloom vegetable varieties.
>
> "I've never seen the likes of this in over 20 years of selling seeds," 
> confirmed owner Dan Jason.
>
> "The phone calls, e-mails, letters, seed orders are relentless. 
> Everyone wants to grow food now. So many people are attempting gardens 
> for the first time."
>
> Meanwhile, Helene Waugh, co-owner of Sea Soil, a popular brand of 
> bagged organic compost made in Port McNeil, on northern Vancouver 
> Island, says that her business has "increased dramatically" over last 
> year.
>
> "We can't keep up," Waugh says.
>
> *'I think they get it'*
>
> McCall reports that her company, which was launched a quarter-century 
> back, has seen "many thousands" of new customers this spring, and that 
> staff are working seven days a week to process orders manually.
>
> "We typically sell to people who own their own home, but this is 
> different. These are young people who are very interested in food 
> gardening. I think they get it."
>
> What they're getting, local-eating advocates say, is a clearer picture 
> of the connections between food, climate, and petroleum -- driven by 
> news of an emerging global food crisis.
>
> The current shortages are driven by a combination of factors, 
> including the high price of oil, unusually severe weather impacting 
> crops, population growth, and the conversion of maize into biofuels. 
> Though the pinch has yet to be widely felt in Canada, reports are 
> emerging in the United States that some big-box retailers are 
> apparently limiting sales of rice.
>
> All of this uncertainty is manifesting itself in a renewed and 
> expanded commitment to /locavorism/ 
> <http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views06/1009-24.htm>, 
> says Alisa Smith, co-author with James MacKinnon of the national 
> best-seller /100 Mile Diet/, which grew out of their series launched 
> on The Tyee <http://thetyee.ca/Life/2005/06/28/HundredMileDiet/>.
>
> "We have seen a steady increase in the number of subscribers to the 
> 100-Mile Diet Society web site <http://100milediet.org/home/> over the 
> last two years, with B.C. our single biggest block of people and 
> Vancouver the largest city in terms of subscribers in North America," 
> reports Smith.
>
> *'Zero Mile Diet'*
>
> The director of a Vancouver non-profit urban-agriculture group 
> suggests that the eat-local movement may have reached a new tipping point.
>
> "There is definitely a buzz and an interest," observes City Farmer's 
> Michael Levenston. "We are busy seven days a week; our classes are 
> full, our phone is ringing. There is certainly a great interest 
> generated in city farming and urban agriculture."
>
> "Someone here said, 'This is trendy,' and trendy can be a good thing," 
> adds Levenston. "There may be a new generation of food gardeners, and 
> I think that's very exciting."
>
> Salt Spring Seeds owner Dan Jason is equally stoked to be riding the 
> home-grown wave. Jason has completely sold out his stock of "Zero Mile 
> Diet" seed kits -- a collection of bean, grain, and other seeds 
> tailored to help this region's people grow most of their own food.
>
> "Enormous changes are afoot," he says.
>
> *Related Tyee stories:*
>
>     * Lure of the Urban Veggie Garden
>       <http://thetyee.ca/Life/2006/05/19/UrbanGarden/>
>       Digging for love, money, fame and sex appeal.
>     * Let's Pave Streets Green
>       <http://thetyee.ca/Views/2008/03/26/GreenStreets/>
>       Would you give up your extra parking spot for a garden plot?
>     * Social Fertilizer
>       <http://thetyee.ca/Life/2006/09/12/UrbanAgriculture/>
>       The big growth potential of urban agriculture.
>
> James Glave's first book, /Almost Green: How I Built an Eco-Shed, 
> Ditched My SUV, Alienated the In-laws, and Changed My Life Forever/ 
> (Greystone, $22) will be released in August.
>

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