About The Food Democracy Network Society
Mission: to work together to eliminate hunger and create food security for all residents of British Columbia.
- Food security requires a sustainable food system in which:
- everyone is able to acquire, in a dignified manner, adequate quantity and quality of personally acceptable food;
- people are able to earn a living wage by growing, producing, processing, handling, retailing and serving food;
- the quality of land, air and water, the well-being of animals, and the integrity of plants and seeds are maintained and enhanced for future generations; and
- food is recognized as the basis of health and celebrated as central to family, community and cultural integrity.
- We recognize that food is essential to life and is therefore a human right. It is also a gift from the Creator so that both the food and its sources must be honoured.
- We encourage initiatives to reclaim local ownership of community food systems and develop food self-reliance by sharing food, information, skills, and resources.
- We develop and advocate policies to redesign food and related systems that contribute to hunger or are unsustainable. This includes food production, processing, transport or retail; it also includes health, welfare, education, institutions, economics, and trade.
- We work to ensure that the voices of grassroots organizations and marginalized groups are heard in the process of policy formation at all levels.
- We link provincially, nationally and internationally with organizations and networks committed to the same goals.
- Our network therefore includes people who experience hunger and food insecurity, who produce food, who work to protect the environment, and who develop policy frameworks that foster food security for the whole population. We link provincially, nationally and internationally with organizations and networks committed to the same goals.
- The BC Food Systems Network is a non-profit organization.
- Membership (and access to our electronic list serve) is open to anyone who supports our mission and democratic, inclusive process.Click here to download the Membership Form.
- We have a Board of Directors who are responsible for providing leadership to the Network and support to its members in their work towards a just and sustainable food system in British Columbia.
The Board of Directors elected for 2007-8 are (information in brackets for identification purposes only):
- Harmony Barrer (Activist, Coastal BC)
- Jessica Chenery (FoodShare / WeFeast, Nanaimo)
- Jen Cody (Tillicum Haus - Building Better Babies, Nanaimo)
- Janine De La Salle (Holland Barrs, Vancouver)
- Paddy Doherty (Farmer, Quesnel)
- Jessica Duncan (Student, Victoria)
- Jen McMullen (Lifecycles Project Society, Victoria)
- Dawn Morrison (Lake Secwepemc community programs, Chase)
- Heather Pritchard (FarmFolk/CityFolk, Vancouver)
- Chaya Ransen (HEAL Program/REACH, Vancouver)
- Cliff Stainsby (BCGEU, Cobble Hill)
- Mary Swendson (Moricetown Band Health Centre - Wet'suwet'en)
If you wish to become a member of the Network, download the Membership Form, fill it out and send it to the Communications Co-ordinator as listed below. General inquiries and correspondence to the Network should also be send to the Communications Co-ordinator, Abra Brynne:
- by emailing: info (a) fooddemocracy.org [change (a) to @ in your email program]
- by phone: 1.250.357.0026
- by mail: c/o Abra Brynne, Box 578, Salmo BC, Canada V0G 1Z0