Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Neha Raj Singh, Kamloops Food Policy Council

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HERE WE GO AGAIN, again, another orbit around the sun and into Spring of 2025. The sun shines, flowers bloom, the air is filled with the sweet smell of lilacs, and little swift dandelions call the friendly insects.

At this time of the year, our side of the Earth revitalizes itself and is bursting with energy! One sees this energy as we walk along the streets of Tk̓ emlúps. People working with the land sowing seeds for flowers, herbs, food and planting thriving gardens. This is our connection to the land.

The inspiring Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer writes in their book Braiding Sweetgrass that planting a garden is where we restore our relationship between the land and people. The little pot or patch of Earth becomes the seed that gives us food and becomes the relationship to the Earth. Therefore, food is a link to the Earth and a gift to us humans.

I have my own little pots that give me herbs and vegetables. How gratifying it is to receive the bounties of the Earth. What I do not grow or process, I get from farmers that work with their land to bring our community food. What I do not process, I get from local food processors.

When we bite into an apple plucked from a tree from our backyard, in that one bite exists all these relations. Our relationship to our food and the land we live with is not transactional, it is a myriad of relations that connects those eating the food to food growers, to people that take care of animals, the land itself, the bees and birds that pollinate and give us seeds, flowers and fruits, to the air and water that is shared with all life to simply be alive, and even the microorganisms in the soil that nurture the soil. This web of relations does not end here.

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However, the universalized rhetoric of capitalism has forced upon us a transactional economic model in which food and land are considered commodities, and barcodes. But I for one refuse to accept that we are “consumers” of food and food is a thing in a packet.

In 2020, researchers Ujuaje & Chang working on community centered knowledge in their Essay on Systems of Food and Systems of Violence deep dived into understanding the term “consumers”. According to them, the word “consumer” reinforces the notion of food as a commodity and obscures the relational link between people and the earth, which exist within a network of socio-cultural and spiritual connections, where food is only one element of a broader matrix of nourishment.

I agree with this understanding of the word “consumer” that we are forced to ascribe to and I actively claim that “We are not consumers”.

You see, how can we be consumers of a commodity when through food, we are in relationship with the community of local and regional food systems? I am yet to find a fitting term and in engaging with the Kamloops Food Policy Council, we may just find an answer.

The Kamloops Food Policy Council (KFPC) is a testament to this effort towards transitioning the perception of food as a commodity to a regenerative food system that is healthy and local. Central to KFPC’s vision is to improve access to culturally relevant and local food. In particular, the KFPC is committed to this vision through its program, The Stir.

The Stir bring us local food by local people from an array of producers in Tk̓ emlúps through their Open Food Network. Through this online platform you could get healthy, gut friendly Kombucha from KMK Living Inc., Wild Sockeye from Authentic Indigenous Seafood or local affordable clean protein from Rangeland Meats.

If you are like me and have a preference for local and healthy food, then visit The Stir’s Open Food Network. Now get clicking!

The best part is that The Stir is a welcoming and collaborative space like a mycelium network which is an underground network of minute strands that connects mushrooms to its environment carrying nutrients across the network. Imagine this visual and know that the The Stir plays the role of the mycelial network, connecting growers, processors, cooks and community members in a shared regional food system for our Tk̓ emlúps community.

So, if you want to take the next step to become a food processor or need a shared kitchen space, The Stir could support you. All you have to do is reach out for support to become a potential Stir Maker.

These are precarious times we live in. Unpredictable wildfires and increasing temperatures threaten our land, food systems, salmon, and rivers. During these times, strengthening our regional food systems by connecting directly with the food growers and processors is paramount. The Stir at KFPC assures the continuous and reciprocal connection to farmers, food processors and Indigenous fish cooperatives with those purchasing local goods.

Assuring us of access to safe, healthy food at the same time, protecting the livelihood of food growers, food processors and cooks. Most importantly, keeping us all respectfully and responsibly connected to the land and food we live with through this shared mycelial network in our Tk̓ emlúps community