food

Healthy and tasty food could soon be commonplace in Canadian schools after years of neglect, advocates say. 

Herring are among the world's most common fish, making them a staple in cuisines from Sri Lanka to Scandinavia. Though they're fished in B.C., finding fresh unprocessed herring is difficult.

Tyson Marsel parked his truck in a field abutting B.C.'s Okanagan River, stepped into a pair of rubber hip waders and walked out into the smooth, frigid waters in search of salmon sperm. 

The “disastrous” way in which plastic is used in farming across the world is threatening food safety and potentially human health, according to a report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Cover crops and other key practices in organic, regenerative, and agroecological farming also help farms weather the climate crisis. In addition to keeping soils stable during floods, they protect the ground from extreme heat, which can kill important microbial ecosystems, and help retain moisture during dry spells.  

"It's been pretty nice this time around," said Kootenay Co-op general manager Ari Derfel. "We've been living in a year of emergencies and this time — seeing people just come in and get what they need and not freaking out — it's been kinda calming."

Similar scenes have played out across southern B.C. in recent days as the province grapples with an unprecedented storm that flooded Merritt, Princeton, and much of the Fraser Valley under metres of frigid, dirty water.

When Penticton, B.C., resident Katya Irwin opened her computer Tuesday afternoon to place an order at her neighbourhood grocery store, the floods and landslides wreaking havoc in other parts of the province were far from her mind. Then she noticed that dozens of commonplace items like milk and vegetables were no longer in stock. 

Countries gathered for the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, have for the first time agreed that the world must transition to more sustainable farming practices if we are to mitigate climate change and prevent millions of people from going hungry.

Food activist Rayan Kassem says action on climate change shouldn't be separated from issues like hunger which will only get worse in a warming world.

Forty-five governments led by the U.K. pledged Saturday to spend billions on transforming the world's farms, fisheries and forests in an effort to make our food more sustainable. 

With previous climate conferences coming under fire for serving unsustainable meals, the organizers of this year's United Nations meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, have highlighted efforts to serve climate-friendly meals. But critics say those measures — and the food itself — aren't enough to emphasize the urgent role food plays in saving the planet. 

When it comes to ending climate change, international climate negotiations have typically focused on ending the world's reliance on fossil fuels. Food — responsible for about a third of the world's emissions and vulnerable to a chaotic climate —has largely flown under the radar. 

Over 100 cities, towns, and other regional governments worldwide informally launched a pledge Wednesday to put food at the heart of their climate plans — even as their national counterparts have failed to do the same. 

On Tuesday, Canada backed a controversial initiative aimed at boosting countries' support for high-tech farming methods designed to reduce emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change on farms and food.