Growing with Green Iglu - From the Arctic to Ontario

https://www.greeniglu.com/news/food-sustainability-in-the-north/

Huge thank you to Dr. Wendy Cukier from Green Iglu for joining us today!

Transcript

0:00

Imagine yourself standing in some of the coldest parts of the world. Harsh winter plants do not grow outside many times of the year. And then you step into a geodome full of lush growing food. Keep this visual in mind as we chat today. I'm talking with Dr. Wendy Suer. She's speaking on behalf of a nonprofit called Green Igloo. Green Igloo is bringing fresh food sources to communities across Canada who are either battling food insecurity or are wanting to foster a deeper connection to where their food comes from. And I'm so glad we're having this conversation because Canada is the second largest country in the world by land area after Russia for perspective. It's bigger than the entire European Union combined and is around the same size as the US and Mexico put together. You could fit the UK inside Canada more than 40 times, and specifically in Northern Canada where we'll be talking about different communities who literally live at the Arctic Circle. There are thousands, tens of thousands, over a hundred thousand people who live up in these really cold parts of Canada who do not necessarily have access to the same kind of food that you and I do. Let me tell you. When you're walking into the grocery store next and you're looking around and seeing foods of all kinds of all shapes and sizes and colors from all over the world, and there's endless bounty, so much food waste, these communities are not experiencing that. Many towns are small, ranging from a few hundred people to a few thousand people. A large portion of the population is indigenous, so they do have traditional practices like hunting and fishing and trapping that are still very significant to their food sovereignty. And there's a strong sense of community where neighbors rely on each other in ways that many city dwellers often don't but due to these colder environments, a lot of these people have not experienced gardening in a way that a lot of listeners have just known as commonplace their whole life. These are important regions of the world to have conversations about on the Global Stewardship Podcast. My goal is to highlight all kinds of people like Green Igloo, whose mission is to connect people with technologies and infrastructure that will help them grow the food they need to restore food sovereignty and resilience to their communities. Even during the coldest of cold winter months, green igloo is hard at work expanding across Canada into other parts of the country as well, which is a fascinating conversation. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Wendy Suer, who is passionately sharing with us how they're continuing their mission to increase food security, provide education, support, community engagement, and help hundreds of families access fresh nutrient dense fruits and vegetables.

Audio Only - All Participants: 2:47

My name's Wendy Sker and I'm a professor at what is now Toronto Metropolitan University. And I remember, um, when I was the Vice President of Research and Innovation, a couple of second year students made an appointment to come and see me. And of them was, born in rural Canada and had some experience as a farmer. The other had been, an immigrant from, uh, Argentina, and they were in second year business. And they decided that they wanted to build greenhouses in Northern Canada in order to address food insecurity. And this was a project that they were starting, as part of, an enactus. Competition, And I remember at the time trying so hard to keep a straight face because, I, I couldn't. Possibly imagine that these two kids who had no experience in the north, no experience with indigenous peoples could make this a go. Well, fast forward, it's now 13 years later, they initially created an organization called, growing North. Which was a nonprofit growing North, won a Google Innovation prize. It was selected by Boston Consulting Group as a social innovation they wanted to invest time and effort into, and a few years ago. Both the founders, uh, Stephanie Nieto and Ben Canning, decided to restructure the organization. So they created a charitable arm, which is the green igloo portion and a for-profit arm, which is called Arctic Acres. So. In short, I got involved, in Green Igloo at its very outset, partly against my, my instincts because, I thought it was such an audacious goal for young people to imagine undertaking. I couldn't see how they could possibly be successful, but I still agreed. Uh, to be on the board and, I've been the chair of the board for quite some time now and, you know, it's one of the, the best decisions I ever made. Wow. Wow. In spite of myself. amazing. What were some of the challenges that you, could foresee when they pitched this crazy idea to you? Why did you initially think, oh, this is too lofty of a goal. Well, because, you know, I, I lead the Diversity Institute and I'm really aware of, context and the principles of nothing about us without us. And I know how challenging it is to work with indigenous communities when you're not indigenous or you haven't spent years building relationships. So I guess that was the first, sort of red flag for me and Stephanie and Ben said, oh no, we've, we've made contact with the community. They've invited us in. They've got some funding, they wanna work with us. My second concern was the technology itself, because while greenhouses are well established, obviously in, in southern Ontario, I grew up in, uh, Niagara. So, we're kind of the, the food basket of the country in some respects. But the challenges around access to electricity, having access to the skilled help that you needed to actually run such a project. Especially because their plan was to sort of go and set the projects up and then turn them over the, to the community. So I think the. Sticks and the technical aspects of constructing and running greenhouses, to me, looked incredibly daunting. And you know, I, I confess that. I tend to associate expertise with age, and they were just so young and in experience I didn't really see how they could pull it all together, but they were really smart. Um, they knew how to build relationships. They knew how to build relationships with community. They knew how to build relationships with technical experts. They knew how to pull together a board of quite, well established, well connected people who could help them build their connections even, even more. And they had a vision, they had a passion, and they had the confidence of youth. So it didn't even occur to them that they wouldn't be successful.

7:25

Wow. Yeah. I can totally relate to the naivety of a young person and how sometimes it works to our advantage. Can you help listeners picture the climate and environment in these places? You did talk about the food insecurity, but really what sparked the creation of Green Igloo in the first place?

Audio Only - All Participants: 7:43

Well, I think, their motivation was based on, the understanding that food insecurity. It was a problem across Canada and it's a growing problem, uh, not just in northern communities, but in large communities as well. But I think what really got their attention was the unaffordability of food and particularly fresh produce in the north. Because if you look at the, the landscape of food insecurity in Canada, it's highest in, in the north, I mean overall in Canada it's about 24%. Now, in the Yukon, it's about the national average, but in none of it, it's 62% of residents don't have reliable access to affordable food. In the territories, it's 36%. And I think, just the cost of food, the inaccessibility of food, was really a big motivator for them. Of course, the challenges of building in remote communities are massive because there's a very small window, um, during the year. At least initially. Now they've developed greenhouses. They can grow, um, 12 months a year. But initially they were looking at greenhouses, that would grow only in the summer months. Well, it's only in the summer months you can build. And in many cases there was no access to even ship in the components, the parts, and so on until about may. Or June. So your actual timeframe for getting all the materials in there. Getting the greenhouse built up and running training people and having even a few weeks of growing the first season was really challenging. And that also led them to explore all kinds of innovations, including. Solar energy year round, production opportunities and so on. And now we're looking at really interesting, technologies with, uh, artificial intelligence and remote sensors and all kinds of things. But as I said, their vision was really motivated by what they saw as a, as an acute need and a solution that. That they devised. Now, to be fair, there are other organizations that have been building, uh, community greenhouses in the north. There are quite a few now, but, certainly green igloos, uh, I think, unique approach includes a lot of wraparound supports. Such as training, as well as, skills development in the communities. So it's not like they airlift in all the talent. They take a team in, but then they try to build local capacity as well, not just, to support the construction, but also the growing and the, the tending and the training that goes along with the greenhouses. That's so key. I talk to many people who have done similar projects like this all around the globe, and they don't always follow up. And so that is such a crucial part of the conversation and a crucial part of the work that you guys are doing. Could you share a little bit about what these greenhouses look like because listeners may not be familiar with the setup and. The training, all that goes into Green Igloos mission. Can you give an overarching view of that so that listeners can better understand and picture it? Sure. So, so, a lot of the initial greenhouses that were built were geo domes. It was a special, uh, design that Arctic Acres. Acres, um. Distributes in, in Canada, but they moved into all kinds of other greenhouses, and some much larger scale. For example, the ones associated with the Red Deer Food Bank are much larger, more traditional. Models. So essentially you have to get a greenhouse in many of these communities, you have to actually ship in the soil, not just the fertilizer and the seeds, but actually the soil, because there's, there's no growing material, uh, locally. So you have to get all the materials into the community. You have to build it. They require electricity, they require access to water, all sorts of other things. So you have to negotiate with the local community, how they're going to have access to those kinds of facilities. And as I mentioned, there were a number of experiments with different kinds of energy to make them more. Self-sufficient. So you have to go in, you first, you have to build the relationships and get invited in. Then you have to go in, you have to train local workers to help construct the greenhouses. You have to train people locally to grow the plants. And one of the things, and of course this should have occurred to us, but in some communities, the concept of a plant. Very alien. There's very little access to plants as we would know them, and certainly plants that produce even berries. And so the, the, the notion that plants have to be cared for, intended to, and you can't leave for two weeks to go hunting and come back and expect the plants to still be alive, was, was a real eye-opener. And as a result, the kind of training had to start at a very basic level. The kind of community engagement was absolutely critical because you wanted the community to take ownership of the greenhouse, whether it was as, as a, a source of food or whether it was as a source of education. It was really important that this be owned by the community because then the community. Would, ensure its ongoing success. If there's not community buy-in to keep it going, the plants will die and it will just become a derelict building. So. The community buy-in engagement. Ownership was, was super important. And trying to figure out how to adapt the work schedules and requirements to local culture was also an issue because, the hours that were required and the, uh, regularity of those hours and so on. Were in some of the most in need and remote communities, very alien concepts. So in some cases, it made more sense to hire people who were already working, for example, in the local supermarket or a local facility that had regular hours. Of operation and expectations and get them to work part-time. Then to try to take people who had no experience with, with that sort of employment and, help them understand what was required. Because many of the places that most need access. To community-based greenhouses, for example, are people who don't have the sort of, lived experience and knowledge that someone who grew up on a farm or someone who grew up in a big house with a big backyard garden. Would have. Right. And, and that's why we're not just interested in, in the North, but we're also interested in urban, community greenhouses. And we work with a organization in Toronto called Scouting Core, which is community center. But they have a really interesting circular, uh, economy where they have, aquaculture, which feeds the, the aquaponics, which feed the greenhouse, a community kitchen and and so on. So they have a whole little ecosystem where they can bring in people, many of them immigrants, living in very dense. Social housing and expose them to the, the beauty and the wonder of growing plants and, and engaging in community-based agriculture. So these issues are not unique to the north, but the way in which they present themselves is, is different in the north than in other areas. So how do you see those communities in the north taking that initiative? Like how do they balance learning to grow with their traditional practices of hunting and finding food? Well, it's, you know, there's a, there's a long list we've actually started to try to better document the, the range of projects in different communities. And there's quite a long list, from, yellow knife to Red Deer to, um. Small, small communities in Nunavut to, some of the communities include Washoe First Nation, uh, Ken Gate, Nelson House, uh, in Manitoba, Wiji in, um, Quebec, uh, village in New Brunswick, red Deer, I already mentioned Nty in, um. Newfoundland Labrador and and many others. And I think the impact varies depending on what the community wants. So in some places, they are really maximizing food production and it is making a difference in terms of providing access to fresh fruit and vegetables. In other communities, the focus is much more on learning. And so there are a number of projects that are much more connected to K to 12 education and trying to bring, you know, the student studies of science and biology to life with real world examples and experience in the greenhouses. As I said, there have been over 30 projects that have been built, and we're currently in the process of doing a more robust, uh, evaluation. But some of the bigger producing, greenhouses tend to be the ones that are associated with, for example, a food bank or a community center.

18:06

Yeah, that makes sense. So what does food sovereignty actually mean to the Green Igloo team? Like how do you see Green Igloo helping communities reclaim food sovereignty?

Audio Only - All Participants: 18:18

Well, I think food sovereignty really is tied to self-governance, and so the notion is not just, control and management and access to food, it's also deciding what kind of food is most appropriate. And that's what's quite important with some of the projects. We're currently involved in where the local communities decide what it is that they want to grow. And I mentioned as well that we provide a service and go in and help organizations, set up the greenhouse, provide some training, but really. The ownership of the project and the greenhouse is the community. So we don't go in and and set these up because we decide someone wants it. We go in places we're invited into. So I think, you know, sovereignty is really about governance and control. And I think giving, communities more options is one way to get there. And that's why I think this is important, not just for First Nations and Northern communities. Also, frankly, for, communities living in urban deserts, food deserts where there's no access to affordable food or where people are on fixed incomes or reliant on food banks. Yeah. And learning how to grow, takes. I think as well the notion of sovereignty to another level because it actually gives individual agency to people. So they may learn the processes in the greenhouse, which you know is community sovereignty, but then they can make choices. In, in terms of their own, growing habits. Whether they decide to have a small indoor garden or whether they decide to create a vertical garden, or whether they decide to have a personal greenhouse. You know, there are lots of different ways in which individuals can also exercise, control. And, you know, we're seeing more and more in urban settings. We're seeing more and more. Technology enabled solutions that really are increasing the production capacity of very small, areas, as well as obviously all the indoor vertical, uh, gardening options. So I think for people who don't. As I said, have the experience of growing up on a farm or growing up in a home with a big backyard and a garden where there were, you know, tomatoes and cucumbers and it was just part of the family's, seasonal activities. I think it provides exposure to a whole new way of thinking about food. I think the other thing, and this is more related to future skills than to green ink loop, but the other thing that we know is the agriculture sector in Canada is. More critical today than it ever was before because of the issues around the, the, the trade wars and rising prices and sustainability of Canada relies on coming up with new solutions to enhance our national. Food sovereignty to reduce our dependence on other countries, for food, as well as to increase the opportunities we have to export. And one of the things we know from working in the agriculture sector. Is they have a critical labor shortage. And so, part of what has been identified is the shifting population in Canada includes generations of people who don't have experience homesteading or farming, you know, people, my generation were almost all, one degree of separation away from farming. My mother grew up on a farm, my grandparents gardened, you know, and grew produce in our backyard using every available inch. And that was typical of my generation that is not at all typical of my daughter's generation. And so without that experience, people often have stereotypes. Of agriculture and farming. They don't know about the extent to which technology is transforming it. They think of farming as a man on a tractor, and we know that there are huge opportunities for diverse populations, for people with technical skills and so on. So again, from my perspective, the opportunities here in exposing people to the experience of growing. Produce goes way beyond their personal needs or even their community needs. It actually can create pathways to long-term employment and help address the problems we have with, uh, with agriculture. And we know that the percentage of indigenous farmers is increasing significantly the percentage of women, not just jointly owning farms, but owning farms on their own is increasing significantly. So I think that's, for me is part of the big picture as well.

23:31

100%. We need to see more diverse farming populations. And I think especially in Canada, I always picture Canada as being very diverse in terms of in relation to other countries around the world. And I really appreciate this conversation because it's important that we educate ourselves on how to welcome these people, how to have these conversations and invite others into farming and prioritize those relationships at the beginning of this episode. You know, you'd shared how the initial two young people with this vision were really good at forming those relationships, whether it was with the northern communities, indigenous communities, or now with people, like you said, international communities in more urban settings. Are there any words of wisdom that you could offer that would, I don't know, just help us. Have those cross-cultural conversations, invite people in without feeling like we're just forcing this food, growing thing on them.

Audio Only - All Participants: 24:35

It's interesting because, the more I explain sort of my, my, uh, my, uh, reluctant entry into this whole area, but as I've been doing more research, one of the things that has become very clear to me is that, there's more and more research about the psychological benefits of engaging with nature. I'm sure you and your. Listeners are familiar with that and mm-hmm. When you think about the value of getting involved with vertical gardens or greenhouses or agriculture or growing generally, I think it's important to meet people where they are and try to figure out what it is that would appeal to them. I mean, one of the things that I learned recently, for example, is that a lot of retirement homes are building greenhouses. Why? Because the aging boomers, you know, my generation and older had that experience as young people either living on farms or having gardens, and it's a good way of keeping them, in touch with nature. It has social benefits, et cetera, et cetera. Well, that's very different than if you're trying to engage, you know, grade three students. In a project, that's very different if you're trying to work with the inner city versus the far north. Obviously there are different issues and some of them, to me, food security is clearly one of them. You eat what you grow. That is, that is a clear benefit. But I think there are a lot of other, social and psychological and educational and career. Oriented advantages that may resonate with some people. In, in different ways. So I think, and I do think the absolute worst thing that we can do is trying to impose, um, you know, is preach Western notions of diet and food as the driver for this. I think it really is important to meet people where they are and that requires. Listening that requires research, that requires spending time. And I do think that the successes that Green and Glue has had, were very much a function of that attention to local needs, respecting local decision making, timeframes, priorities, et cetera, and really focusing on the relationships.

27:07

That was a beautiful response. Yeah, there's just, there's so much more to growing your own food than just the food. So I like the idea of approaching it from an education standpoint and a mental health standpoint. We've seen so many times, so many places around the world trying to impose our views about nutrition and diet and how it's all gone wrong. But yeah, so true that it empowers communities in so many ways beyond just diet for sure. Um, what ways do you see food access in, whether it's these remote Canadian communities like you said, or urban food spaces, how are you seeing these issues with food access there reflecting global food system injustices.

Audio Only - All Participants: 27:53

Really, it's a really good question. I think, you know, there are two factors that that affect access to food. The, the most important one is poverty. And there's a very strong relationship between poverty and access to food globally. That that's foundational. And then there is also the issue of access to arable land and climate or technology. What's interesting to me is. Especially in the spirit of truth and reconciliation. Uh, some organizations are actually looking at giving back to indigenous communities through. Providing greenhouses, arable land, et cetera, et cetera, on institutional, properties. So for example, the University of Toronto has created indigenous spaces for growing. As well as healing and other things. And so to me that's, that's more Canadian than global. But it's an interesting, kind of twist on how to think about truth and reconciliation as more than, you know, recognizing, events or even looking at, um, indigenizing curriculum or providing scholarships to indigenous students, but actually thinking about giving back land effectively, to indigenous people. So that's one of the innovative things that I've seen. We know that globally food insecurity is, is massive and it's affected, as I said, by poverty. It's affected by access to land and technology, and clearly it's affected by, the geopolitical environment. And we're seeing that with the trade wars. We're seeing that with, warfare and, and the impact of that is often famine on local communities. And, and those are not solutions in my view, that can be, created without addressing the fundamentals. So, um. political, conflicts. Um mm-hmm. Because we've, you know, the war in Ukraine has completely disrupted, grain production and supply as well as other things. And clearly the war in the Middle East is leading to mass starvation so, um. Those are things that building a greenhouse is not going to, is not going to address. But some of the issues around poverty and, uh, supply chains, et cetera, I think can be addressed in part with technology and community-based, agriculture. And we do see it, you know, the Scandinavian countries. Are very advanced in this. The Netherlands has, I think, more greenhouses per capita than anywhere else in the world. There are lots of of countries, some of them much, much smaller than ours, with much, much less arable land than ours that are finding ways to, provide better access. To growing for more people. And so I think we're doing a reasonable job, but when you think about the size of Canada and the unused arable land and the extent of food insecurity, to me it's fairly obvious that we can do a better job. Yeah, those were some great examples. I am wondering if you could picture your dream utopian use of the arable land that's currently not being used in Canada. Do. Kind of have an idealistic vision for how that could be utilized. You know, I am, I'm, uh, as I explained at the outset, you know, two second year students were way smarter than me, and I studied history before I studied technology, so I'm not so good at looking at the future, but I do think. As we're talking about building Canada, as we're talking about becoming more secure and sustainable, I worry that there is a focus on the industries that are being directly targeted. Uh, particularly steel, you know, aluminum, copper, manufacturing. We've heard a little bit about agriculture particularly, some of the sectors, but I don't know that people are thinking big picture in terms of agriculture and reclaiming our legacy as a farming nation. And, I mean thinking about farming as, an important, critical, but also attractive option. Not, not, not just for people who are born in Canada, but I've seen massive opportunities for immigrants, and it's only been fairly recently that a lot of the organizations that I work with are starting to look at. Opportunities for immigrants to do more than be, temporary foreign workers, but actually to, to buy farms, to run farms. Instead of buying a Tim Horton's franchise in downtown Toronto, why not look at taking over a family farm in Bolton or something? Because we know that succession in agriculture, in, in farming communities is a massive problem because typically what happens is. The family AMAs wealth and as soon as they amass wealth, the kids leave to to do something else. And I know so many successful tech entrepreneurs, real estate, moguls, doctors, lawyers, and so on who grew up on farms. And it sort of begs the question then who's taking over those family farms? And so I think we have to have a national strategy for. Preserving and extending. Farming as a, as a, a, not just a lifestyle, but a business opportunity. And we need to position it that way, uh, especially when we see, the potential of technology to dramatically increase. Productivity and, you know, I, I read somewhere that someone's growing oranges now in Newfoundland and I thought that is an excellent example of how we can become more self-sufficient. Wow. That's crazy. I don't know if that makes sense, but That's me is definitely like, obviously Greeny Glue is very focused on, on, um. On the north and on, community greenhouses but I think we need to really be thinking about a national agriculture strategy that is much broader than, we currently have, and I think it has to be mainstream. You know, I do a lot of work with, uh, industry science, economic Development, Canada, and they're preoccupied with tech. Everybody's preoccupied with tech and manufacturing and e vehicles and so on. We need to make sure that agriculture is centered. In those discussions, along with infrastructure and other things, and that we're addressing the succession issues, we're addressing the labor shortages, we're addressing the need for technological, um, adoption because. Some, some farms are more high tech than high tech companies. Like if you look at the use of robots, if you look at the, the use of internet of things, if you look at the use of artificial intelligence, I mean, it was 10 years ago, people were talking about how, facial recognition and artificial intelligence technologies were being used to make sure the sheep in Scotland were happy. You know, it's, it's like the potential of the technology to improve. Agricultural productivity is unbelievable, but I don't think we're paying enough attention to that or investing in the infrastructure that's required to really move that forward. And also to really push the boundaries on what is arable land, right? Because we've demonstrated that you can create arable land in none. Mm-hmm. I admire your use. You used the word attractive that agriculture needs to be more attractive. It is obviously very imperative that the next generation does find farming more attractive as a career choice and in, and an investment. And, um, I haven't always heard, heard that word used to describe the need, but it's, it's true. People need to find, find it an attractive. Uh, avenue. Also, with the conversation of food security, we surely can't put farming on the back burner. The, when we focus on all of these other ventures and business avenues, at the end of the day, food is what fuels us to do all of those things. And so when we're not food secure, it's like it's almost kind of wasted to do all of this other work on other things and not grow food for ourselves. Very fascinating. What's the other angle on that? Hannah? I was at a conference and I can, I can't remember who said it, but I thought it was really interesting. They argued that Canada is known for exporting a lot of natural resources and food. Okay. And exporting the raw materials effectively to other countries that then manufacture products and sell them back to us. And so that's another, we need to invest more in agriculture. We need to, get people thinking about it as attractive, but we also need to think about food processing. Mm-hmm. And, and the potential of food manufacturing as a really, really important industry up there with auto making. Because if we can not just grow the food, but also process. The food and the way we do, like, we do a lot of that with fish, I think. But that also creates, an even stronger economic imperative for, moving this forward and export opportunities to countries other than the ones south of the border. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. That is such a huge conversation for farmers and organizations who are listening. How can they partner with or support Green Igloos work going forward? And maybe can you share some more of what's ahead for Green Igloo and the projects that are upcoming? Sure. Well, the first thing I wanna say is green. Igloo is spelled green and IGLU, which is the Inuit, uh, form of igloo. So it's G-R-E-E-N. IGLU. Very important to remember that. yes.com so you can visit the website. Obviously we're charity, so charities always want donations, but even more than that, we would love partners, communities that might be interested in partnering with us on projects, communities that might be entrusted in accessing some of the learning and the training that's available. Um, communities that may not have resources right now to build a greenhouse, and by communities I don't just mean, you know, a village or a city. I mean, you know, it may be the, it may be the Punjabi community in Brampton that wants a greenhouse to grow something or other. Um, one of the things that is. Important to us is helping organizations get the resources that they need to move forward. So we can always start a conversation on that. We're always looking for volunteers and, people to spread the word. So lots of ways that organizations can partner with us or other partners. And as I said, green Igloo is also working very closely with the. Future skills center to try to help build more of a national, perspective on community greenhouses and their role in a national agricultural, strategy. So certainly if folks have projects that they wanna tell us about, we'd love to hear about those too. That's awesome. I meant to ask this earlier, but. If every listener took one step today toward food justice or sovereignty, what would you want that step to be? Well, the easiest thing to say is donate to the food bank. Everyone who can afford to should be donating to their local organizations that are, committed to creating food security. But I think, even more important is the advocacy. I say this as someone who's been working on political issues for a long time, and I remember really clearly going to one of the G eight side meetings when there had been a lot of protests. And I said to the room, how many of you were in Seattle at the protests? And they all put up their hand. And how many of you were in Quebec City? And they all put up their hand. And then I said, and how many of you know who your local member of Parliament is? And they all looked at their feet. Right. And I would say the single most important thing to do at this moment in time, if you think these issues are important, is to educate yourself and communicate to your local member of Parliament that you want this on the national agenda. That you want a national agricultural strategy that takes into account, community. Greenhouses and vertical farming and the full range of opportunities to advance food security for Canadians and that should be part of the national project. And you don't, quite honestly, members of parliament typically don't hear from a lot of constituents. They might get spammed by mass mailings or they get petitions or certain interest groups show up at their door. But if food security is something that you're really interested in, or you want to drive the creation of a project in your community, you need to communicate with your local officials. Whether that's your member of parliament, or your city counselor or the equivalent, and get them thinking about this, because frankly, to me it's so obvious now that we have to think about these issues. And yet, if you read the paper, how often do you see articles about agriculture? As opposed to electric vehicles and manufacturing and what's happening to aluminum and copper. We just don't hear a lot about agriculture and we need to really reclaim that heritage and make sure that we have a future, for Canadian farmers at all levels. The important thing is to make sure that this is on the radar of all parties and all federal politicians. And it doesn't matter if you live in the prairies or Niagara. Anywhere in the country, literally. There are issues around agriculture and food security that need to be addressed, and it's only if people speak out that we will, move that forward.

43:55

For sure. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm excited to share the word about what Green Igloo is doing and yeah, like you said, I believe advocacy is one of the most important things we can be doing. These are the conversations we need to be having. I think I say that every single episode, but I just would love to inspire people around, not only Canada, but it's the Global Stewardship Podcast, so people who are listening from all over the world, even if it's not necessarily greenhouses. I know this interview will inspire people to do what they can where they live and might spark some curiosity or imagination in someone to build something to go for it and do the thing that seemed like a crazy idea at the onset. And so I appreciate you being part of that conversation today and am just so excited to hear what people think about it.

Audio Only - All Participants: 44:43

Thanks so much Hannah, and I hope you'll stay in touch'cause there's lots, lots more to do. Definitely. Thank

44:49

Please join me in giving a big heartfelt thank you to Dr. Wendy Suki and Green Igloo for sharing their experience on today's episode of the Global Stewardship Podcast. As we start to. Open Up talks about how to restore food security to communities. It's important to have these conversations of respecting local lifestyles and connection to land and things like hunting, fishing, gathering that are not just food sources but are cultural lifelines to people. And I loved the ideas of implementing more of these things in urban settings as well, and how to extend that invitation in a way that is perceived well by the community and that people want to get on board with. Thank you for tuning into another Tuesday of the Global Stewardship Podcast. I would just appreciate your feedback. As always, every single message that I. Makes my week and your feedback is crucial to me to know how to continue and move forward with this show. If you have any guest ideas or recommendations, please do send those as well. You can text me directly through the podcast description. There's a little link to click kind of thing. Uh, but as always, feel free to message me on social media. It's Hannah at the Gardens, and I hope that you join me again next Tuesday.