I don't know... but I'm sure

"Describe the biggest challenge to food
security in your own local community or country -- and an
innovative solution that is already underway."

I roll and roll Alchemy's last mission excerpt between my fingers. I'm unsure how I can answer that - I've seen many countries and many local communities, and nowhere am I now a resident. Every time people talk about "your country", I get a bit lost. My "playgrounds" are Canada and Europe, but it's not like I can single something out as being "my context".

So I close my eyes and think of what I've seen and where.

In Canada

• I've seen myself go hungry to college in Montreal when I was 17-18 because my governmental loans and bursaries were not enough for me to buy food. I've seen my brother move in with me and not having money anymore. I've seen myself register to a local food bank and not get called back because I was underaged.
• I've seen the local spirituality counsellor giving me food tickets to the school cafeteria and I could go to cla**** with a full stomach once a week. I've seen a guy in my program (not even a friend) noticing I wasn't eating well and sharing half of his mother-love-made lunch with me. I've seen his eyes full of joy to be able to share/help.
• I've seen buying groups being built in that college and got involved in it. If we buy more, especially long-lasting staple food, we end up paying much less, and sharing recipes.
• I've seen community-run collective cooking groups, where sometimes food bank resources were integrated in a collective, social activity. I've seen and experimented my first Learning Community through these groups, getting in touch with a wide range of people (single moms, older men, Cambodian refugees, fishermen, etc)
• I've eventually discovered what is called ACS in Quebec, or AMAP in France and found the idea amazing!

In Peru

• I've seen kids trying to sell candies in the street, and my group leader offering to give the rest of her food to the kid in the restaurant rather than buying it. It made me wonder for the first time about the problematics of food waste optimization.
• I've seen people working on Sundays to build out of bricks a community centre that could serve as a collective cooking (comedor popular) infrastructure. I've seen people always saying it was good for "poorer people" no matter how poor they were themselves. I've seen people stopping to work together once they had water and electricity because they felt they didn't need their community to improve their condition anymore.
• I've seen kids and other vulnerable people work at a religiously-run comedor popular in exchange for food, and getting a sense of community, thus increasing their social capital.

In Scotland

• I've seen people consuming more frozen prepared food than fresh food, because it was the cheapest option to feed their families. I've seen a danger in that people do not learn to prepare food properly, and a positive side in that vegetables such as broccolis, spinaches, were often fresher when cut and frozen than the offer we'd get for double of the price in hypermarkets further away.
• I've seen people choosing heroine and crack instead of food security.
• I've seen resource-less mothers feed their kids on chicken nuggets because they believe it's the the best option.

In Germany

• I've discovered the joys of sorting waste properly, and through community living, the extend of food waste. I dumpster-dove excellent bread in a bread factory and brought it to a Volksküche.
• I've discovered squats, communes and alternative economies such as gift economy, applied to food, waste reduction and social initiatives.

I guess I could go on and on, about other countries, about other ideas, a bit different but a bit alike...

After reading all the suggested reading, I must admit that I did not come up with a solution for Africa. I feel even less able to change things there now! But I'm sure that whatever I do here does have an impact there. I'm pretty sure there is already enough food in the world, but it's not properly managed. I'm sure people shouldn't endanger their food security to produce export food for the North. I'm sure that my direct action in optimizing waste educates me and my acquaintances, and makes us aware of what we consume. I'm sure that a local, diversified production empower people to support themselves.


I'm quite doubtful about market economy in regards of food - what can't be sold is directly wasted or given to charity, which isn't empowering people either. What is the community would deliberately manage unsellable food collectively?