Want to know more about the pros and cons of raising chickens in the city, or have an opinion about it? Or interested in a thought-provoking evening out? The Canadian Agriculture Museum is holding a Café Scientifique on Raising Chickens in the City: Human Right or Health Risk? It’s at the Fox and Feather Pub, 283 Elgin St. on Tuesday, November 29 2011 at 6 p.m.

Current municipal by-laws don’t permit chicken-raising in urban Ottawa, but some people think changing the by-laws could be a sustainable way to support local food. Others have concerns about adverse effects like health risks or noise. The Canadian Agriculture Museum says the Café will “explore all perspectives” as well as being an opportunity for “drinks, discussion and debate.”

The Ottawa organization Just Food is made up of a hardworking group of people who’ve been gathering some innovative ideas about how to make Ottawa’s food system healthier, more sustainable and accessible to everyone.

Many of us are trying to eat food that’s more nutritious, more local or grown more sustainably. And many Ottawa families can’t afford healthy food, according to the City of Ottawa. The Ottawa Food Bank helps address the gap, serving about 43,000 people a month. But it’s not a long-term solution.

Just Food has spent the last couple of years talking with Ottawa residents and food experts of different backgrounds about ways to bring about “Food for All.” In June they announced a Food Action Plan for Ottawa. The Plan consists of proposals on a range of issues. Ideas include improving access to land for community gardens, encouraging public institutions to “buy local,” bringing healthy food to schools, corner stores and transportation hubs, strengthening Ottawa’s local food-processing and distribution infrastructure, and enhancing income supports for people who need them. (These and more proposals are on Just Food’s website.)

The proposals “aren’t set in stone,” says Just Food, and they’re hoping that people will comment, and participate in “Kitchen Table Talks” coming up January through March next year.

Just Food is currently looking for people to help run the Kitchen Table Talks, and is offering training sessions for prospective animators. Three training sessions are scheduled so far, on November 21 at the Sandy Hill Community Centre, November 29 at the Centretown Community Health Centre, or December 5 at the Nepean, Rideau, Osgoode Community Resource Centre. You can check out the Just Food website for details and how to register.

Stay tuned for announcements about the Kitchen Table Talks themselves, and do check out the Food Action Plan proposals online.

Judging by the number of food-related events that keep coming up in Ottawa, more and more people are interested in sustainable, local and healthy food options—and they have more support than ever. Here are some events taking place this week:

Sustainable Food for Thought

CUSO-VSO hosts a discussion on sustainable farming with panellists from Nigeria, Southeast Asia and Ottawa. It’s Tuesday, November 15, 7-9 p.m. at the Cube Gallery, 1285 Wellington St. W. Free (suggested donation $5). Information at http://www.cuso-vso.org/event/34054/sustainable-food-for-thought—-ottawa.

Resilient Kitchen Workshop

Also on Tuesday, November 15: a workshop on Kitchen Cupboard Medicine: Healing Herbs and Spices, with Transition Ottawa and Amber Westfall. Learn about treating minor ailments with common herbs and spices. 7-9 p.m. at the Beaver Barracks, 464 Metcalfe St. Free (but bring your own mug). RSVP; details at http://resilientkitchen.wordpress.com/workshops/.

Food for All – A Food Action Plan for Ottawa
Just Food has developed an exciting new community vision and plan for food in Ottawa, based on consultations about local food issues and concerns. The plan centres on building a sustainable local food system, ensuring everybody has access to good food and promoting health through food security and nutrition. Just Food and Transition Ottawa are inviting “everybody who eats” to a workshop to help make the plan a reality. It’s on Thursday November 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Ecclesiax Sanctuary, 2 Monk St. (one block from 5th Ave. and Bank St.) More information at http://transitionottawa.ning.com/events/food-for-all-a-food-action-plan-for-ottawa-justfood and http://justfood.ca.

In Ottawa we usually don’t make a big deal of internationally-designated days, but this year’s UN World Habitat Day on October 3 seemed significant. The theme: Cities and Climate Change.

According to UN-HABITAT, the world’s cities are responsible for up to 70 per cent of harmful greenhouse gases. Transportation using fossil fuels and industrial activity are particularly significant sources of urban greenhouse gas emissions.

So cities are big contributors to climate change – but people in cities are also affected by the consequences of climate change, like flooding. And cities are, arguably, a big part of the solution.

The City of Ottawa has said municipalities can play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In Ottawa, transportation and buildings’ energy use each account for 40 percent of greenhouse gases, with the remaining 20 percent from the waste sector. The City has had a climate change management plan to address these. But there’s a long road ahead of us.

One of the problems is that climate change here isn’t that obvious, so it’s easy not to think much about it. But the City says our hottest days are getting hotter and more frequent, and declining air quality is a big concern. In 2005 the City recorded 290 deaths and 750 hospital admissions attributable to air pollution, and projected increases in these numbers over the next 25 years. Climate change is affecting our health, changing our environment and costing us in many ways.

Individual action helps – people riding bikes instead of driving, choosing locally-grown food when possible, and turning down thermostats. We need more from all levels of government, though. And we need to be talking about it a lot more.

I think this is happening. Just last week, for example, we had the Ottawa Action to Protest the Tar Sands, a Museum of Nature screening of the film Carbon Nation, and – if you happened to attend the Kickass Talks for CARE on October 2 – Ottawa’s Richard Weber sharing evidence of climate change from the Arctic.

There’s another event coming up this week. It’s part of the System Change Not Climate Change initiative launched by the Council of Canadians’ Climate Justice for People and the Planet campaign to build awareness and inspire people to find alternatives to climate change. Members of Transition Ottawa are hosting a presentation and discussion about what system change means and how environmental and social justice are linked. The event is on Thursday, October 6 from 7:30-9:15 p.m. at 2 Monk St. (one block from 5^th Avenue and Bank St.) in the Glebe; RSVP at http://transitionottawa.ning.com.

It seems daunting, even impossible, to do anything about climate change. But groups and movements like Transition Towns, System Change Not Climate Change, and Worldchanging and its successor are coming up with solutions that are feasible yet retain what’s best about our cities. Check them out when you have the chance.

Written by guest blogger Denise Deby, who writes on local and global social and environmental issues.

In case you haven’t heard, the Council of Canadians, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) and Greenpeace Canada along with other organizations and individuals are calling on people to protest the tar sands industry with an action and rally in Ottawa on Monday, Sept. 26 on Parliament Hill. A planned sit-in and a solidarity rally at the Centennial Flame both begin at 10:00 a.m. (Organizers held a mandatory training session on Sept. 25 for people participating in the sit-in which is a civil disobedience action.) Be sure to check the Ottawa Action website for details if you’re thinking of getting involved or want to find out more.

Organizers say the action is necessary to send a message to the Canadian government that tar sands mining and other unsustainable forms of energy extraction like shale fracking are unacceptable – not only because of their harmful effects on people and the environment but because they extend our dependence on fossil fuels when we should be investing in alternatives. The Council of Canadians, for example, has called for a Canadian Energy Strategy based on principles of energy security and ecological sustainability.

The Ottawa Action follows the protest earlier this month in Washington, D.C. of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from the Alberta tar sands to the U.S. Gulf coast. So far dozens of organizations have endorsed the Ottawa Action – including, for example, the Assembly of First Nations, the Dene Nation, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), Physicians for Global Survival (PGS) and the UK Tar Sands Network. Individual supporters include Bill McKibben (founder of 350.org), Gorden Pinsent, Graham Greene, Naomi Klein, Shirley Douglas, Tantoo Cardinal and Dave Thomas as well as scientists, First Nations leaders and other prominent Canadians.

You can also follow what’s happening through Ottawa Action on Twitter (@OttawaAction) on Twitter or Facebook (see OttawaAction.ca for details).

“What could the Peace and Environment Resource Centre become?”

It’s a question that Ottawa’s Peace and Environment Resource Centre (PERC) is asking. PERC is inviting anyone with an interest in the environment, peace and social justice to meet on Thursday, September 22 2011 to explore what PERC does – and what it could do. The session will take place from 6:30-9:00 p.m. at St. Giles Presbyterian Church, First Street at Bank.

PERC has been promoting social justice and the environment in Ottawa for years. It’s a volunteer-run, charitable organization that raises awareness, links groups and individuals working on similar issues, offers a resource library, and provides alternative media coverage of social and environmental matters. It publishes a print newspaper, the Peace and Environment News (PEN), 6 times a year – recent issues have covered sustainable energy, food, green business, mining and human rights, and more. The PERC website offers news, highlights from the PEN and links to other resources.

PERC provides a forum for groups and individuals to keep in touch and informed on important issues, thanks to a core of dedicated people who keep it going. Still, PERC’s board, staff and volunteers are thinking ahead. They’re opening up the discussion to get people’s thoughts on what PERC could be. The public meeting is a great opportunity to have some input. (They can always use volunteers year-round, too – see their website for details.)

Is Ottawa bike-friendly?

We have an enviable network of recreational pathways, and many other decent biking routes. We have Sunday Bikedays and Bixi bike rentals. We can transport our bikes if need be on the O-Train and some OC Transpo buses. And we now have a segregated bike lane on Laurier Avenue, launched on July 10.

The League of American Bicyclists and the Share the Road Cycling Coalition say we’re bike-friendly – to a point. They’ve awarded the City of Ottawa a Silver Bicycle Friendly Community Award for its cycling initiatives.

Silver is not the Award’s highest designation, and cycling in Ottawa is not always smooth sailing. Ottawa has far too many accidents involving bikes, and numerous problem areas, some documented on Ottawa Biking Problems, where people can report on challenges they encounter.

So we’re not Copenhagen, where over a third of people commute by bike every day; nor, fortunately, are we following Toronto’s example of removing cycling infrastructure.

We could do more as a city, but there are some signs that we’re gradually changing infrastructure and attitudes to make cycling safer and more convenient, so that biking becomes a real option for getting around, for more people.

Some of the recent changes in this direction include the NCC’s Park and Cycle pilot program, which provides parking lots for commuters to leave their cars and cycle the rest of the way downtown; the addition of cycling directions for Ottawa to Google Maps; and services like complementary Bluesfest bike parking offered by Citizens for Safe Cycling and Bluesfest.

Ottawa also has many resources for people looking for assistance or gear, like Can-Bike courses and Recycles and Recyclore bike shops. (See Ottawa Start for additional cycling links.) We’re also starting to see a slightly greater diversity of bikes available for people with a range of abilities.

Then there are the people and groups who are helping change our perceptions of what is “cycleable,” and encouraging us to see cycling as something that most people can do, whether it’s a commute to work, a leisurely outing on a bike path, a mountain bike ride or a quick trip to the grocery store. This includes bloggers like Andrea Grant’s Apartment 613 post about bike-accessible places to go swimming around Ottawa; Ottawa cycling advocate Kathleen Wilker’s family biking blog; and Ottawa Cycle Chic, which does as much for promoting cycling as an everyday activity as it does for bike fashion. (I have to say that I’m pro-helmet, myself). As well, the organisation Cycling Vision Ottawa aims to support people of all ages and abilities to feel comfortable on their bikes.

These developments are important for Ottawa. As cycling advocates point out, biking not only has environmental and health benefits but also gives us a connection that we wouldn’t otherwise have to nature, to the urban landscape and to each other. A recent Sustainable Cities Collective post states that “the most vital element for the future of our cities is that the bicycle is an instrument of experiential understanding” – i.e., a way to really get to know and connect with our communities and our city.

In other words, a bike-friendly city is also a friendly city. Sounds like a good idea for Ottawa.

Have you played outside today?

June 15 is Nature Play Day, according to the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada, a network of organizations and people who are trying to connect children with nature. Nature Play Day is a way to emphasise the importance of getting kids – and adults –outside.

Being active outdoors can improve physical and emotional health and enhance creativity and learning. It’s also beneficial to the environment; when we spend time in nature we appreciate it more.

According to David Suzuki and Faisal Moola, especially when we live in cities, we separate ourselves from the natural world around us, learning to see it as inconvenient or dangerous. After all, it’s full of insects that bite, poisonous plants, and rocks we can slip on, and requires sunscreen, rain gear, fences and close supervision. Being indoors is easy, and besides, has computers, games, TV and the Internet. When we marginalise the natural world, though, we don’t feel a part of it. Suzuki and Moola say that “unless we are willing to encourage our children to reconnect with and appreciate the natural world, we can’t expect them to help protect and care for it.”

In Canada, and elsewhere, there’s growing recognition of the importance of getting kids outdoors. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, links “nature deficit disorder” – the lack of nature in our lives – to rises in obesity, attention disorders, and depression. His recent book, The Nature Principle, is a vision of the future in which we learn to restore nature in our cities and our lives.

Connecting children and adults with nature has implications for how we educate, how we organize and spend our time, and how we build and maintain cities and neighbourhoods. It also requires promoting the idea of getting outdoors, and providing opportunities to do so. Across the country, educators, health professionals, recreation programmers, parks staff and many others are working on ways to get people outside to play, especially in an unstructured way.

It’s also about just getting outside. Adam Kreek, an Olympic gold medalist and Nature Play Day Ambassador, says “Nature Play Day reminds us that it’s OK to be outside. It’s OK to play and get grass-stained knees, dirty palms and a sticky shirt. It’s more than OK… It’s necessary!!”

The Child and Nature Alliance of Canada has suggestions for outdoor play on its website and Facebook page. I didn’t find any Nature Play Day events listed for Ottawa, but no matter where in the city you live, nature isn’t far away. Why not:

• Get up early and listen to the sounds of nature around you – how many birds do you hear?
• Walk, bike, scooter or skateboard to school or work, and take time to look around;
• At work, hold a meeting outside, or have lunch in a park;
• Spend a few extra minutes in the school yard before or after school;
• Take your kids into the back yard to look for interesting flowers, rocks or bugs;
• Do some family or community gardening;
• Go for a walk in the woods;
• Have a family picnic at dinnertime;
• Spend time in the playground after soccer or baseball practice;
• Play tag or catch a ball in your local park;
• Round up some neighbours and go for an evening stroll.

As I write this, I realise that on June 15 one of my kids will be going on a field trip to the Bill Mason Outdoor Education Centre and I’m taking the other to the Experimental Farm – so we’re set for Nature Play Day! What are your plans?

May brings fresh local produce, gardening and more to Ottawa.
Many farmers’ markets start up again in May. The Ottawa Farmers’ Market runs Sundays at Lansdowne and Fridays in Orleans, while the Main Farmers’ Market happens Saturdays on Main Street. Farmers’ Markets Ontario has a searchable list of member farmers’ markets in other parts of Ottawa and the region.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Ottawa Valley Chapter (CPAWS-OV) is holding its Annual General Meeting on Saturday May 7, 10 am-1 pm, Saint Paul University, 223 Main Street, Auditorium 203, Guigues Hall. Learn about CPAWS-OV’s work and hear botanist and author Diana Beresford-Kroeger speak forests and health. Free admission; open to the public.

Jane’s Walk Ottawa 2011 is Saturday and Sunday, May 7-8. Jane’s Walk, which takes place in cities around the world, celebrates the ideas of Jane Jacobs, an urbanist and activist who promoted a community perspective on the design and organization of cities. In Ottawa, local people will give free neighbourhood walking tours offering insights into each area’s history, planning, design, and civic engagement. Organizers say “Jane’s Walk is about getting close to your city, about getting out and observing, meeting your neighbours, discovering new areas, and learning about the urban landscape, streetscape, buildings, parks, public art and monuments, and the details of daily existence that weave together into the fabric of our urban existence.” For more information see http://www.janeswalkottawa.ca/view/?home.

Transition Ottawa is holding the first of its Ottawa Urban Wild walking tours, called Wild Food in The City, on Sunday May 8, 2:30-4 pm in Heron Park (Heron Road and Clover Street). Explore common, safe non-toxic weeds and plants, where to find them and when, which parts of the plant to harvest, how to prepare them, and how to forage safely and ethically in an urban environment. Free admission. See http://www.urbanwildtours.blogspot.com/.
Also during May, Just Food has Beginner Level Organic Gardening Workshops and a session on How to Start a Community Garden. Check their website for dates. Ecology Ottawa is running a number of events in May related to clean and community energy; check their website for details.

Ottawa has quite a few winter cyclists, but for many of us the disappearance of snow and the onset of spring weather have us pulling out and tuning up our bicycles.

May is Bike to Work month in Ottawa. The Bike to Work website has information for people at all levels of cycling, including how to create bike-friendly workplaces, and a list of events throughout the month and into June. You can pledge to cycle to work more often, and keep informed through the Bike to Work Facebook page. Bike to Work is part of the City of Ottawa’s TravelWise program and is coordinated by EnviroCentre.

May is also Physical Activity Month. The City has launched the iWalk iBike campaign to encourage people to use active transportation like walking and cycling whenever possible.

Meanwhile, the National Capital Commission is holding public consultations on proposed new rules governing the use of electric bikes and other electric-powered vehicles on NCC pathways. Consultations will be on Tuesday May 3 and Wednesday May 4, or residents can send comments until May 18 to info@ncc-ccn.ca.

The Bixi bike-share program is scheduled to launch in mid-May. The plan is that people will be able to rent bikes at any of 10 stations in downtown Ottawa for short-term rides. Check their Facebook site for updates on the launch and facilities.

If you’re looking to acquire a bike on a more permanent basis, there are lots of places to check out. You can buy refurbished bikes from Cycle Salvation and re-Cycles community bicycle shop. Re-Cycles also provides space and expertise for do-it-yourself repairs, and both accept donated bikes (check their websites for details).

If you want to brush up on your cycling skills, check the City of Ottawa’s website for information on cycling courses. Ottawa Start also has a good list of bike-related links.

Happy and safe spring cycling!