Food supply’s vulnerability a concern: NDP
Yukoners are reliant on highways and airplanes for the majority of their food, but NDP Leader Liz Hanson wants to know what would happen in an emergency.
Photo by Whitehorse Star
SUPPLY CONCERNS – Amateur gardener and MLA Liz Hanson is encouraging Yukoners to be more self-sufficient when it comes to food, and not rely so heavily on supplies from Outside.
Yukoners are reliant on highways and airplanes for the majority of their food, but NDP Leader Liz Hanson wants to know what would happen in an emergency.
“With increasing frequency, we are seeing that shipments of food don’t make it up the Alaska Highway,” she told the legislature during question period Thursday.
“The result is that there are limited food supplies on the shelves of local supermarkets.
“This approach means we’re always vulnerable in the event that there are delays in that supply chain.”
Highways and Public Works Minister Archie Lang said he is sensitive to this vulnerability, and therefor the highways workers do their best to keep highways cleared and react quickly in urgent situations.
Indeed, many of the Yukoners who live in communities have access to local general stores with limited selections of food. Most make trips with their personal vehicles into
Whitehorse or larger centres to do their grocery shopping.
With some living as far as a five-hour drive away from a grocery store, trips in are a chance to stockpile food supplies that must last a few weeks.
When weather conditions or other emergencies close the highways, those living in communities are forced to make do with what’s available locally.
“We need to start a conversation about local food self-sufficiency,” said Hanson.
Patrick Rouble, the minister responsible for the agricultural branch, said it encourages food production within the Yukon.
He said the branch is working to “increase the products in our agriculture industry — whether that’s from commercial farmers, whether that’s from market gardens or whether that’s assisting Yukoners to grow their own produce.”
Whitehorse’s Downtown Urban Gardeners’ Society runs a community garden for food crops.
One only has to ask a handful of neighbours to discover that small-scale backyard gardening projects take root each spring and summer in many backyards.
Hanson herself said she grows tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, potatoes, carrots and berries in her yard.
On a larger scale, however, the Yukon is not feeding itself independently.
“Only one per cent of the food we consume in the Yukon is grown or raised here,” said Hanson. “We are extremely dependent on shipping from down south.”
With the price of gasoline rising and expected to continue, Hanson said the price of food and the cost of gas for those in communities to get their food, strengthens the argument for self-sufficiency.
Rouble reminded Hanson that larger-scale farms are continuing to develop new ways to make their produce more readily available for Yukoners as well.
“In fact, the Yukon Agricultural Association has a conference going on this weekend, and I expect many of these different opportunities will be discussed with them,” said Rouble.
Gardening supplies have begun arriving on store shelves in recent weeks, so if one wants to start growing food, as Hanson suggests, one can begin well before the snow melts.
Steve E
Mar 4, 2011 at 6:44 pm
You know, the more I see and hear of this woman the more I like her.