Alex and I attended the EcoFarm day this past weekend at the Kemptville College. It was the second year of the conference and the second year we've gone. I was also actually working with Ontario Soil and Crop at their exhibitor booth, talking about cost-share opportunities for farmers and different projects that can be done on farms.
The conference was sponsored by Canadian Organics and put on by Just Food - a non profit organization here in Ottawa that addresses food insecurity by helping new farmers start their farming journey (in SO many ways) and by helping consumers like you find local to you farmers within the Ottawa region by having a producer map, it's really cool, there are actually so many of us around and proof that you really don't need to go to a grocery store and can source almost everything local - check out the buy local map here.
One of the volunteers of Just Food was going from booth to booth introducing herself and starting the conversation with 'Despite the world being a dumpster fire right now, what gives you hope?' and if that's not the quickest way to connect with someone over a deep topic, I don't know what is.
I'm not going to lie, the question caught me a bit off guard but not in a bad way.
I went deep with my answer and maybe overcomplicating it but here's what I said:
I hope that whatever happens in the near future brings us together and gives us community again. With religion becoming less and less popular, we've lost the communities that go along with it and we've become independent to a fault. I really hope that the changes that are coming will help us connect over food with the ones you love again because that is older than time. That it will help us look at food as something more than a necessity to survive and more as a form of self care, as a necessity to thrive.
I think I also said something along the lines of it helping us realize that we all have what we need right now to improve our lives, connect more with those we love and find community and that the link between all those things is good quality food that feels good.
We chatted a bit back and forth about what I had said and then she looked at Alex and asked him the same question.
Alex thought for a second, and simply said 'That there will actually be change'.
And I think both of our answers echo how the way society is running right now, isn't really working for anyone who isn't a billionaire (and also how much I overthink these things compared to Alex 😂).
All in all, EcoFarm Day was a great day to meet new people, connect with friends and learn a few takeaways.