Day 210 -- a new store in town? What's the cost?

I've been working on course prep for September. For the past several days, I've been updating the course that deals with our global food system. There is a lot to discuss for this one -- actually way more than can fit into a 13 week course <smile>. The course begins with an exploration of the global food situation. This involves production through industrial, organic, and subsistence agriculture; distribution through local farmers' markets and multinational grocery chains; basis of the family farm income crisis; environmental degradation due to urban sprawl, industrial mining, water depletion and air pollution; and that is just the beginning <smile>. The course continues to examine the inequities in the distribution of food, food as a basic human right, and food insecurity domestically and globally -- similarities and differences. There is a lot of discussion using current events as examples of the principles covered in class. It is fun to find analogies and metaphors to help people understand the complex issues determining someone's ability to access food.

While working up one section, I found myself thinking of my recent trip to SK. Not only was there a lot of water in the fields where crops should be growing, but there were new subdivisions and big box stores popping up, too. Sprawl may not be as easy to see on the prairie as there is so much unpopulated land, but sprawl does exist. Someone somewhere is making money from this and I'm not convinced it is the farmer. We know that farmers receive a far smaller proportion of the retail cost of food products -- even less with processed or packaged products -- but I fear that when they sell a parcel of land, they receive only a small proportion of what the developer makes. Some see this as progress, and while it may be nice to have new stores to shop in, is the price really worth the cost? 

While pondering some of these economic situations, I thought of a song -- bet you didn't see that coming <smile>. But I really did. It addresses the topic of sprawl well. Enjoy!

Where a Farm Used to Be -- Gord Bamford