Here in Atlantic Canada, indeed throughout the world, we believe the road to stability and resilience in light of both COVID-19 and the more complex consequences of climate change begins with food security.
Given the current awarding of “options for leases” for open-net aquaculture in our South Shore bays, it’s important to gain a higher perspective on the business and economic model being proposed, its effects on our local communities, and what alternatives may exist.
The Chronicle Herald, Halifax, NS
Published: 10th Feb 2020
From a local economy perspective, extraction is a win-lose scenario every time. The ordinary person might see a short-term job here, a new customer there, but their livelihoods and their communities are insecure; they are always at risk of disappearing with the swipe of a pen in an office far away—from the community, geographically, but also socially far away from the lived experience of putting food on a table or protecting a local school. This is not thriving.
For anyone who feels the buy-local movement has gone about as far as it can go, a contrasting view is presented in a report titled “Import Replacement: Local Prosperity for Rural Atlantic Canada”, released earlier this year by the Centre for Local Prosperity (CLP), a non-profit organization located in Nova Scotia.
