An earthquake has devastated the Sunshine Coast. Ferry transportation is cut off and the grocery stores - those that have not been destroyed - have a limited supply of food and water. That's the apocalyptic scenario that opens Coast author Robin Wheeler's latest book, Food Security for the Faint of Heart, from New Society Publishers.
Though this sounds like grim reading, really, it's not. Surprisingly, there's a lot of humour in Wheeler's approach to the broad topic of food security plus many practical how-to suggestions for weathering a food drought, planting a sustainable garden and raising healing herbs.
Then why open a book with the worst-case scenario? It got your attention, didn't it? Wheeler is clear that we need to be alerted, encouraged and prodded into filling up our larders because her research shows that, in the aftermath of an earthquake, our supermarkets would be emptied out within three to four days, since 99 per cent of what we eat on the Coast comes to us on a truck. You can bet this woman has a sack of potatoes stored in her root cellar.
Then there's the question of water supply. One chapter is devoted to this precious resource, our changing attitudes toward it and how to conserve it for times of drought.
Although the advice given in Food Security could apply to almost anywhere in Canada, many of the examples Wheeler uses are taken from her own community. She runs an organic nursery and a sustenance and teaching garden in Roberts Creek.
"The book is completely community based," she says. "I wrote it with my neighbourhood in mind. We've got to do something right now. This book is part of getting the ball rolling."
Surely we have learned a few things. What about buying locally? What about the farmers' markets? Are we not keen to grow our own food?
"More people are aware of food issues," Wheeler agrees, but she feels we still have a lot of work to do. She points out that the pounds of food sold or traded at farmers' markets don't compare with the tons that are imported from the city. In the event of a catastrophe, would we have enough vegetable oil, sugar, salt, coffee, vinegar? What about meat? In this particular case, we are currently not allowed to buy a chicken from our neighbour because government regulations require it to be inspected at an abattoir - which does not exist on the Coast.
This makes Wheeler fume. Neighbourly connections should be pursued, not prohibited, is her message. "True food security gets harder to access as the global economy becomes more powerful and unbalanced," she writes. One chapter is all about co-operating with your neighbours and sharing tools and services; they could be your lifeline, you could be theirs.
How to accomplish this? "Offer to give more than we get," says Wheeler. "We all have a lot, we just don't feel safe offering it." One of her more insightful principles is revealed when she recommended to friends that they stock up on emergency supplies in the event of disaster. "Men will come with guns and take your food," they warned her. Wheeler refused to live with this fear-mongering attitude and has supplanted the slogan with one of her own: "Women will come with food and take your guns."
It is this sense of humour and attitude towards life that keeps the book from being one long sermon. No one likes to be preached at, and Wheeler comes perilously close by slamming the time wasters, such as watching TV, that keep us from doing more important things, like planting a food garden or participating in a community kitchen. When she reins in the preaching, the book is a helpful and timely guide on an issue of prime importance.
Food Security for the Faint of Heart, subtitled Keeping Your Larder Full in Lean Times, is available from WindSong Gallery and Talewind Books in Sechelt and at the Roberts Creek Health Food Store for $16.95. Wheeler is also the author of Gardening for the Faint of Heart.
