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Wednesday November 11 2015 19 OP-ED AGRICULTURE The deadline for winter applications is November 15th Late applications are accepted but payment is not guaranteed for the start date of winter classes. www.nwtsfa.gov.nt.ca Student Financial Assistance NOW ONLINE www.facebook.comnwtsfa Like us on Facebook for updates reminders tips and to APPLY ONLINE APPLY ONLINE By KIM RAPATI Climate change is calling all people to action. Ive been thinking about this a lot since IattendedtheCanadianFood andDrinkSummitinToronto Oct. 26-27 with assistance from Hellmanns Canada. It wasaninterestingconference with lots of business people nutritionists and corporate brand managersPR teams. There were only six booths setupandtheNorthernFarm TrainingInstituteNFTIhad the one right across from the main conference hall so ev- eryonewalkingoutsawNFTI We really caught the atten- tion of people who were in- terested in the North and I talked to them about what we are doing to restore local food systems here. The conference had many themes about food insecurity and climate change. Some of the answers people tend to give when talking about global food insecurity revolve around countries like ours providing more cheap seeds or more food aid. What I have seen in my experience is that a more long-term solution to food insecurity has to come from the local people who are being affected and has to em- power them to be in control of their own system to have food sovereignty. When we were in Zimba- bwe for Savory training we visited a village called Siz- inda that was on the verge of abandoning their homes just ve years ago. The food aid and new-tech crops had not helped. Their land was still desertifying gradually becoming more arid and the riverwheretheygotwaterwas dry.PreciousPhiriacommu- nity trainer from the Africa Centre for Holistic Manage- ment HM worked with the communitytoimplementHM using the cattle that were al- ready owned by people in the village. They had nothing left to lose so they tried this new technique and brought their cowstogethertomimicawild herd and planned where they would move based on the re- covery time of grasses and other local factors. We visited them ve years after they had implementedthiscommunity- wide project and now their river runs for 11 kilometres all year long and they have increased their crop pro- ductions by more than three times The people of Sizinda were so excited and proud to tell us about what they have learned and how they have created this successful pro- gram themselves. It was truly an eye-opening experience. How does this work How does a river come back to life just because people move the cows differently There are a lot of exciting things happen- ing right now around soil car- bon. Plants growing on the surface of earth suck in C02 and use it to build roots and grow leaves. When planned properly you can use a grass- land like a C02 pump by put- ting cattle onto the grass at the right time to spur more growth more root develop- ment and more C02 seques- tration. They are also add- ing fertilizer moisture and helping to compost the old dead leaves without animals tramplingdeadleavesintothe ground leaves oxidize and the carbon will go back into theairinsteadorbesuscepti- bletoreswhichalsoputsthe carbon in the air. There are lots of exciting projects right now that are predicting that if we can regenerate some of the worlds vegetationwe can achieve pre-industrial levels of C02 in the atmosphere Very exciting Some of the other answers around climate change and food were that we need to limit peoples diets to not in- clude meat and dairy. This is based on carbon calculations around the industrial feedlot system and does not consider wildanimalsoranimalsman- aged holistically on regener- ating soil. To me their meal recommendationsdidntseem tobesustainableforpeoplein the North in Zimbabwe and inotherplacesthatdonthave abundant vegetables nuts and fruits where we rely on animals to convert things we cannot digest grasses and forbs into densely nutritious food that our ancestors have survived on for all of time. Hellmanns has it right They have wonderful insight to spot the trend that people are interested in going to farmersmarketsandcooking nutritiousmealsfromscratch with real food. They looked across the country and found our program a grassroots initiative that truly strives to empower people to restore our local food systems. We want to say a big thank you to Hellmanns for sponsoringourgeodesicdome greenhouseandalsoforsend- ing us to the Canadian Food and Drink Summit where we had the chance to network with city people we normally wouldntandshowoffwhatwe are doing here in the North- west Territories to empower ourselves to have the freedom toeatlocalnutritiousfoodand worktoreverseclimatechange andprotectournaturalecosys- tems and wildlife. The Savory Institute is an international organization thatpromoteslarge-scaleres- toration of the worlds land- scapes.NFTIreceivedSavory training to become Canadas rstSavoryHubinOctobera networkallaroundtheworld that promotes regenerative farming. Kim Rapati is the operationsmanagerofNFTI. Chasing food sovereignty ghting climate change Kim Rapati took the NFTI trade show booth to Toronto at the end of October. Precious Phiri a community trainer from the Africa Centre for Holistic Management HM with NFTI operations manager Kim Rapati at a conference in Toronto in October. PhotoscourtesyofKimRapati How does this work How does a river come back to life just because people move the cows differently Kim Rapati NFTI