Click on the image at right to view a 59-minute talk to the Bowen Island Rotary Club presented on Oct. 24, 2022 by Dr. Phil Gregory, based on his 2021 book, Pathway to Regeneration: An Astrophysicist's Journey into Food, Health, Climate, and Complexity.
The talk highlights some of nature's biological systems underlying regenerative agriculture and shows efforts by the Bowen Island Food Resilience Society to implement these ideas on our island.
Bowen Library Earth Day Talks
In April, 2023, the Bowen Island Food Resilience Society and the Bowen Island Public Library partnered to present two Earth Month Talks.
Dr. Phil Gregory gave a talk on Resilient Bowen Island: Helping to Build a Resilient Food System.
Dr. Charles McNeill topic was: Climate Change, Biodiversity, and the Future of Food: A Global Perspective to Inform Local Action. A PDF of the slide show from Dr. McNeill's talk can be viewed by clicking here.
Bowen Library Food Matter Talks
Food Matters, a series of four talks organized by BIFS in partnership with the Bowen Library pulled together four Bowen Island food experts, each with their own perspective on this very complex but timely issue.
On Nov. 3, 2024, Dr. Phil Gregory spoke on “Foods Future: Nature or Technology?” Phil compared the prevailing but unsustainable Industrial Agriculture approach to an Organic Regenerative Agriculture approach. The latter has emerged from a revolution in our understanding of nature’s synergy between plants, microbes, soil, and animals and their beneficial connections with soil health, human health, and climate change. He explored many unintended consequences of technological innovations in agriculture and provided evidence that herbivores can be a big part of the solution to our environmental crises if managed to mimic nature, especially if we acknowledge desertification as a major contributor to climate change. According to Dr. Gregory, de-corporatization of government agencies and regulators is an important next step.
On Nov. 17, 2024, Dr. Hasan Hutchinson spoke on “Making the Canada Food Guide: Behind the Scenes,” a decade long project that culminated in 2019 with the new food guide. Hasan, who was the former federal Director General, Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion, talked about the behind-the-scenes pressures, difficulties and science, in the making and promoting of the current Canada Food Guide. The process resisted lobbying attempts and relied on current science, and consequently resulted in a very different guide from earlier versions. Check out Dr. Hutchinson's presentation below to see what great resources are available to guide your family’s food choices.
On Jan. 12, 2025, Dr. Charles McNeill spoke on “Innovative Solutions to the Global Food System: Protecting the Climate and Biodiversity.” Charles identified the Earth’s triple environmental crises: the climate emergency, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. Based on his 32-year career with the United Nations building innovative partnerships to solve global environmental challenges, he argued that livestock production and consumption contribute to all three emergencies. He offered many recommendations that include developing policies and regulations to incentivize sustainable farming practices and the protection of natural habitat; investing research into sustainable farming technologies, and alternative proteins; shifting to a more plant-based diet, reducing food waste, supporting local food economies, and “rewilding” agricultural land.
On Feb. 9, 2025, Dr. Hyunjoo Lee spoke on “Your Everyday Meal: A Recipe for Health and the Environment.” Hyunjoo, a Doctor of Oriental Medicine Pharmacy, a chef, and an author, argued that today’s food system not only contributes to global crises – the climate emergency, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and deforestation – it also threatens our health. While governments and policy makers can create solutions at a structural level, individuals can take concrete action for the planet and for personal health. Hyunjoo became a vegetarian in 2003, and in 2010 founded ‘Meat Free Monday Korea’, an organization that aims to address the climate crisis by eating vegetarian meals one day a week. Her slides beautifully illustrated how to realize ecological values through how we select and prepare our food.
Growing Food in a Pandemic
During the pandemic, we were fortunate to have Grafton Agricultural Commons, a place to gather safely with neighbors in nature. Many of the memories of gardening at Grafton Commons during 2020 are nicely filed away with beautiful photographs and easy-to-read text in our book, Growing Food During the Pandemic: Bowen Island 2020 – Resilient Together. If you are interested, it can be checked out at the Bowen Island Library, or you can view a copy at Bowen Island Museum and Archives.
Hugelkultur Garden
A hugelkultur is basically a mound with buried wood. The wood holds a lot of water and makes growing in a drought easy. As the wood begins to decompose, it feeds the plants. This book is Jackie and Phil's story of building their own hugelkultur on Bowen.
This book is also available at the Bowen Island Library.
Groundwork Reports
In 2019, Bowen Island Food Sovereignty (now Bowen Island Food Resilience Society) published two reports, The Communication and Engagement Groundwork Report and Toward a Resilient Food System for Bowen Island: Agrarian Analysis. These studies give a detailed picture of Bowen Island’s farm history and include environmental assessments, climate forecasts, and specific recommendations that align with the Metro Vancouver Regional Food System Action Plan.
“[These] are two of the best reports I have seen from agrologists anywhere, because they cover the wide spread of everything you could think about to resolve this problem.” -Harold Steves, 4th generation farmer, Richmond City Councillor, Metro Vancouver Councillor, former MLA
