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Quest for Community participants Ruby Peppard and Don Warthe took a group of students to Cuba in March to help rebuild homes damaged in last fall’s hurricanes.

By Colin Payne, Anna Kirkpatrick, Michelle Miller & Chris Benjamin 
Briarpatch Magazine
September/October 2009

1. Quest for Community: Community-based education in rural British Columbia
By Colin Payne

Quest for Community, a new program of the public school system in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia’s Southern Interior, aims to sow the seeds of community in the most fertile soil there is - the minds of youth.

The program, which launches this fall, is a result of the combined visions of Ruby Peppard and Don Warthe, two teachers at Mount Sentinel Secondary School in South Slocan, a small, rural community near Nelson, B.C.

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By Jonathan Taggart
Briarpatch Magazine
July/August 2009

Mishka, 2, plays with Fiza, a volunteer with Canada World Youth, on the floor of the communal kitchen while his mother sweeps. Members of Whole Village share community housekeeping responsibilities such as cleaning, cooking and child care. (All photos: Jonathan Taggart)

(Click photos to enlarge.)

“I first visited Whole Village in April 2007; over the course of the next 18 months, I lived on the farm in installations, working the land to earn my keep while photographing the community.”

Whole Village is an ecovillage and biodynamic farm founded in response to a perceived loss of genuine community, increased urban­ization of rural areas and impoverishment of farmland. A self-described intentional community, Whole Village is located on a 200-acre tract of land an hour north of Toronto’s city centre. The community is made up of 30 educators, professionals and farmers who live in a 15,000 square-foot co-operative residence and share sustainability as their ultimate goal. I first visited Whole Village in April 2007; over the course of the next 18 months, I lived on the farm in installations, working the land to earn my keep while photographing the community.

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The view from Mount Moresby (Photo: Erik Haensel)

By Erik Haensel and Justine Townsend
Briarpatch Magazine
July/August 2009

In December 2007, the Council of the Haida Nation and the Government of B.C. ratified a Strategic Land Use Agreement for Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, off the north coast of B.C., following four years of participatory planning in island communities. The agreement is a bold challenge to traditional economic policy, representing a major shift from an export-driven, resource-based economy to an ecologically grounded approach to a sustainable economy on Haida Gwaii.

Yet, for the Haida this paradigm shift is not novel, but rather a belated recognition of the values deeply rooted in their culture and their traditional relationship to the land, and encoded in Haida law.

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By Geeta Sehgal, Yolanda Hansen, Jon Steinman, Aruna Handa,  Shayna Stock, Kaitlin Kazmierowski, Adam Perry, Charles Z. Levkoe and Angie Koch
Briarpatch Magazine
January/February 2009

#1: Food Not Bombs
By Geeta Sehgal

Food Not Bombs is an anti-poverty and anti-war movement that started in the early 1980s as an offshoot of protests against nuclear weapons. Twenty-five years later, Food Not Bombs groups continue to protest militarism and war while recycling food that would otherwise be wasted.

The origins of Food Not Bombs are somewhat mysterious: some report that a bake sale to benefit the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament led activists to call for spending on food, rather than bombs; other stories mention a mock soup line being used as street theatre when demonstrators asked the First National Bank of Boston to stop investing in a nuclear power station. What is certain is that the first Food Not Bombs servings were held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the early 1980s by anti-nuclear protestors and the movement has since spread worldwide.

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By Saima Sidik, Julia Ewaschuk & Andrea Peloso
Briarpatch Magazine
January/February 2009

> How to make 5 foods you thought you had to buy
> How to can tomatoes
> How to live without a fridge

How to make 5 foods you thought you had to buy
By Saima Sidik

Homemade tomato sauce simmering on the stove puts me at peace with the world; it’s something about satisfying my need to eat with my own hands. Cooking from scratch is environmentally rewarding too. Whole foods often take less energy to transport than those that are processed, and if you make your food, you can choose where each ingredient comes from and try to buy those that are local and sustainably produced.

In this article, I present instructions for making or growing five familiar foods that people often buy: tortillas, tomato sauce, yogurt, lettuce and sprouts. My hope is that this information will empower readers to take a more active role in the production and preparation of their own food, partially because I believe that it can reduce the environmental impact of our eating habits, and partially because making my own food makes me very happy, and I’d like to share the skill with others.

Yogurt

Yogurt is made when specific bacteria are turned loose on milk and allowed to thicken it. All you need to do is introduce that bacteria under the right conditions. The following recipe is roughly based on Crystal Miller’s recipe from www.allfreecrafts.com.

1.) Heat two litres of whole milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit (about 82 degrees Celsius). This will kill off all extraneous bacteria that are in the milk. As soon as the milk reaches 180 degrees, take it off the stove.

2.) Lower the temperature of the milk to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 37 degrees Celsius) and add half a cup of yogurt that’s already been made. The pre-made yogurt contains the bacteria that will thicken the milk. It’s important to use yogurt that’s as fresh as possible, so buy it on the day that you plan to make your yogurt. Alternatively, some health food stores sell a powder containing the right kind of bacteria, and you can substitute this for yogurt.

3.) Leave the milk/yogurt mixture at 90 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit for eight to twelve hours, or until it has thickened enough for your taste. I’ve found that a good way to maintain this temperature is by putting the yogurt in glass jars and leaving them in a sink full of hot water covered by a cutting board to hold the heat in.

4.) Run the yogurt through a blender to eliminate any chunks.

5.) Add your favorite flavourings. I suggest maple syrup and berries, but apples, honey, granola and jam also work well.

If your yogurt refuses to thicken, which has sometimes happened to me, there are several things that may have gone wrong. Your starter yogurt may be too old, or its bacteria may have been killed somehow, or your milk may have antibiotics in it. Experiment with different brands of milk and yogurt.

Roll a small handful of dough into a plate-sized circle that’s one to three millimetres thick.

Tortillas

This flat bread is useful for wraps, burritos, enchiladas and dipping in curry, and is a reliable way of stretching a meal. Here is a recipe for six tortillas:

1.) Heat 1½ cups of water until it’s as hot as you can stand to touch. Add one teaspoon of salt.

2.) Add all-purpose wheat flour (approximately 1⅓ to 1½ cups) to the water until you have thick, non-sticky dough. Knead the dough for five minutes.

3.) Grease the dough by kneading in a teaspoon of vegetable oil.

4.) Roll a small handful of dough into a plate-sized circle that’s one to three millimeters thick.

5.) Put the tortilla in a medium hot frying pan. Don’t add any oil yet.

6.) When the tortilla has started to become firm and turn white, pull up one corner and put a little oil under it. Spin the tortilla in a circle in the pan to evenly distribute the oil.

7.) Continue to cook, flipping as necessary, until the tortilla has begun to brown on both sides.

Tomato sauce

This recipe makes the whole house smell good. Any kind of tomato will work, but you can experiment to see which variety you prefer.

1.) Dice two or three large tomatoes and blend them.

2.) Mix the blended tomatoes with:

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 crushed clove of garlic
½ tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
½ teaspoon dried oregano
2 bay leaves
⅛ teaspoon citric acid powder
(Citric acid powder can be found in the vitamin sections of many health food stores.)

3.) Let the mixture boil briefly, then turn the heat down and let it simmer for half an hour.

4.) Add salt and pepper to taste. If the sauce is too acidic for you, add a little bit of baking soda to neutralize the acid. I recommend adding only a teaspoon of baking soda at a time.

Lettuce

If you have a small family and don’t eat salads for every meal, part of a head of lettuce will inevitably go bad before you finish it. Why not grow your own instead? This allows you to pick only a few leaves at a time, and also gives you an excuse to get outside!

Lettuce comes in many varieties, most of which can tolerate (and often prefer) cool temperatures. You can plant lettuce as soon as the threat of frost has passed and replant throughout the summer. If possible, give the plants shade for a few hours during hot days so as not to overwhelm them with heat. Instead of waiting for the whole head to mature, take what you want when you want it and continue to replenish the stock by occasionally replanting. Most lettuce plants are small, so you don’t need a yard to grow it. A pot on the deck or a window box will do the trick.

Sprouts only take a few days to mature, and they can be grown inside in water.

Sprouts

When the weather gets cold, I find it convenient to substitute sprouts for lettuce. These wee greens only take a few days to mature, and they can be grown inside in water. You can find mixes of sprouting seeds at many hardware stores. (I get mine at Canadian Tire.) These mixes often include plants such as broccoli, clover and alfalfa. The package of seeds that you find will probably have exact instructions on how to grow your sprouts, but it will be something like this:

1.) Put two tablespoons of seeds into a mason jar and cover them with water. Put cheese cloth over the top of the Mason jar and use a rubber band to hold it in place. Let the seeds soak for four hours.

2.) Let the water drain from the Mason jar, through the cheese cloth, by leaving the jar upside down or propped on an angle in the sink.

3.) Rinse the seeds twice a day, morning and evening, until they have germinated and turned into delicious-looking salad and sandwich fixings (about four days).

Satish Kumar, the editor of Resurgence Magazine, says that baking bread is an act of meditation, and I wholeheartedly agree. Making time in my day for the methodical task of cooking is relaxing and makes the hectic parts of my life seem less stressful. I wish everyone who reads this article great satisfaction, both emotionally and metabolically, with their cooking.

Bon appétit!

Saima Sidik lives in Halifax, where she works in a biology lab at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. Her favourite meal is bean and cheese burritos with a salad on the side.

How to can tomatoes
By Julia Ewaschuk

Eat locally, goes the mantra. Judging from the growing number and popularity of farmers’ markets across the country, Canadians are getting this message, loud and clear. But how do you follow a 100-mile diet when the surrounding terrain is trapped under a sheet of ice for much of the year? Unless your idea of delicious mid-winter fare consists of frozen dirt cakes with snow icing, the answer to the conundrum of eating locally year-round in Canada can be found in, of all places, our grandparents’ kitchens.

My grandmother’s bustling and steamy basement canning kitchen, for instance, produced enough jarred fruits and vegetables to last through the winter. Whenever nature’s abundance mandated, our family would form an assembly line, blanching, peeling, packing and processing tomatoes, peaches, pears, or whatever happened to be in season on our weekend visit. I’ve finally realized the food preserving skills I had learned in my childhood are part of the solution to the ecological extravagance of February’s far-flung South African pears and Chilean apples.

It’s easier and more satisfying than you’d think to fill a shelf with beautiful, home-canned, local produce. At its simplest, canning requires nothing more than a big (20-30 litre) pot, canning jars and lids, and an hour or two of food preserving time. Fancier equipment like canning tongs, jar holders, canning funnels and bubble-freeing devices, are handy, but not essential.

The general principle is simple: get the food sealed tightly into the jar, with no microbes present. Sufficiently acidic foods can be preserved just by heating them to a specific temperature, for a specific length of time, thereby killing the moulds, bacteria and yeasts that might spoil the food and render it unsafe to eat. The only microbe that isn’t destroyed by heat alone is Clostridium botulinum, a dangerous type of bacteria whose heat-resistant spores require an acidic environment, in addition to heat, to be destroyed. Some foods are naturally acidic enough (anything less than pH 4.6); everything else requires either the addition of acid or the higher heat reached through the pressure canning method (not discussed here).

Many resource books and websites are available to guide you through the intricacies of various food preserving methods, and should be consulted to ensure safe canning. But to get you started, here are the details of preparing canned tomatoes, something you probably use quite a lot during the winter, when store-bought tomatoes are not only imported from remote lands, but also pallid and tasteless.

1.) Find delicious, ripe, local tomatoes at the farmers’ market or pick-your-own farm, or better yet, grow your own. You can preserve as few or as many as you’d like. It takes about seven large tomatoes to fill a one-quart jar.

2.) Place as many clean jars as you need upside-down on a clean towel-lined baking sheet. Bake at 200ºF for 15 minutes.

3.) Fill four pots two-thirds full of water to boil: your canning pot, a large pot for blanching tomatoes, a medium pot with water (or tomato juice) for filling airspaces, and a small pot for lids (boil the lids for ten minutes to sterilize them, then set to simmer until required).

4.) Cut the stem and white core out of each tomato.

5.) Blanch the tomatoes by dipping them in the large pot of boiling water for 30 seconds then plunge them into a sink full of cold water. Peels should slip off easily. Cut tomatoes in quarters.

6.) Important: Add two tablespoons of lemon juice to each quart jar; fill with tomatoes to within one centimetre of the rim. The acid from the lemons ensures a low enough pH to kill bacterial spores.

7.) Fill airspaces with boiling water or tomato juice to within 0.5 cm of the rim.

8.) Free any trapped bubbles with the handle of a wooden spoon or chopstick.

9.) Wipe the top of each jar carefully with clean, damp cloth to ensure a good seal. Place sterilized lid on top and screw on a ring, just finger-tight. Do not over-tighten.

10.) Place jars in the canning pot and boil for 40 minutes, keeping water 2.5 cm above the top of the jars.

11.) Cool overnight, ensure each lid is sealed.

12.) Open in February, and enjoy some mid-winter`s local eating!

Consult www.foodsafety.psu.edu/canningguide.html for more information.

Julia Ewaschuk has a Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of Saskatchewan (2004). She lives in New York City with her husband and son.

How to live without a fridge
By Andrea Peloso

I first lived without a fridge as a student in Paris. Because of the abundance of local markets and bakeries, I hardly even noticed its absence. Years later, back in Canada and feeling that life had become too complicated, I thought unplugging my fridge might be a simple way out. Running such a huge machine, larger than a coffin, just for myself and my two-fist-sized stomach suddenly seemed more bizarre than convenient. I have now been living without a fridge for close to two years.

If you want to live without a fridge, all you have to do is unplug. Your fridge can be immediately converted into a storage unit right where it is. The lower portion can create space for your cupboard by holding canned and dried food, herbs, teas and spices. The upper portion makes a practical cupboard or can be filled with snow or ice and used as a cooler. (Unless you are using your fridge as a cooler, always keep it open a crack to prevent smells from forming.) With the hum of the fridge’s motor finally still, you will be amazed at the peace and quiet you bring to your home.

Most foods can last for a considerable time without a fridge. Cups of herbs or greens in water are a cheerful but constant reminder of the passage of time. Root vegetables, onions, peppers, and zucchini stay true. Eggs last for weeks. Somehow I had equated the existence of my fridge with the natural life of my food, but really, the fridge is a steroid - it can keep food fresh for a very long time, but why not just eat the food in a somewhat shorter time? I’m vegetarian, but dairy and meat are both to be treated with care. Use milk and meat the day you buy it and try to keep it cool. Cheese and dairy lasts overnight in a ziplock bag in cool water. In winter, these will be fine either in your garage or mud room, or in coolers that you fill with snow.

One of the biggest drawbacks of not having a fridge can by summed up by my friend Albert’s question: “But what about ice cream?” (Albert, an ecologist, had decided to accompany me on this journey in his own way.) Indeed, what about ice cream or a cold beer? Albert’s solution was to use his non-heated mud room in winter and a very small fridge for the summer. This can also be a great option - either reducing the size of your fridge, or choosing to unplug during certain seasons.

The summer months can be a sweet time to go fridge-free. Local produce is so fresh and plentiful that it will last longer than food shipped from abroad. Eating locally in the age of peak oil is best for farmer, earth, and consumer alike. To keep a year-round supply of local produce, fresh berries, corn and small cucumbers can all be canned for a great winter of local food with no freezing needed.

Of course, in the winter, you can keep anything cool for as long as you want due to our abundant resource of cold air, snow, and ice. Wool blankets can also be used as a cooler. I stored some ginger carrot soup for three days indoors by putting a small pot into a larger soup pot filled with fresh snow and protecting it with a wool blanket. Using ingenuity rather than energy adds a kind of adventure to everyday life that we seldom get to experience anymore. And it gives a more realistic picture of nature - a picture of abundant yet finite and delicate gifts, rather than an infinite source of power for all of our desires.

In the past, leftovers were like guests that had worn out their welcome. Post-fridge, I simply took fresh leftovers to share with my neighbor Bradley and I became a guest myself. I liked sharing new food discoveries, such as organic local apples I brought. Bradley realized that organic apples tasted better than what he normally bought. When I had a bad cold, Bradley heard me coughing through the walls, called and offered to buy some oranges for me. In a compartmentalized condo setting, we forged a true bond.

In giving up my fridge, I have gained a greater sense of connection to the ingenuity of my ancestors. I have a peaceful-sounding home, a new friend next door, a low electricity bill - and a deeper sense of harmony with the changing seasons.

Andrea Peloso teaches women’s studies at George Brown College in Toronto. Her favourite winter recipe is hand-dried crimini mushroom barley miso soup, egg and seaweed.

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By Carol Goar
Toronto Star
December 08, 2008

Only once in modern history, as far as economist Peter Victor knows, has a financial crisis led to a reordering of society’s priorities and institutions. The Great Depression was like no other downturn.

But as this recession deepens, the York University professor is detecting a new openness to ideas that challenge mainstream thinking.

Victor, 62, has just published a book entitled Managing Without Growth - Slower by Design, not Disaster. It invites readers to contemplate a future in which they don’t work longer, spend more and accumulate more to keep the economy hurtling along.

Since his book’s release on Nov. 18, Victor has been inundated with requests to speak, invitations to participate in panel discussions and opportunities to appear at academic forums. “It’s quite encouraging. People come up to me at these events and say: ‘I’ve been thinking these sorts of things for a long time.’ ”

He never anticipated, when he started writing in 2006 that his book would come out during the worst market meltdown in 79 years. He never imagined that world leaders would be questioning some of the long-standing tenets of capitalism.

“It’s hard to say which way it will go,” Victor mused in an interview. “People are willing to consider new possibilities. The danger is that they’ll focus exclusively on the financial crisis and ignore the deeper crisis.”

The deeper crisis, in his view, is that the quest for rapid growth, which fuels Western economies, is on a collision course with the Earth’s biophysical limits. “If the financial system breaks down, we’ll suffer for a while, but we’ll get through it. If we succeed in destabilizing the climate, we may not be able to get through it.”

Victor, who teaches at York’s school of environmental studies, calls himself an ecological economist. He grew up in postwar England, earned his undergraduate economics degree at the University of Birmingham, then moved to Canada to continue his studies. He has an MA and a PhD from the University of British Columbia.

He is not a tree-hugger or an anti-car zealot. In fact, he doesn’t live much differently than his neighbours in Bloor West Village. But unlike most of them, he rejects the proposition that economic growth is essential to progress.

He began the book as an academic inquiry. His former thesis adviser, Gideon Rosenbluth, posed an intriguing question: What would happen if Canada deliberately slowed its growth rate to zero between 2010 and 2035. Would there be enough jobs? Would poverty go up? Would greenhouse gas emissions fall? Would governments be able to finance their operations?

Victor used the most sophisticated econometric tools available. (The book is loaded with charts, graphs and equations.) He tested numerous scenarios and methods of applying the brakes.

Not surprisingly, he concluded that the question had no single answer. It depended on a variety of factors ranging from population growth to tax policy.

But there were ways to achieve full employment, reduce poverty, cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep government finances in good shape without economic growth.

People would have to live differently - work less, buy less and pollute less. Values would have to change. The economy would have to fit within the biosphere.

Victor admits many readers will have trouble getting their heads around the idea of life without economic growth. It’s alien to everything they’ve been taught. “If I can at least get them to open their eyes to alternatives, I’ll think I’ve accomplished something.”

Victor’s daughter, Carmen, and her friend, Laura William, decided the book deserved a better launch than a low-key academic affair. So they organized it. They invited 450 guests to the Boiler House in the Distillery District.

Mayor David Miller spoke (he’s a neighbour). David Suzuki spoke (Victor is on the board of the David Suzuki Foundation). The place was so jammed that 150 people had to be turned away.

Something’s stirring. It’s not a groundswell. But a conversation is beginning about what recovery really means.

Carol Goar’s column appears in the Toronto Star Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

By Peter Dodson
Briarpatch Magazine
December 2008

“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
- The World Commission on Environment and Development’s definition of sustainability.

As Saskatchewan celebrates a period of economic growth and prosperity not seen since the first three decades of the 20th century, it does so at a precarious time for the planet. Saskatchewan’s boom, fueled by the extraction of non-renewable resources such as oil and uranium and a spike in grain prices, occurs as evidence grows that we are rapidly approaching the limits of the planet’s carrying capacity. Saskatchewan must deal with this newfound wealth and a corresponding population influx amid the global realities of peak oil, climate change, ecosystem destruction, economic meltdown and extensive species loss.

The question for Saskatchewanians, then, is what path do we follow? Will we press ahead under the old paradigm of unchecked suburban development and resource extraction that will only make our eventual shift to a less resource intensive economy more difficult, or will we choose a more sustainable way? Despite Saskatchewan’s major population centres’ continuing pursuit, for the most part, of conventional suburban development, a sustainable development movement is burgeoning in both rural and urban areas of the province. In places such as the town of Craik, the rural municipality of Rudy and Saskatoon’s River Landing, sustainable development projects are laying the groundwork for the inevitable revolution ahead.

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By Shayna Stock
Briarpatch Magazine
December 2008

If you stumbled upon the We Are Many Festival in Saskatoon one sunny afternoon in August, you might have thought it was just like any other large-scale music festival in any other Canadian city. Then you might have noticed the compost and recycling bins next to the usual trash cans, or the table selling locally grown organic vegetables, or the workshop tents full of lively conversations about the environment, writing and peace. “Oh,” you might think to yourself, “this is different.” And you’d be right.

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By John W. Warnock
Briarpatch Magazine
September/October 2008

“No nation can donate liberation to another nation. Liberation should be achieved in a country by the people themselves.”

Malalai Joya, Member, Afghan House of the People

The U.S. imperial project in Afghanistan has faltered. The government created by the United States lacks credibility and legitimacy. The vast majority of the people remain poor. The drug economy is dominant. Despite an increase in NATO military forces, the armed resistance led by the Taliban is increasing in strength. So what should Canada’s response be?

The public debate on Afghanistan has had a very narrow focus in this country. The primary concern has been the role of the Canadian Forces in the counter-insurgency war: How many more Canadians will be killed? How long will our forces remain in Kandahar province? What will the United States think if Canada withdraws from the southern conflict zone? If Canada pulls its forces out of Afghanistan, will there be chaos? Meanwhile, the occupation grinds on and the hopes for peace in Afghanistan recede into the distance.

It is time for Canadians to ask what the Afghan people want. At the top of the list would certainly be an end to the death, destruction and despair of the current occupation (the real “three Ds” that Afghans have inherited from Canada’s “development, diplomacy and defence” state-building strategy). The polls all show that a large majority of Afghans want a negotiated settlement and an end to the war. The majority do not want to see the return of the Taliban to government. The fact that the Afghan public supports negotiation with the Taliban insurgents is an indication of how far they are willing to go to end the violence. The current U.S.-NATO policy, supported by the Canadian government, however, only perpetuates the war.

The Afghan people also want their sovereignty, their right to self-determination and their democratic rights. Since October 2001 the United States, its allies and United Nations agencies have directed political, military and economic policy in the country. Afghanistan has been treated like a 19th-century colony.

Beginning with the Bonn conference in 2001, the U.S. government has imposed a political structure of its own making on Afghanistan. They installed Hamid Karzai, their key agent from the 1979-92 anti-Soviet proxy war, as president. They dictated the basic structure of the new constitution. The Afghan people had wanted to restore the democratically instated 1964 constitution after the removal of the Taliban government. Instead, the U.S. government and its allies, including Canada, manipulated the process to impose an Islamist constitution on them. This Islamist constitution, demanded by the jihadist allies of the U.S. government, has proven to be a major barrier to the development of democratic parties and movements in Afghanistan. Many parties and political groups did not want a highly centralized government with enormous powers given to the president, but rather a federal system with a balance of powers and election by proportional representation. Given the democratic freedom of choice, the Afghan people would most likely choose a political system different from the one imposed upon them.

All surveys of Afghan public opinion indicate that a strong majority wants warlords, commanders and criminals banned from the government and legislature. This demand was blocked by the U.S. government and its allies, including Canada.

Public opinion polls also show a large majority wants to see war criminals brought before war crimes tribunals. But the U.S. government and its allies have systematically blocked this process. Most of these war criminals were supported by the U.S. government at one time or another over the past three decades; some hold prominent positions in the Karzai government and many are in the legislature.

A very narrow, neo-liberal economic development policy has been imposed on the Afghan people by the U.S. government, their allies who are providing economic assistance and international aid agencies like the World Bank, the UN Development Programme and the Asian Development Bank. The Afghan people and even their government have had no say in this matter. The neo-liberal model represents a repudiation of the policy direction developed by Afghan governments throughout the 20th century. There is no indication that this model has the support of the Afghan population.

Indeed, the imposition of neo-liberalism is only exacerbating the problems that average Afghans face. Almost every analysis of the situation in Afghanistan today reports the persistence of poverty: there are food shortages, unemployment, a lack of housing, electricity, heating and medical care, and a weak educational system. A major part of the problem is the fact that international assistance is largely outside the control of the Afghan government, provided by international lending institutions, foreign governments and a myriad of non-governmental organizations. Even the Karzai government has asked that international aid be funnelled through the Afghan government.

The present government, widely denounced by the Afghan people for its corruption and ineffectiveness, is weak because it has no legitimacy. Defenders of U.S. policy often state that Afghans today are better off than they were under the Taliban. That is a vast misconception. The large majority of Afghans are far worse off today than they were in the 1970s.

Beyond the Manley report: Real alternatives for Canada

The Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan, headed by John Manley, released its report in January 2008. This report summarized the position of the Canadian political and military establishment and the economic ruling classes. There is no alternative, the panel argued, to supporting the U.S. position in Afghanistan. There is no alternative to participation in a long counter-insurgency war.

At the same time there were two major studies released in the United States that contrast strikingly with the Manley report. The Atlantic Council of the United States, chaired by retired General James L. Jones, former commander of NATO, concluded, “Make no mistake, NATO is not winning in Afghanistan.” The January 2008 report by the Afghanistan Study Group reached a similar conclusion and stressed the “growing lack of confidence on the part of the Afghan people about the future direction of their country.” Both identified the “stark poverty” faced by most Afghans and the steady increase in violence.

Meanwhile, the panel headed by John Manley recommended the assignment of more NATO forces to Kandahar province and more equipment for the Canadian Forces. But this is no solution. Extending the war into Pakistan, as proposed by some U.S. and Canadian politicians, and hinted at in the Manley report, will only make the situation worse.

Looking at possible alternatives, the Manley panel argued that if the Canadian Forces were to move to another province to reduce exposure to conflict and loss of life it “would inevitably waste a large part of Canada’s human and financial investment in Kandahar.” They also argued that “Canadian interests and values, and Canadian lives, are now invested in Afghanistan.” Echoing the “support our troops” faction in the Canadian public, the panel stated that “[t]he sacrifices made there, by Canadians and their families, must be respected.” This suggests that in order to honour those who have lost their lives, Canada must keep fighting and lose even more lives. This is a ridiculous argument. All wars eventually come to an end, usually by a negotiated agreement. What the Manley panel seems to be saying is that not enough people have yet been killed to warrant an end to this war.

One clear option for the Canadian government would be to withdraw our military forces from Afghanistan, propose a ceasefire and make a strong commitment to finding a peaceful solution. Contrary to the view of the Manley panel, Canada’s world reputation and influence is not a product of fighting counter-insurgency wars in support of U.S. policy but of our historical role in United Nations peacekeeping operations. Canada could take on a leadership position, constructed with those countries in the United Nations which are not committed to the U.S. war policy. This would necessitate bypassing the Security Council, where the U.S. and the U.K. have the veto, and going directly to the UN General Assembly. Of course, this would require Canada to pursue a foreign policy initiative independent of the U.S. government.

What is needed is a broad regional peace settlement that includes Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries. Such an approach has been formally proposed to NATO by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), but was flatly rejected by the United States. The other NATO governments have remained silent. An SCO-brokered settlement would be based on the revival of the Six-Plus-Two negotiations on Afghanistan (1997-2001) which were hosted by the United Nations and which consisted of the six countries that border on Afghanistan, plus the United States and Russia. The SCO has recommended that NATO be formally added to this group. Afghanistan is already an official observer to the SCO and has sought full membership.

Following such an international settlement, the United Nations could create a real peacekeeping operation. It would have to be completely separate from the United States, NATO and the “coalition of the willing.” The largest contributors to UN peacekeeping forces today are Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Jordan, Nepal and the Organization of African Unity.

Investing in Afghan-centred development

The Senlis Council (an NGO with many years experience operating in Afghanistan) and many others have criticized the Canadian government for allocating 90 per cent of its budget for Afghanistan to military forces and only 10 per cent to humanitarian assistance. They have called for a radical change that would put the bulk of our resources into economic and social development. This is an obvious policy alternative, in line with the Canadian public’s strong support for humanitarian assistance.

Canada could make a significant impact if it would concentrate its funding on health, housing, food and agriculture. As the Senlis Council has repeatedly stressed, there is a real need for emergency food assistance. The Canadian government could choose to bypass the international aid organizations like the World Bank and direct its spending to the most needy areas. This would have to be done with the support of the Afghan government.

The United States and international aid organizations have determined that the health system in Afghanistan shall be run on free-market principles. Canada could demonstrate that a public-health approach is better. Our government could begin by financing community health clinics open to all.

The Canadian government would also win a great deal of support in Afghanistan if it directly provided major funding to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and other human rights organizations. The legal system is hardly functioning in Afghanistan. Canada could provide significant help in this area, especially in the development of a legal aid program. The educational system is still in need of schools and teachers. Official Canadian aid could be funnelled to the Afghan government for this purpose.

What can we do in the area of food and agriculture? No poor, underdeveloped country can make progress towards social justice unless it can feed its people. Food security requires a rejection of the free-trade and free-market model of agricultural development.

The Afghan economy depends on food and agriculture; these account for over 50 per cent of the gross domestic product. Added to this is the poppy economy, which is estimated to be 35 per cent of the total GDP. Afghan agriculture is characterized by many small- and medium-sized farms with very few large operators. In this context Canada has a great deal to offer from our own history. Canadian farmers have expertise in the development of farm organizations, farmer-controlled co-operatives, credit unions and marketing agencies. Afghan farmers need help in developing transportation and marketing. As in many European countries, farmer co-operatives can expand into food processing, wholesaling and retailing.

Canada could readily provide assistance in this area. But it would mean rejecting the neo-liberal model imposed on Afghanistan that promotes the free market and foreign corporate agribusiness. The “Food First” model of self-reliance and egalitarian development as promoted by the Institute for Food and Development Policy, supported by many Canadian non-governmental and ethical organizations, is the obvious alternative.

Afghanistan has relied on two state-owned banks, but they are now being privatized. Through political mobilization Canadian farmers were able to establish the Farm Credit Corporation to provide long-term, low-interest mortgages. The People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan government of 1978-1992 was establishing similar credit programs. The Canadian model would be welcomed by Afghan farmers who are now victims of local money lenders and drug lords.

Afghanistan has very little industrial development; this is one of the main reasons why it is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has natural resources and good potential for mining, oil and natural gas. The current model for development, set by the United States with the support of the Canadian government, places emphasis on attracting investment from foreign-controlled transnational corporations. The previous state-owned enterprises are being abolished or privatized.

It is most important for Afghanistan to establish state ownership and control over natural resources, including the creation of state-owned enterprises. This is the only way that a less-developed country can capture high economic rents from natural resource extraction. In the Middle East all of the Muslim states maintain state-owned corporations for the development of the oil and gas industry. These states could provide the technical assistance to create this model. Assistance could also come from the central Asian countries who are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. They are all developing oil, natural gas and other resource extraction through their own state-owned corporations, working in partnership with transnational corporations.

Of course, such a pronounced change in policy will be difficult for any Canadian government to realize. Since the 1980s our major political parties and federal and provincial governments have developed a commitment to the free market and foreign-ownership model of resource development. Prior to 2001, however, the Afghan government was developing its resource and energy sectors using state-owned enterprises. Canadian governments must recognize the right to self-determination and democracy. If the people of Afghanistan want to pursue a different road, we must accept that and provide assistance.

There are many policy options that are different from those being pursued by the U.S. and Canadian governments. If the alternative policy approaches outlined above were presented to the Canadian public there is a very good chance that they would receive majority support.

From counter-insurgency to peacemaking

The immediate goal of any Canadian movement for a new policy direction in Afghanistan must be to pressure the political parties in Parliament to respect the sovereignty and democratic rights of the people of Afghanistan. This would include an end to the Canadian government’s commitment to a large-scale deployment of military forces in Afghanistan in support of the U.S. counter-insurgency war. Instead, Canada should take on the role of peacemaker.

The second goal would be to convince the Canadian government there should be a major budget shift from the military role in Afghanistan to economic and social development. If the people of Afghanistan were given the right to self-determination and democracy, it is doubtful they would choose the neo-liberal agenda that is being imposed upon them.

Recent public-opinion polls indicate that around 50 per cent of the Canadian public want to see the government withdraw from the counter-insurgency war in Afghanistan. Over 60 per cent took the position that Canada should not continue a counter-insurgency military role beyond February 2009. Polls regularly show that 70 per cent choose UN peacekeeping over a combat role. Several polls report that a large majority, around 80 per cent, is pleased that Canada is not officially involved in the war in Iraq.

So what can those of us wanting to act on these sentiments do to directly aid Afghanistan? In the 1970s and 1980s Canadians formed local organizations across Canada to help the people of Guatemala and El Salvador resist and survive the horrors of their right-wing dictatorships, backed by the U.S. government. People mobilized in support of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, under attack from the Contras who were backed by the Reagan administration and the CIA’s narco-empire. Canadians can do that again.

There are quite a few parties of the left in Afghanistan, constantly undergoing change. There is also a group of younger parties, referred to as “new democrats,” which have a strong commitment to human rights, secularism and broad-based democracy. In her visit to Canada in November 2007, Malalai Joya, the embattled and determined advocate from the Afghan parliament, urged Canadians to give direct support to the “freedom-loving democratic parties” that need so much support. She also urged organizations in Canada to give assistance to the established non-governmental organizations doing good work in her country that cannot complete their projects because of lack of funds. There is a great need for the formation of Canadian solidarity organizations to go to Afghanistan to build alliances with political and non-governmental groups. There is a need for Canada’s alternate media organizations to do the same thing.

In the past Canadians have undertaken international solidarity activities that were in direct opposition to the policy positions taken by their government. They were willing to stand up and defy the policies of the U.S. government. Because our government shares responsibility for the tragic situation that now exists in Afghanistan, it is even more important for Canadians to take action today.

John W. Warnock is the author of The Politics of Hunger: The Global Food System; Free Trade and the New Right Agenda; The Other Mexico: The North American Triangle Completed and most recently Creating a Failed State: The U.S. and Canada in Afghanistan (Fernwood Publishing), from which this article is excerpted.

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