What is BAA?
The Bowen Agricultural Alliance (Baa) is a fledgling community network with a mission to promote and facilitate the development of local food systems, agriculture, and community building on Bowen Island, British Columbia. As of mid-November 2009, BAA is an informal organization working to convene community discussion and action planning.
On November 1, 2009 more than 70 Bowen Islanders came together in an Open Space format to identify and begin planning around key food and agricultural issues. A recurring theme during that workshop was interest in an umbrella organization to support the efforts of group initiatives and individual food growers/producers. On November 28 the community is invited to reconvene and further explore the potential role and form of this umbrella organization.
Some potential roles for BAA:
- Make groups visible to each other. Encourage knowledge and resource sharing.
- Identify common interests and collaboration potential.
- Help groups to communicate their objectives to potential partners and volunteers.
- Become a clearing house for food and agriculture information (e.g. resource library, online land inventory, funding opportunities).
- Link land owners with potential food growers. Help identify land use agreements.
- Organize workshops, training seminars, lectures, film screenings.
- Identify project opportunities.
What shape might BAA take?
- A registered, non-profit society capable of receiving a wider range of grants and tax-deductible donations.
- A “chaordic” network that leverages the self-organizing enthusiasm of volunteer groups while providing a nexus for sharing knowledge and resources (avoiding duplication of effort and competition for limited on-island resources).
Join us November 28 to help plan an organization that meets the needs of our unique island home.
So what is the status of local food and agriculture on Bowen?
A recent Bowen Food & Agriculture Survey seems to support anecdotal suggestions that while there is a growing interest in producing and consuming local food on Bowen, we are confronted with a number of challenges which diminishes the community’s current sense of food security. Some of those challenges are unique to Bowen. Many would be familiar to communities, consumers and farmers the world over.
The survey revealed more than just obstacles however. It also suggests that Bowen Islanders are optimistic about what is possible on our piece of rock.
More to come …
