Ladybugs to the Rescue in the Little Green Thumbs garden

Indoor gardening has wonderful educational benefits for students. We have fabulous teachers that use the Little Green Thumbs indoor garden to explore topics of nutrition, science, math, language, art and much more. Many teachers experiment with various growing methods and find solutions when challenges come along.

Sometimes a pest becomes an issue in indoor gardens. Eggs of aphids, fungus gnats, thrips or other pesky critters may hitch a ride with equipment, potting mix or houseplants.

At Morinville High School, the urban agriculture class had a hard time with green peach aphids. Here is a note about the learning that happened this last semester, and a photo of the ladybugs that helped to control the pests:

“We learned a lot more about biological pest controls. We had aphid problems and bought parasitic wasps and ladybugs to battle them. It worked really well. We had both insects complete their life cycles in the class and we observed the eggs, larvae etc."

To find out what else the students learn in this class, visit https://youtu.be/DDXQOKt3B8E

Alternative Agriculture Research Survey

Starr Brained, a Fulbright Scholar, is conducting research with the University of Alberta. He is investigating alternative agriculture in Western Canada and the potential role alternative food systems can have in ensuring regional food security. The first step of this research is to identify alternative food systems in the region and gather basic organizational and management data on these sites.

If you own or manage an urban farm, permaculture project, restorative or biodynamic agriculture site, or any related food production project of any scale, please submit a response to the survey linked below. The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete.

http://goo.gl/forms/lhmZsYgjRV

In Defense of Food Documentary Screening

Our community partner's Trinity United Church will be screening In Defence of Food based on the book by Michael Pollan on February 26, 2016 at 8810 Meadowlark Road. 

Doors open at 6:00 pm and the screening starts at 6:30. Free tickets can be found on eventbrite.

In the documentary In Defence of Food, Michael Pollan tackles a question many of us have been asking: What should I eat to be healthy? The answer turns out to be much simpler than he imagined. Today the typical North American diet includes lots of meat, white flour, sugar and vegetable oils. It's cheap, convenient and tasty. But its effects on health are not so tasty, including alarming increases in obesity and type 2 diabetes.The film follows Pollan on a fascinating journey to discover the truth about food and health. His search for answers takes him from the plains of Tanzania, where one of the world’s last remaining tribes of hunter-gatherers still eats the way our ancestors did, to Loma Linda, California, where a group of Seventh-day Adventist vegetarians live longer than almost anyone else on earth, and eventually to Paris, where the French diet, rooted in culture and tradition, proves surprisingly healthy.

English Language Learners Inspired by LGT Indoor Garden

Inspiration from a grade four student:

"During October in room 13 in grade 4. We planted some beans. And a lot more vegetables. And the teacher and children were involved. The beans grow very big. They grew and we ate them we felt good about it. The beans were very big and yummy we enjoyed a lot at Weinlos schools garden in grade 4.

While during Christmas our garden vegetables grew so big. The garden grew so big we were very happy because there were a lot of stuff to eat like tomatoes, cucumbers, and of course  beans. We ate the beans cucumbers we had a lot of fun. When we started the garden I was in my country.

People felt very good about it. On my first day at school I did not know what it is so I just waited for a little while and then Mrs. Delhey my teacher she told me then I knew that it is a garden I was surprised. First I saw a flowers.

Then we planted some basils and I planted some basil too. I was very excited. We plated it on Monday. We like planting stuff in our garden. The teacher tells as when we need to plant them. On Monday we ate cucumbers they were very yummy."

Board of Directors - Volunteer Position

Sustainable Food Edmonton (SFE) is a non-profit charitable organization that initiates and supports projects and programs to encourage the building of community through urban agriculture.

As part of developing a stronger volunteer led organization, SFE is seeking individuals with an interest in urban agriculture and a variety of experiences (particularly in IT, education, agriculture, community building and HR) to provide leadership and expertise as part of our Board of Directors. Time commitment is approximately 10 hours per month.

Our Board of Directors is comprised of accomplished professionals and passionate community members in and around the Capital Region. Our directors provide strategic governance and champion our vision of raising awareness through education that results in communities engaged in healthy food and sustainable food systems.

Requests for a board information package can be made to board@sustainablefoodedmonton.org