Texte traduit par Isabelle Berthelot

All environmentally-minded folks are on the lookout for ways to help slow global warming and employ the three R’s into as much of their lives as possible. Unfortunately, in the environment as in life, things can be more complex than we originally think. So when my kids’ school announced an eco-lunch campaign, I was expecting, and received, information about using reusable plastic containers instead of cling wrap and sandwich bags, and a thermos or plastic bottle instead of juice boxes.

Slow Food Quebec recently held a conference about the ins and outs of artisanal food production in Quebec. More a chance to meet and exchange with other producers than a stuffy academic gathering, the event touched on a number of themes of importance:

At what level of production does a producer stop being an "artisan?"
What are the links between local, authentic food production and restaurants?
And how and what is distinctive about indigenous food producers and their products?

Bio Fuels are all over the news these days. Farmers are falling over each other to plant corn for ethanol plants, the Federal government is investing in the industry as part of its environmental strategy, institutions from public transit to delivery companies are looking at biodesiel conversion, and the auto industry is pinning its hopes on the promise of biofuels.

Recent changes in the CDN/NDG Borough’s Community compost program have reawakened a long running debate within the environmental community: Is it better to have individual backyard bins, and small community bins for those without a back yard, or is it better to integrate composting into the borough’s own waste management strategy?

Des changements récents dans le programme de compostage communautaire de l’arrondissement CDN/NDG ont réveillé un vieux débat au sein de la communauté environnementale : est-il préférable d’avoir des composteurs domestiques dans les cours arrière et des petits composteurs communautaires pour ceux qui n’ont pas de cour, ou d’intégrer le compostage au plan de gestion des déchets de l’arrondissement?

Congratulations are in order for Wakefield/La Peche, which recently became Quebec’s first “Fair Trade” municipality. They, along with Wolfville, Nova Scotia who made the shift last April, are the first Canadian municipalities to join the locally-generated movement to apply principles of fair trade to public institutions.