Please join UeaT in remembering those Canadians who made incredible sacrifices for a secure and stable Canada.
More information on Remembrance Day
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Tomorrow (Saturday), a mob of buyers will enter G’s Fine Foods with empty reusable bags in their hands and cash in their wallets. They will purchase food items like they do on any other Saturday, and they will feel good about it. Why? The wonderful people at G’s Fine Foods have promised to use 100% of the money they make on Saturday towards increasing environmental sustainability in their store. They will also connect with Local Food Plus and their environmentally-awesome list of local farmers to provide fresh food for their shoppers. In return, the Carrotmob has promised a mob of customers to their store on Saturday.
Since G’s Fine Foods is so close to campus, we recommend that you (and your friends and family) join in the festivities tomorrow. There will be music, an after-party and a mob of environmentally aware people…fun!! And the best part is that your dollars (which you were going to spend on groceries anyways) will support an LFP farmer who treats the livestock on the farm with love, uses environmental sustainable practices on the farm, and ensures that all staff are paid a fair wage.
For more information on LFP farmers, check out the LFP website.
(Interesting fact: U of T is the first University to become LFP certified!!)
Not quite sure what a Carrotmob is?
The Carrotmob Toronto blog explains: “Carrotmob is an emerging form of activism. This is not a brutal fight – this is about partnership for change. Carrotmob is community organized consumer power that partners with businesses to reward them for their socially and environmentally choices. A “buycott”, the anti-boycott, that travels in masses to help consumers see the change they want, and rewards businesses who are willing to compete and act for profits.”
How does this Carrotmob work?
“Buycotting allows consumers to vote with their dollars,” says event organizer Nico Koenig, a graduate student in the Adult Education and Community Development Program of OISE/University of Toronto. “Through Carrotmob, people are making a significant difference in the fight for environmental responsibility – and against climate change. In these hard times, Carrotmobs are economically feasible – all we ask is that people buy groceries they would already be buying. Every dollar counts!”
Why is it important for U of T??
U of T students are part of the Carrotmob organizing team as well as the “mob” that will hit up G’s Fine Foods at the corner of Bloor and Huron.
You can find videos, cartoons, discussions, and other cool stuff on their website:
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Guest Post by the Muslm Students Association
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Here’s something you didn’t know: U of T has bee hives on campus! We visited the hives on top of New College this week, and saw how the bees get ready for the winter. Brian Hamlin (bee keeper extraordinaire) let us sample the honey (and it was delicious!)…he also told us some fun facts about bees:
- 90% of the bees in the hive are female. 10% of them are male, and the males are kicked out (or die) in the autumn.
- All the work is done by the female bees. The male bees are simply around to fertilize the Queen.
- Bees don’t normally sting, unless they feel threatened.
- Bees are not scary. They’re quite nice actually.
- New College cafeteria uses the honey from its roof top in its menu. Yumm!
- Bees travel within a 3 mile radius to collect pollen for the honey. That means that the honey made and used at New College is from flowers at Queen’s Park and other green spaces in the area!
- Contrary to popular opinion, bears don’t love honey, they love bee larvae (rich source of protein).
- In Canada, the winter months are dormant for bees. In late winter, the Queen begins laying eggs, and they bees starting working inside the hive. During the summer months, they go out to collect pollen and produce honey.
- Honey has antioxidant and antibiotic properties.
In future months, we will pay a visit to the other hives on campus. If you know of a hive we haven’t visited yet, do let us know!
Although “beekeeping” appears to be a very benign type of activity, I think it’s important that one examines it from a more critical perspective.
Bees produce honey for their own consumption and do so in quantities that ensure their survival. To steal this hard won food source is unconscionable in and of itself but the fact that bees are also invariably killed throughout all stages of this process (the “keeper” in the video even points out that he’s just “squashed” a few of them simply removing the lid) makes it even more so.
There’s also a question of confinement as the screen that he points out at the top of the hive is meant to keep the queen (who is larger than the others and cannot pass through the openings) from leaving. This further highlights the fact that “beekeeping” is analogous to (and a euphemism for) slavery, in that not only is their labour being fully and non-consensually exploited, but these beings are also kept in a state of bondage (bees will not abandon their queen; so long as she is confined to the hive so shall they be obliged to remain with her).
Also, the claims typically made by beekeepers that they are providing a “service” by facilitating pollination of plants is simply not true as the VAST percentage of pollination is accomplished thanks to the work of the approximately 3500 native pollinator species in North America. These various species also typically perform this pollination much more efficiently as, generally, they tend to favour remaining within one specific crop area as opposed to the European honeybee which is much less selective . Unfortunately (for the beekeepers that is) none of the honey producing species included in that list do so in any quantities that make it economically attractive for humans to exploit (this is a good thing!) which further illustrates how self-serving many of the statements coming out of this industry really are.
Further to the above, there is a real detriment to native species caused by the great number of “migratory beekeepers” traveling all over North America with their respective bee captive hives. Aside from the obvious competition for food sources (or “crowding out”) with native species (including birds), there’s also the very real issue of disease and “pest” transmission as has been so clearly seen with the prolific spread of the Varroa mite which has wreaked havoc with native bee species. Even”stationary” hives contribute as these non-native European honeybees also tend to range much further than native species thereby increasing their impact on the environment.
In summary it’s quite clear that the practice of this type of “beekeeping” is so fraught with negative impacts, from both ethical and environmental perspectives, so as to make it not only unworthy of support, but something which we should heartily decry.
Hi Paul,
Thank you for your thoughts on bee-keeping, both on campus and in the world in general.
At UeaT, our purpose is to encourage the U of T community to be involved in University initiatives, and to create a dialogue.
The bee-keeping initiatives on campus are engaging the community, and that is why we chose to do a story on them. Whether it is an ethical or unethical initiative is not for us to judge as we are not providing the space, nor the bees or the services of the bee-keeper. We do, however, encourage the coming together of students, staff and faculty due to this activity.
Also, some view urban bee-keeping to be a more sustainable food resource, than, say, shipping jars of honey from New Zealand. At UeaT, we do support local food sources, and therefore, chose to do this story.
I am sorry I could not address your concerns, perhaps Brian Hamlin or the New College staff would be able to do a better job?
Thank you again for your comment.
Sarah Khan
Communications and Marketing Coordinator
Food Services
University of Toronto