Under Rich Earth
Friday, February 27, 2009 | 02:30 PM ET
by Jessica Wong, CBCNews.ca
Food tends to permanently occupy my thoughts, but I'm often struck humble when encountering invariably more serious concerns of farmers and food producers, both at home and abroad.
Under Rich Earth, a documentary I watched last week, has been weighing on my mind. In it, Toronto filmmaker Malcolm Rogge chronicles the struggles of the people of Ecuador's Intag Valley against Ascendant, a Canadian company attempting to begin copper mining in the area.
(The film screens in Toronto on March 1 as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival and then continues to other events in Canada and elsewhere.)
The documentary focuses on the Junin community's activism, but I was invariably drawn to what they were protecting. The Intag Valley is a marvel of biodiversity, a rich hot spot sitting next to the Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve and covered in lush cloud forests, containing more than 15 per cent of the world's plant species and about 20 per cent of the world's bird species.
Traditionally, it's an agricultural area that allows people to grow a large variety of food crops, from sugarcane to tomatoes and other fruits to beans and corn, thanks to the region's various microclimates, Rogge told me.
After ousting a Japanese mining company in the 1990s, the democratically self-governed locals felt they had to come up with additional jobs for the community, but in an environmentally sustainable manner to protect their treasured surroundings.
Amid several economic development projects on the go, they've found some success in shade-grown coffee, with their organic, fair-trade beans exported around the globe, including Canada and Japan.
"At its heart, they want to protect their way of life, their water resources," Rogge said. "The Intag Valley right now is full of crystal clear rivers and streams."
Most in the community have a keen awareness of ecological importance of their community and there's a "high level of consciousness of protecting biological resources," he said, adding however that at the same time, they must keep in mind the need for jobs and more money to improve their very basic infrastructure.
As someone lucky enough to worry about food as a simple means of sustenance, I take my hat off to these people who not only must grow food to feed themselves and their families, but also rely on it as their source of livelihood, and do it all in a manner that will protect and sustain the world around them.
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Amber Hildebrandt writes for CBCNews.ca in Toronto. Growing up on a farm in Manitoba, she acquired an insatiable appetite, but it was during a stint in Japan that she developed her discerning tastebuds and "foodie" ways.
Andrea Chiu is an associate producer at CBC Radio Digital. Though she loves to eat, cook and discuss food,
don't ask her to bake. It never turns out well. She tweets as @TOfoodie on Twitter and organizes food and wine events in Toronto called FoodieMeet.
Tara Kimura is the consumer life reporter for CBCNews.ca, covering a wide range of issues that range from rising food costs and the growing organic movement, to new trends in the marketplace.
Andree Lau is a CBC web reporter in Calgary. Her journalism career includes seven years as a CBC-TV reporter. Her own blog called "are you gonna eat that?" chronicles her eating adventures (including sampling snake and camel hoof tendon).
Jessica Wong is a CBCNews.ca writer who loves to eat and cook, as well as discuss, read and watch programming about food, sometimes all at once.
Kevin Yarr, CBCNews.ca's writer in Prince Edward Island, wrote about food and beer for national and regional magazines before joining the CBC. He acquired a desire for new tastes on his first trip to Europe, and an appreciation of eating locally and in season when he finally settled down on P.E.I.
Elizabeth Bridge is a writer with the CBC Digital Archives in Toronto. She first ventured into the kitchen as a child to indulge a sweet tooth by baking cookies and making fudge. A student budget compelled her to be a vegetarian (for a while) and instilled in her an ongoing curiosity about food and cooking.
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Comments
merville cratte
bravo! these people must be under tremendous pressure. if big mining has its' way they will destroy every drop of water,strip the soil & chop down the non replaceable tree canopy,destroying millions of species of unique fauna % flora which could have millions of lifesaving drugs. in the end we all suffer, the only reason a respite may happen is a fall in the price of copper!
Posted March 10, 2009 12:05 PM
Nuada Citlali
I'm from Ecuador and thanks to this film I know what my own country has to suffer due to global pressure. A must-see.
Posted May 24, 2009 11:54 AM