A series on global and local “food footprints” has earned the Richmond News first place in the category of Best Environmental Writing for the Canadian Community Newspaper Awards.
Written by reporters Graeme Wood and Alyse Kotyk, the series covered the international multi-day conference at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, “Place Based Food Systems” held last summer.
The conference brought together academic and community leaders to encourage cities to transition from thinking sustainably to living sustainably.
During the conference, keynote speaker William Rees, professor emeritus at UBC, raised critical issues, suggesting that, even if the entire global population stopped polluting the world today, there could still be 30 years of climate change ahead.
“The future is unfolding at an unbelievably, mind-blowingly fast pace and yet because we’re caught up in the moment we don’t really fully understand the implications of that simple reality,” Rees who came up with the concept of the “ecological footprint” to measure sustainability (based on eating, consumer, travel and living space habits).
“What we take to be the norm is the single most abnormal…period in human history.”
The News’ series – which appeared both in print and online – zeroed in on more local issues too, discussing the specific, city-led led initiatives such as community gardens, which aim to promote urban agricultural in Richmond’s diverse community.
The Canadian Community Newspaper Awards run annually and celebrate the best in community publishing from across the country. Newspapers compete against other newspapers in similar circulation classes and are judged by a panel of industry experts.
