There was a meeting of the minds recently at the North Shore food security and urban agriculture conference called Table Matters.

This conference is one of many being held across North America in response to the growing interest in the food we eat, food distribution and organic food.

Two tireless champions of the local food movement -- Heather Johnstone of the Edible Garden Project and Elizabeth Leboe of the North Shore Recycling Program -- were in attendance and spoke enthusiastically and knowledgeably about the need to enhance local food production. Johnstone was also one of the conference leaders along with Margaret Broughton of Vancouver Coastal Health.

One of the common themes of the day was put forth by Mark Holland when he said, "Food is the new common ground." Holland is a principal and senior planner at HB Lanarc Consultants. He gave the keynote speech that discussed many themes swirling around food security and challenged the audience by asking, "Who will solve our food problems?" Holland's talk laid out the agri-urbanism proposition by separating the production of food from the distribution and culture aspects of food.

He suggested that society could improve many aspects of food security by building on the connection that happens around food to integrate multiple food distribution systems into local communities through education, demonstration and business investment.

Two of the three North Shore mayors attended the conference along with mayors from Bowen Island and Lions Bay who discussed various plans for developing community gardens, farms or other agri-urban initiatives. But one of the most insightful comments came from Mayor Richard Walton when asked by members of the audience: What effect will peak oil and climate change have on food security? Walton said, "The next oil crisis like the one in the 1970s will show us just how important local food production is." Before I could pause to think, I heard someone near me say, "How will we get food onto the North Shore if there's no gas?" That was a startling comment delivered ad hoc from the crowd, but it gave everyone reason to pause and made the rest of day's discussions much more important.

After the mayors finished speaking, Holland summed up and talked about building systems and synergies and then he inexplicably apologized for his profession's past transgressions on society by saying, "City planners have been responsible for designing cities that have obliterated food production and food producing soils on many continents."

Once again, many attendees paused to reflect on the realities of food security. Holland is only partially right though; planners have planned, but councillors have voted to approve, so Holland's profession deserves only shared responsibility for the way things are in cities, and ultimately citizens elect councillors.

During one of my many conversations I asked an attendee named Nora: How would these ideas work on the North Shore since there isn't any farmland? She said, "There's no farmland, officially." Pause to reflect. Then I asked Nora why she was attending. She said, "I'm a community keener, and we all need to eat." She's keen and insightful.

One of the most provocative comments came from Alex Kurnicki of the City of North Vancouver who said, "We are starting to rethink the concept of what a park is." This is definitely a paradigm changing concept and Kurnicki may have something there as he taps into the current green trend in cities across the world that are converting vacant lots and passive-use parks into community gardens and farms.

In my view, the logical progression of rethinking our current food security constructs is to rezone land to permit developers of multi-family residential projects to incorporate community gardens, farmers' markets, productive landscaping and food hubs into their projects instead of building passive green space in such projects.

Some of the many good ideas discussed during the conference included building more community gardens and farmers' markets, installing prototype food walls, holding food celebrations, food walks and creating food hubs. The idea of turning the passive landscaping in home gardens into food producing landscaping was also discussed. I have long said that there's no better place for a veggie garden than the lawn. Also suggested was the desire to make farmers' markets less "crafty" and more "foodie."

Of all the ideas expressed during the conference, no one discussed the idea of strengthening the Agricultural Land Commission Act to refocus the purpose of the act on the issue of food security in B.C.

If we are serious about our food security at any level, then the logical place to start is by redefining and strengthening the Agricultural Land Commission Act to focus on food security for British Columbians. And as politicians have said before -- if residents don't make it a priority for council and advocate for change then nothing will happen.

Todd Major is a journeyman horticulturist, garden designer, writer, consultant and organic horticulture teacher. For advice contact him at stmajor@shaw.ca.