International Program
Through our work with international groups over the last decade, LifeCycles has always aimed to understand local food issues as part of a bigger global picture. We worked with our international partners to grow food, teach farmers organic techniques and talk about ways to make the food system local and sustainable. We worked with communities such as our own on projects that range from green mapping, community gardening, environmental education, urban agriculture and waste management systems. We linked our farmers, our efforts, and our concerns about the environment and healthy cities with communities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
For over three years, we partnered with a Cuban organization, the Cuban Association of Agriculture and Forest Technicians (ACTAF); this is a professional group mandated to develop urban organic agriculture capacity and training in the city of Havana. With the support of the Canadian International Development Agency and LifeCycles, ACTAF developed a seven-hectare demonstration and training farm, community kitchen program and micro-economic enterprise for urban farmers, community groups and school programs. The goal of our partnership project was to train farmers in intensive, organic methods suitable for an urban environment, build awareness of the environmental impact of agricultural production, develop micro-economic capacity through the production and marketing of produce, improve nutritional health through cooperative cooking project and increase food security and health of the local community. LifeCycles' provided expertise and support to our partner organization in Cuba; we work to adapt and apply the methods and models proven successful to the Canadian environment.
In Victoria, we worked with school children, high school students, youth teams, the university and other local partners to talk about the global food system and its impact on food security and the environment. We linked our work in Latin America with our work in Canada through tours, educational presentations, conferences and workshops. We shared with Canadians the ideas, examples and models of local food production that LifeCycles and our partners developed.
We are pleased to have partnered with the Canadian International Development Agency who made our international projects possible.