Damien's bio

Let's get to know each other a little better.
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Damien
Site Admin
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat 09-Oct-2021, 13:51
Location: Chilliwack, BC
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 7 times

Greetings. My name is Damien and I'm your gardening community facilitator.

I'm originally from Melbourne, the youngest child born to a French father and an English mother, both first generation immigrants who met in Australia. I moved to France when I was eight, where I completed the last three years of my elementary schooling. My uncle had a hobby farm in the Deux-Sèvres region which is where I spent my summer holidays, picking strawberries, feeding the chickens & ducks, and sitting on the tractor wheel-guard (& hanging on for dear life) as my cousin Jean-François drove around the farm.

This planted the seed in me to also one day settle down and achieve self-sufficiently on a rural property. It's a vision that I am still working towards.

We moved back to Melbourne just a few days before my twelfth birthday and I've pretty much been living in cities ever since, including Montreal for my first three years in Canada.

I studied IT in Melbourne in the mid-1990's and worked in corporate environments until 2003, when I began working from home. By 2012, I was tired of spending long days in front of a computer and decided to do some part-time agricultural studies, which brought me to Chilliwack in 2013.

I first visited Local Harvest on a student field trip in January 2016 and started shopping at their market in 2017. I completed my practicum at Local Harvest farm just prior to graduating, which led to a job offer. I am now coming full circle and spending most of my time in front of a computer again. The difference this time is that I am working on something that fully resonates with me and that I believe in.

I have always been very health focussed, so Local Harvest's mission of growing nutrient-dense foods, using 100% natural and sustainable methods, fully aligns with my own ethos. I have also been aware of the unsustainable nature of our industrial food system for some time. However, what we have witnessed since March 2020 underscores for me the urgency of the need for us to all reclaim our independence, and food security is foundational to that.

Our current global systems are both unsustainable and, in my humble opinion, patently corrupt. We find ourselves in this predicament largely as we have allowed our systems and power structures to become centralised. Most people have lost individual control over their food supply, energy supply, and increasingly even foundational bodily sovereignty. We need only look at childhood vaccine mandates in many jurisdictions and rapidly looming adult mandates.

So how do we reclaim our sovereignty and change this picture? The solution is simple: decentralisation.

Opting-out of the industrial food-system and reclaiming local food security is the first, foundational step. We cannot be truly independent and resilient if we can't even feed ourselves at a community level.

Beyond that, we need to start to build an alternative economy that is independent from centralised control. And we start doing that by meeting like-minded people, fostering community solutions and supporting smaller, local businesses. This will support the economic vitality in the communities in which we live, which in turn provides us individually with work opportunities and strengthens our resilience against a coercive, malignant and unsustainable centralised system.

I am being fairly forthright in my bio. Of course, this is simply my personal viewpoint, independent of my role here at LHG. This is a personal bio and we're here to get to know each other. Where we've come from and what we have done is only one part of the picture. Where we're at in our ethos and mindset presents a fuller picture, so I would encourage fellow community members to be just as forthright.

Feel free to let others know where you're at and let's truly get to know each other and find common ground where it can be found. Just be aware that this is a public forum, which means Google will be indexing it. So you can use an alias in place of your first or full name if you're more comfortable with that.

Together, let's all reclaim our sovereignty. I look forward to building a strong and mutually rewarding community with you all in the coming months and years.

Warmly,

Damien
robyn
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu 17-Mar-2022, 17:04
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I appreciate your honesty about your views and I couldn't agree more myself! Thanks for being willing to be vulnerable that way and leading the way for the rest of us to be able to do the same!
Can't wait to be more self-sufficient when it comes to feeding my family! Food is medicine - but only if we're getting nutrient rich food again, something the centralized systems can't provide!
Thanks again, looking forward to learning so much more!
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Damien
Site Admin
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat 09-Oct-2021, 13:51
Location: Chilliwack, BC
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 7 times

Thank you Robyn :)

I don't feel at all vulnerable in expressing my point of view. What we have witnessed the past two years has angered me; we've truly seen the can of worms open up and reveal just how rotten it is inside. We find ourselves at a point in history when it is no time to be meek. The powers that seek to enslave us have no scruples, so it's incumbent upon us all to stand firm in what we believe. I'm glad you're joining us on this mission to reclaim our independence and self-sufficiency.
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