QPIRG and EarthSave
EarthSave in Montreal
The first international affiliate of EarthSave, EarthSave Canada “is a non-profit, educational organization promoting awareness of the environmental, ethical and health consequences of our food choices.”[1] Montreal’s EarthSave chapter focuses on advocating a plant-based diet. Such a diet encourages sound nutrition, conservation of resources and sustainable agriculture. This opposed to an animal-based diet, whose factory farming leads to huge depletion and pollution of the natural world as well as suffering to animals and danger to our health.[2]
EarthSave Montreal’s approach involves getting a group together and organizing informative events and spreading the word. Given that EarthSave is a non-profit organization, volunteering plays a huge role in its success.[3] Because of that advertising is crucial to the group’s success, be it by class announcements, word of mouth, or printed ads among other means. One of EarthSave Montreal’s key methods in making its presence known is through events and projects, both fundraising (such as an Earthsave Montreal discount card, a Sponsor's Fair, and cookbooks) and non-fundraising (examples stated include potlucks and workshops).[4]
QPIRG and EarthSave
As the main sponsor, QPIRG McGill plays an integral role in the success of EarthSave Montreal, with the most impactful provision being EarthSave Montreal’s budget: EarthSave Montreal provides QPIRG with an outline of the group’s needs and how much funding will be required to meet its goals.[5] In return, QPIRG is invited to EarthSave Montreal’s Sponsor’s Fair, where it can sell and promote its own products and ideas.[6] QPIRG also provides an internship program, allowing students to help EarthSave Montreal “for credit.”[7] Being such an important part of EarthSave’s success tie in very closely with QPIRG’s idea of empowering people through knowledge, something shared closely with EarthSave itself. This relationship, then, is a mutually beneficial one.
On a Global Scale
EarthSave itself was created in 1988, and the collaboration between QPIRG and EarthSave Montreal began, based on the archives, around the middle of the 1990s.[8] The timing is significant, parallel to the rise of the Kyoto Protocol. With EarthSave promoting sustainability backed by the support of QPIRG, combined with the rise of the use of internet and thus the simplification of information sharing, this was an excellent time for both groups to expand. With many nations of the world looking to move towards increasingly environment-friendly practices, EarthSave’s promotion of sustainability through a plant-based diet had a strong base to build from: Faye Duchin, an expert in industrial ecology, notes that “[…] a global shift towards a Mediterranean-type or other plant-based diet could be expected to have a more favourable impact on the environment and on health.”[9] With respect for the environment continuing to grow to this day, EarthSave looks to play an important educational role, and QPIRG stands to gain from being a supporter.
1 “About Earthsave: Our Mission, Our History,” Earthsave Canada, accessed March 14th, 2014. http://earthsavecanada.wildapricot.org/mission
2 EarthSave McGill Uni-Chapter Manual, 1998-1999, File: EarthSave - McGill Uni-Chapter Manual, Box 19, EarthSave, McGill University Archives.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Faye Duchin, “Sustainable consumption of food: a framework for analyzing scenarios about changes in diets." Journal of Industrial Ecology 9, no. 1‐2 (2005): 111.
Works Cited
Duchin, Faye. "Sustainable consumption of food: a framework for analyzing scenarios about changes in
diets." Journal of Industrial Ecology 9, no. 1‐2 (2005): 99-114.
"Earthsave Canada - Our Mission, Our History." Earthsave Canada - Our Mission, Our History.
http://earthsavecanada.wildapricot.org/mission (accessed March 14th, 2014).
EarthSave McGill Uni-Chapter Manual, 1998-1999, File: EarthSave - McGill Uni-Chapter Manual, Box 19,
EarthSave, McGill University Archives.