Putting survey in comparison to the whole island

I haven’t written in the past month because I have “simply” continued to analyze my data. After presenting my preliminary results to my committee last week, I have made a few notable steps forward though:

1. I have estimated the total area of UA by management type on the island so that I can get an idea of how much my survey covered, and also make a P budget that represents the estimated total UA. I was very reticent to make any attempt at a total UA estimation because I didn’t want to be putting “bad” numbers out there. After my committee meeting it became clear that such a calculation was necessary though. I used city of Montreal data, some public consultation and Montreal UA group data, and then supplemented with US survey information on vegetable gardens and I think the assumptions are a reasonable starting point to start a discussion and put my results into a quantitative perspective.
2. I have done some statistics on the P balance of different UA management types and substrate types, in addition to the whole food-system and UA system P budgets.
3. I have also played around with some possible future scenarios based on my data and expanding recycling and efficiency practices.

On the art-science front, we are continuing rehearsals for the March 1st presentation and I came across a nice article supporting the art-science nexus.The show is coming up so fast and we need to start doing more outreach (and I need to learn my narrative by heart, make the label and signs for the presentation, and buy a lot of apples!).

I also wanted to share an important link so that citizens can give feedback on the Government of Canada’s science and technology research plan (which I think is lacking in basic science, environmental, sustainability, agriculture, and other resource management research). This is such an important issue considering the current administration has not been supporting of science in general, and certainly not environmental research, cutting over 2000 government researchers in the past 5 years.