Groups, Networks, Organizations

Farmers Market Society

Pretty straight forward, they run the Vancouver Farmers Markets.
Right now they would like to create a permanent year-round educational space (or spaces) where people can learn to grow, cook and preserve food.

Local Food Plus

This group is where I see the most promise in terms of a group we could work with. If you take a look at their website, you'll see they are focused mostly on Southern Ontario but they are implementing similar programs in the Vancouver area. I really hope to hear back from LFP and I will persist.
One great example of a project they did was to implement the purchase of local foods for the University of Toronto and the Lori Stahlbrand spoke of the importance of getting public institutions on board with local foods so that farmers know there will be a demand for production. I took the following blurb from a report by Food Services at the University of Toronto:

"The University of Toronto is committed to sustainability in its food service operations. In 2006, the St. George Campus partnered with Local Food Plus (LFP), a non-profit organization that brings farmers and consumers together, to bring in more locally grown and environmentally sustainable food into cafeterias. LFP certifies local farmers and processors who produce food in environmentally and socially responsible ways and links them with purchasers.

A number of residences and cafeterias on the St. George campus serve seasonably available, fresh items and dishes made with these certified ingredients.

During the 2008-2009 academic year, food service providers on the St. George Campus, purchased over $300 000 worth of LFP certified items."

Private Businesses

Left Coast Naturals

I emailed Ian asking where he thinks there is a need for scientific research related to Vancouver's food system. This is his response:

"I think the best scientific research that could be done is more of the farming side. I would be interested to see if we can grow more types of food in BC than we currently do. For example...could we grow more tree nuts here or dry pulses and beans. As a food manufacturer, I am limited in the raw materials that I can source from BC. Most of this is climate related....but it also may be that farmers are just "growing what they always grew" and not looking into growing new types of crops. This may take some scientific research. That is all I can think of for now. For me most of the issue lies in funding, cooperation and education more than research."

I think there are a couple interesting questions we can extract from this. Using, for example a type of non-native nut, which is more sustainable and less resource intensive? Importing it from areas where it is native (requires fuel for transportation) or growing it in Vancouver where additional inputs might be necessary to make it grow (inputs could include more water, more nutrients, light, heat...). We could talk to manufacturers or restaurateurs and discover which items they frequently use but cannot get locally. Then attempt to see if it would be more sustainable to grow them here. We could use elements of life-cycle analyses.

Vij's

The Home Grow-In Grocer

Spud!

Here is the response I got from Christie Ruivo when I asked her about the Eco Audit:

"The person who did those numbers is no longer in the same position. It was all done manually. However, I do know that there are companies out there to make much easier. It took him months to put it together. I have one company that may be able to help - http://www.thenaturalstep.org/canada/toolkits. If I find anything else, I will let you know."

Media Contacts

Looking into the future we might want to have some media coverage of our either our work as it progresses or our final report and presentations.

Vancouver Observer

The Vancouver Observer is a news source with a focus on local Vancouver happenings.
Paul Voykin is the Food Section Editor and was in attendance. He gave me his contact info.

The TYEE

The TYEE, and online magazine, is "B.C.'s Home for News, Culture and Solutions".
I did not talk to Editor David Beers personally but he clearly has an interest in local food and sustainability.

Interesting TYEE articles suggested by Tara:

Ten Ingredients for a Healthy Local Food Economy

A Tale of Two Farmlands