Course:LFS350/Projects/2014W1/T21/Proposal

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Version Control

Version Author Role Changes Date
3.0 All members Team 21 Modified version post-feedback from Hannah and Megan November 1st
2.0 All members Team 21 Modified version post-meeting with Hannah October 3rd
1.0 All members Team 21 Initial version September 17th

Project Background (__ / 10)

According to the Canadian Community Health Survey conducted in 2011-2012, almost 10% of British Columbians experienced some form of food insecurity whether it was due to a lack of one of the four aspects (access, availability, stability or utilization) or a combination (Statistics Canada, 2012). Increasingly, issues surrounding food are becoming more front and centre, raising the need to reassess our perception of food, particularly in an urban setting. Kaufman and Pothukuchi (1999) noted that urban dwellers may not be particularly drawn to the issues surrounding food, because of the seemingly ubiquitous food availability made possible by advancing technologies and increasing globalization. However, a report commissioned by the BC Food Systems Network suggested that the price of fruits and vegetables are expected to increase up to 50% due to severe droughts affecting our major food imports from California (Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, 2014). With the growing worries of food insecurity, it is becoming more imperative to strive for a sustainable food system.


One of the emerging voices towards addressing food security has been through the farm at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The UBC farm began in 1915 and has evolved from a small agricultural production site into a 24 hectare establishment. The evolution of the UBC farm included the development of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (CSFS) which aims to improve food security through research and teaching, community engagement and food production initiatives (UBC Farm, 2014). The growth of the farm has occurred parallel to the constant changes in Vancouver’s food system that have been a result of shifting political, social, cultural, and economic climates. As a prominent stakeholder in Vancouver’s food system, the CSFS is interested in documenting the changes and its implications on the present and future state of the food system (H. Wittman, personal communication, September 24, 2014).


As part of the Land and Food Systems (LFS) team, group 21 will be working with LFS groups 19 and 20 to synergistically archive changes within Vancouver’s food system dating back to 40 years ago. Furthermore, in order to adapt to new a equilibrium, we must first uncover barriers that exist in the current and past food system prior to deciding future solutions. Specifically, our goal will be to provide the CSFS with a broad framework outlining historical changes of four stakeholders in the Vancouver food system, with focus on infrastructure, policy, consumer demand, and sustainability. By conducting an ethnographic study with four diverse, long-term stakeholders, we can extrapolate a representation of food security trends, issues, and successes through their experiences in the food system. From the interviews, we will extract common themes as well as identify causes of past and current food insecurities. Therefore, the CSFS will be equipped to recognize challenges that the stakeholders have endured in order to lobby for and implement solutions to increase food security for a more sustainable future.

Stakeholder Summary (__ /5)

Name, Role & Organization Responsibilities
Student Team Members
  • Create proposal and charter while continuously revising throughout the term as progress is made
  • Lead and manage project team for all phases of project
  • Create timeline of project
  • Identify stakeholders and facilitate ethnographic interviews
  • Document Management (location, updates)
  • Status Reports (reporting progress with community partner)
  • Analyze recorded interviews and literature and extrapolate key themes
  • Develop media and resources for Centre for Sustainable Food Systems
  • Debrief stages of project
Community Partner - Hannah Wittman
  • Delineate project framework and purpose
  • Provide guidance in synthesizing proposal and connections with community
  • Review food systems model
  • Sign off Charter and Plan
  • Sign off on changes to Charter or Plan
Dietitian Stakeholder Gerry Kasten, Registered Dietitian - Angela and Hailey
Restaurant Stakeholder Steve Golob, Place Vanier Chef - Brit and Henry
Farm Stakeholder Alf Krause, Krause Berry Farms - Janine and Emily
Grocer Stakeholder Nicole Fetterly, Choices Market - Yanxin and David

Purpose and Research Question (__ / 20)

Research Question: How has the Vancouver food system changed over the last 40 years with regards to infrastructure, policy, consumer demand, and sustainability, as seen, experienced, and adapted to by a diverse group of long-term stakeholders?

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to conduct an ethnography to identify and summarize changes of the recent temporal past of the Vancouver food system, and to provide CSFS with a video and report to be archived on their website for later comparisons with current and future food systems. This project will identify common and significant themes expressed by our stakeholders and will extrapolate explanations for the cause and effect relationships that have occurred to shape the food system over the last 40 years. The report will also highlight the stakeholders' challenges and successes to enable the CSFS to further generate strategies for how they can move forward to develop sustainable food system models, increase food security, and community engagement.

Methods (__ / 20)

Ethnographic Interviews

Background

An ethnography is a scientific approach to discovering and investigating social and cultural patterns and meaning in communities, institutions, and other social settings (Schensul Schensul, & Lecompte, 1999). It focuses on understanding a local population in a broader sociological and political context (Schensul et al., 1999). Ethnographic interviews are a qualitative method of data collection that use open-ended questions to determine themes related to a research question (Creswell, 2003). The open-ended questions allows maximum flexibility in exploring topics in depth and in covering new topics as they arise (Schensul et al., 1999). By developing one-on-one interview questions we will be able touch upon the personal experiences our stakeholders have had over the years working with Vancouver’s changing food system.


Reasons for selecting our stakeholders:

As a group, and with discussion with Hannah Wittman, we have decided that our key stakeholders will comprise of a dietitian, a grocer, a farmer, and a restaurant representative. We, as a group believe these 4 stakeholders are community members that are knowledgeable about the topic targeted in our research question.

Dietitian

Dietitians have the ability to create major change in their communities, as evidenced by the work of McCullum, Desjardins, Kraak, Lapido, and Costello(2005). Their paper, Evidence-based Strategies To Build Community Food Security, outlines actions dietitians can take at three stages of an evidence-based plan of action to work towards increasing community food security. It also outlined the fact that dietitians work one-on-one with members of the public, collaborate with other agencies and food systems stakeholders, and can also influence government and industry policy (McCullum et al., 2005). The Dietitians of Canada website also highlights the large role dietitians play in shaping our communities. For example, they connect Canadians to resources such as healthy eating guides, helping members of the community to gain access to nutritious foods, and are part of personal health teams for Canadians (Dietitians of Canada, 2013). Because there is a bidirectional influence between dietitians and their communities, we are interested in finding out how their role in the food system has changed during the course of their careers.

Grocer

We have chosen Choices Market as a stakeholder to provide perspective as a Vancouver owned and run grocery store. Choices Market is a company that extends its market to Kelowna, BC and sells local and organic food products (Choices, 2014). Our decision of choosing Choices Market was important, because we wanted to choose a company that has a relatively longstanding position in the food system and also has a sense of what it is like to explicitly be a part of a Canadian Food system. The goal of Choices Market is to have products that are always fresh and from local farmer and producers. Supermarkets are the source of adequate food intake for many people and serve as a staple part of their livelihood. In order to sufficiently document a temporal food system map of Vancouver we needed to choose the stakeholders that are main players in many residents lives and who have been exposed to the changes here in Vancouver’s food system.

Farmer

We recognize that the experience of a farmer is essential to uncover major changes in the past of Vancouver's food system. With the farm as the producers of food, it is essential that we obtain their perspectives for this ethnographic study. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (2013) has acknowledged that “family farms continue to evolve and restructure” due to aspects in the food system. Farmer’s livestock and crop productions are directly affected by the changes in consumer desires and market conditions. By supplying commodities on a local and global basis, the maintenance of farmers “are important for the future of the sector” (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2013).

Restaurant

We have chosen to include a perspective from the lens of a restaurant in our project, because of their long involvement in the food supply chain. Restaurants have a direct view of changing consumers, supply chains, markets, waste management, and policy. By interviewing a restaurant that has a rooted history in Vancouver's food system, we hope to obtain information on the changes they have observed, how they have been able to adapt, and the relationships they have established.


Contacting Stakeholders

In order to contact our stakeholders in a professional manner we constructed an email explaining the purpose and reason of our study. This gives the stakeholder an idea of why we are conducting the research, what the interview process will involve and where the finished data will be available to view


Interview Strategy

Once our stakeholders have been contacted and scheduled for an interview we will begin with asking 5 questions that are common among all 4 stakeholders. These will give us a general knowledge of how the stakeholders view themselves in the food system, how familiar they are with sustainability, if they have any affiliation with the UBC farm and how this has impacted them. Following the common 5 questions, there are 10 specific questions for each stakeholder. These are more directed towards gaining insight on the specific profession and how their role has been changed over the last 40 years. In order to extract themes from our data, the questions have been constructed to focus on infrastructure changes, the impact of government policies, consumer demands and their overall role in the sustainability of Vancouver’s food system.


Conducting the Interviews

From our group two students will be conducting the face-to-face, on-site interviews while another group member videotapes. Face to face interviews are desirable because additional comments made during conversation may add understanding to the respondent’s life and add to overall data (Schensul et al. 1999). During the interview we will be taking written notes on key dates that will help us create a temporal outline of various changes and implications the stakeholder has experienced in the food system. The videotape will allow us to have an entire documented discussion with the stakeholder. From this we have the ability to review and identify the themes to focus our analysis on. The videotape will also be available in the final report and accessible to anyone who is interested in the interview process.


Data Analysis

From the videotaped interviews we will transcribe the data into written notes. By extracting key information from the stakeholders answers we can organize the thoughts and themes presented in the dialogue. In our own words we will describe the concepts, behaviors and words of the observed stakeholder (Schensul & LeCompte, 1999). Because our data collection is qualitative and in the form of open-ended questions, we will be using coding. This involves organizing data into categories related to the framework and questions guiding the research so that the data can be used for interpretation and to support results (Schensul & LeCompte, 1999). By reviewing and organizing our data we will see emerging themes regarding Vancouver’s food system that will hopefully have similarities across all stakeholders.


Advantages and Disadvantages

By conducting ethnographic interviews we have the opportunity to gain first hand knowledge from experienced stakeholders. This is an advantage as it will allow us to obtain more detailed personal opinions and thoughts that cannot be reflected in quantitative data. The reliability of the data is high as the interviews are face to face and draw upon personal experiences that could otherwise be forged in a written questionnaire or online survey. The disadvantage of ethnographic data collection is that we are limited to 4 stakeholders (a small sample) which may not give us a clear, dependable and completely accurate representation of the entire Vancouver food System. Our questions can also be limiting as they are constructed to be able to identify and analyze common themes across the stakeholders and maintain consistency. We also may experience trouble getting clear answers from stakeholders, or misunderstanding the ideas they present, given that the interviewer and interviewee may have varying degrees of perceived importance.

Deliverables (__ / 5)

Team 21 aims to contribute resources to the CSFS’s growing database on the recent past of the Vancouver food system. The project will address the changes in terms of infrastructure, policy, consumer demand, and sustainability, as experienced by long-term stakeholders. By the end of this project, we will have a video presentation highlighting the duration of the project and the interviews with our stakeholders, a Prezi presentation of our UBC Farm systems model, and a written report highlighting our findings, conclusions, and recommendations. Group 21 will also maintain an extensive wiki page outlining the framework and methodologies that have been used in guiding our project and finalizing our results. To highlight our deliverables, we will provide a brief overview of our findings in a presentation format to our tutorial group and community partner(s).

Success Factors/Criteria (__ / 10)

Following the conclusion of our project, we will use several indicators to measure the success of our project. The initial indicator will be the approval of the accuracy and content of our findings from our stakeholders. After we have this, we will connect with our community partner, Hannah Wittman, for feedback and indication that we have carried out our project to her expectations. As a researcher herself, she will be able to let us know if we have successfully answered our research question. The teaching team will determine our academic success on this project by assigning us a grade. Additionally, we hope that our findings will be used in further narratives, such as having the UBC Farm systems model adopted by the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems. Our goal is that the video we create will be used on the CSFS website to educate the community, academics, and other students. Lastly, we will analyze our success based on any the usage of any of the recommendations we may have generated for our stakeholders.

Scope Change

Scope changes requested by any stakeholder of the project must be agreed upon, approved and signed by all stakeholders. The agreed format is to revise this charter with version controls. Because this is critical to keep track of, the version control is displayed at the beginning of the charter.

Communication Plan (__ / 5)

Action Item Deliverable Frequency Accountable
Correspondence within team Through post in Facebook group and email Ongoing Team 21
Correspondence within community partner Ongoing Emily is to correspond as needed via email with our community partner and provide any information from the community partner to the group via the Facebook group.
Technical Meeting Attendance (in person where possible) When necessary.

Mondays 1:00PM - 2:30PM.

Group members decide together each week whether meeting that week is necessary. All group members should be present whenever possible, and inform the rest of the group in the case that they are unable to attend.
Communicating with teaching assistant Project specific nformation Ongoing Hailey is to correspond as needed via email with the teaching assistant and forward all information to the rest of the group via the facebook group.
Correspondence with stakeholders Updates on availability, meeting time and location, etc Ongoing Each stakeholder connected with 2 members of group. These 2 members responsible for communicating with their stakeholder via email or phone.

Milestones (__ / 5)

Milestone Event or Deliverable Target Date Responsibility
Milestone1 Completing proposal, system model draft, team charter, agenda. Email Hannah for time to meet. Friday, Sept. 19 Everyone to work on. Emily to email Hannah.
Milestone 2 Know in detail which people we plan on interviewing. Friday, Sept. 26 Everyone to provide contacts.
Milestone 3 Present our proposal in the breakout tutorial session to other teams groups Wednesday, Oct. 1 Everyone to participate in the presentation
Milestone 4 Develop 5 common questions between us Team 19 and 20 to ask our stakeholder and to send to Hannah Friday, Oct. 3 Everyone to brainstorm questions
Milestone 5 Initial project charter and proposal Saturday, Oct. 4 All group members
Milestone 6 Have proposal ready for Hannah with our personal 10 questions to ask our stakeholders Wednesday, Oct. 8 All group members
Milestone 7 Complete CSL hours at the UBC Farm Wednesday, Oct. 8 All group members
Milestone 8 Revised Charter and Proposal submission Saturday, Nov. 1 All group members
Milestone 9 Interview stakeholders Restauranteur - Wednesday, November 12

Grocery Store Dietitian - Monday, November 10

Dietitian - Friday, November 7

Farmer - Monday, November 17

All group members
Milestone 10 Data analysis After conducting interviews All group members
Milestone 11 Final Presentation Wednesday, Nov. 26 All group members
Milestone 12 Final Report Submission Wednesday, Dec. 3 All group members

Approvals (__ / 5)

The following individuals hereby approve this Project Charter:


Role or Title Name and Signature Date
Teaching Assistant Megan Schneider October 13, 2014
Community Partner Hannah Wittman October 19, 2014
Teaching Assistant Megan Schneider November 8, 2014

References (__ / 5)

  • Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (2013, May 22). An overview of the Canadian agriculture and agri-food system 2013. Retrieved from http://www.agr.gc.ca.
  • Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. (pp. 3-23)
  • McCullum, C., Desjardins, E., Kraak, V. I., Ladipo, P., & Costello, H. (2005). Evidence-based strategies to build community food security. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 105(2), 278-283. doi:10.1016/j.jada.2004.12.015
  • Pothukuchi, K., & Kaufman, J. L. (1999). Placing the food system on the urban agenda: The role of municipal institutions in food systems planning. Agriculture and Human Values, 16(2), 213-224. doi:10.1023/A:1007558805953
  • Schensul, J.J., LeCompte, M.D. (1999). Analyzing and Interpreting Ethnographic Data. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
  • Schensul, S.L., Schensul, J.J., Lecompte, M.D. (1999). Essential Ethnographic Methods: Observations, Interviews and Questionnaires. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.

Appendix

5 General Questions to Ask all 4 Stakeholders

1. Tell me about your role in the _______. How has your personal role evolved in the Vancouver Food System?

2. Is there any aspect of your work that you feel touches on issues of sustainability? Tell us about these.

3. What do you see as the biggest challenge to the sustainability of the current food system in the Lower Mainland?

4. What significant changes over the past 40 years have impacted the ______ most significantly?

5. Where do you see the _______ in the future?


Questions to ask specific stakeholders

Questions specifically for our dietitian:

1. What were your goals when you first started in the profession?

2. How have your goals evolved over the course of your career?

3. What barriers (if any) have you faced while trying to educate the public?

4. Have these barriers changed over the years, and if so, in what way?

5. How has the government policies changed or impacted you in your profession over time?

6. Do you think that the amount of respect/appreciation for your profession his increased or decreased? i.e. from the general public, social media, government organizations, etc.

7. How has the change in infrastructure impacted the way that you’re able to do your job?

8. Have dietitians always been so accessible (8-1-1 is the dietician hotline for BC)? In what way has this increased accessibility impacted your ability to serve your community?

9. In what ways have the opportunities for your professional community involvement changed i.e. do you have more or less opportunities now?

10. What types of projects/programs in the Vancouver community do you think would benefit from having a dietitian involved in the future?

11. Is the Vancouver food system something dietitians think about regularly in their line of work?

12. How large of an impact do you think dietitians have in the Vancouver food system?


Questions specifically for our restaurant owner:

1. What are some risks that you are facing today in relation to the food system and owning a business?

2. How do the challenges you face as a dining hall chef differ from a restaurant downtown or elsewhere?

3. As a restaurant owner/chef, what significant changes over the past 40 years have impacted your business most significantly?

4. What policy changes have had a significant impact on your business and why?

5. Describe your interactions with other stakeholders and how your role has evolved in the food industry (i.e. suppliers, other restaurants, waste)

6. How has your demographic of customers changed over the past 40 years? How has the demand changed? Consider choice of ingredients, menu changes, etc.

7. How has the food market infrastructure improved or deteriorated over the past 40 years?

8. What is your philosophy on choosing suppliers? Has this remained consistent?

9. Describe the challenges relating to sustainability and opportunities you think the restaurant industry will face?

10. How have your goals evolved over the course of your career?


Questions specifically for our supermarket manager:

1. What is the main vision of Choices Market?

2. What is/are some of the obstacles that Choices faces being a supplier to Vancouver’s Food System?

3. How have the infrastructure changes in Vancouver Food System had an impact on choices? (ie; consumer demographic, suppliers?)

4. How have the provincial policies regarding food changed in Vancouver Food System over the last 40 years? What impacts have Choices faced along with those policy changes?

5. What factors affect where choices market import its products from? For instance, price, sustainability, location, etc. Which of the factor does Choices Market value more?

6. Over the course of 40 years, what change in consumers demands has impacted choices? Are there certain trends that Choices Markets has witnessed over the last 4 decades?

7. As a response to the changes in consumers trend, what did choices market do? To what degree is Choices Market affected by consumers trends

8. Has Choices Markets made any connections with the community over the past 40 years, What is/are some examples of the connections? (school system programs, city event etc)

9. What role in the context of Vancouver’s food system do you think Choices will play in the future?


Questions Specifically for our Farmer

1. How long has this been a working farm, and how long has it been providing to the Vancouver lower mainland?

2. Would you say that over the years you’ve seen a decrease in enthusiasm about farming in Vancouver, and how have your consumers changed since your establishment? (do you provide to many companies, less than previous years, how do new establishments become aware of your products?)

3. Over time, have there been new competitors in the farming industry in this region, or have the suppliers to the Vancouver area stayed relatively similar?

4. What have you seen overall in the demand chain, have there been large decreases in demand for some products versus others and is this related to the expanding infrastructure in Vancouver?

5. ​How have government policies changed the farm from 40 years ago in regards to food production scale, pesticide use, and land expansion?

6. ​What are the difficulties (if any) surrounding changes in consumer trends? How have you overcome them?

7. Does the government or farmer's societies support your farming practice? If so, how have they changed over the years in terms of support?

8. Do you feel as though you are part of the community compared to 40 years ago?

9. How has your daily activities on the farm changed over the years?


Email sent to stakeholders

“To whom it may concern,

Good afternoon, my name is ________ and I am representing a group of 8 students from the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS).

We are currently working on a community-based research project for our LFS 350 class. To summarize our project, we will be conducting interviews with 4 seasoned food systems professionals in the Vancouver community to examine how the Vancouver food system has changed over the past forty years.

As part of our project, we will be creating a video that will be archived on the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm website (http://ubcfarm.ubc.ca), to be viewed by students, academics, and the general public. Our full project proposal can be found here: http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:LFS350/Projects/2014W1/T21

That being said, we would love to have you be a part of this exciting project! If you are interested in participating in a filmed interview to contribute to our research, we would be delighted to have your input. The interview would be conducted at a location most convenient for you in late October or early November.

We’re looking forward to hearing back from you!”

Writing Quality (__ / 10)

For a proposal report to receive full writing quality marks, it should be well organized and easy to read. It should address all of the topics articulated in the assignment details above, and it should be free of grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes.

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