AUGUST 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Kwantlen gives governments food system options by TAMARA LEIGH
RICHMOND – There are few things larger, more misunderstood or emotionally fraught than food systems. Debates rage over the benefits of local and regional food systems versus the transnational commodity system, with each side claiming theirs is the best way to feed the planet. Governments at all levels
are often at the epicentre, facing competing demands to take action on food and agriculture in the context of a changing climate, shifting economics, population growth and changing consumer preferences. To help navigate the
pressures, the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Richmond has developed a model to eliminate some of the guesswork from the sustainability question. “Our objective was to
move the discussion from the realm of pure ideology and rhetoric to more factual and data-driven discourse,” says Kent Mullinix, the institute’s director. “We wanted to generate information that policy-makers and planners, community development and economic development entities could use, and that's exactly what I think we've done.” The Future of Our Food
System: Report on the Southwest BC Bioregion Food System Design Project offers a model for decision-making. It offers four future scenarios that apply the model in the context of a bioregion that includes Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Squamish- Lillooet, Sunshine Coast and Powell River Regional Districts, and the traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples.
The model utilizes the best
provincial and national data available to assess 14 indicators related to food production and food self- reliance, environmental impacts of farming and the contribution the food system makes to the provincial economy. It allows users to do “what if” analyses, a tool for decision-making that allows a better understanding of the implications of making a choice in favour of one area, such as land use, on other areas such as wildlife habitat and local diets. “The analysis and model is
very complex but the outcomes are very simple,” says Sandy Blue, a city councillor with Abbotsford and an internationally certified economic developer. “It has a lot of impacts
from a city-building
perspective and we do need to think about where our food is coming from.” Blue thinks the model has the potential to make a difference in how cities like Abbotsford, an agricultural hub that faces significant decisions as a land-poor city in a farm-rich countryside. “Instead of accepting the past as it was or just wondering generally about the future, we can run some scenarios and take a real leadership position,” she says.
True goals Mullinix doesn’t mince
words when it comes to the model’s true goal. “The other objective of this
project is to invoke environmental stewardship and regenerative systems,” he says. “It is incumbent on food systems to address and mitigate the negative impacts on the planet – we just can’t afford it anymore.” Solid information needs to
inform the discourse about the future direction of local food systems to feed people, communities and the environment, he believes. Increasing food self-
reliance – the proportion of the population’s diet that locally produced food provides – not only reduces transportation and dependence on food imports, it keeps money in the local economy. BC’s current food self-reliance is estimated at 40%. “Today we are utterly dependent on California and Mexico for our fruits and vegetables, and their ability to continue to supply those fruits and vegs is absolutely in question,” says Mullinix. “We recognize the food system now represents tremendous economic leakage in our communities. We spend a lot of money on food – $8 billion per year on food in Southwest BC alone. The vast majority of that
money leaves our communities and we lose that market.” To answer the question of what could be done differently, the KPU team modelled a baseline and four different scenarios for Southwest BC in 2050. The first scenario projects a business as usual approach with an increased population. Without change to the food system, BC’s hypothetical food self-reliance falls from 40% to 28%, and economic leakage increases. The second scenario incorporates the strategic reallocation of crop and livestock production to meet local food needs and increase food self-reliance. By focusing production on local markets, overall food production increases 80% and food self- reliance increases to 56%, with a farmgate value of $2.8 billion.
Building on the second scenario, the third scenario
adds changes to mitigate the impact of nutrient management and habitat conservation practices, two areas where the sector has important responsibilities. The third and fourth scenarios add changes to mitigate some of agriculture’s environmental impacts and adding currently unfarmed but arable land into food production. Researchers found a food self-reliance level of 57% could be achieved. It would result in the lowest need for imported food, as well as the lowest rate of economic leakage. “The economic and food
production benefits and self- reliance levels improve,” says Mullinix of the changes stipulated in the fourth model. “What we're trying to illustrate that we can improve food self-reliance and steward the environment in critical ways and still reap greater benefit in terms of economic outcomes.”
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