12 MENTAL wellness


making hard decisions about how one uses the talents they’ve got. Moffett worked to raise


awareness of the various shades of mental wellness, and how to support others who may be struggling with issues of stress, depression or thoughts of suicide.


Unique tours The conference also gave


more than 110 journalists and communicators with farm organizations and some of the country’s biggest agrifood companies a glimpse of what makes agriculture in the Lower Mainland both unique and challenging. Conference participants


toured farms in Burnaby, Vancouver, Richmond and Delta as well as port facilities and the resort municipality of Whistler.


The tours provided an eye- opening panorama from greenhouses to Chinese market gardens, and the many forms urban agriculture can take in a land-constrained region. The potential for organic agriculture and reclaiming properties for both food production and conservation were also highlighted. The tours were the perfect


prelude to a panel discussion Saturday afternoon that discussed the history and future directions for the Agricultural Land Reserve. Veteran advocate Harold


Steves, who had a hand in the ALR’s development as part of the Dave Barrett government,


nfrom pg 11


provided a first-hand account of its creation while current CEO Kim Grout sketched out current developments. Regional agrologist Chris Zabek explained the programs government has put in place to support farmers and farming. However, the tensions facing the ALR’s future also came out. Steves, for example, said the ALR should not be used for industrial facilities, such as packing plants for meat and fruit. He also criticized Port of Vancouver’s use of the ALR as an industrial land bank, lamenting that the original plans for an industrial land reserve to relieve pressure on farmland were never implemented by the Barrett government. Grout was mum on


packing plant proposals but acknowledged the pressure on farmland from the port. She pointed out that as a federal entity, it holds a trump card over provincial policies. Regardless of the challenges, the success of the ALR in preserving farmland was one of the points BC agriculture minister Lana Popham touted to writers during a dinner cruise on the Fraser River that kicked off the conference. She also spoke of the success of other initiatives designed to encourage people in the province to support local agriculture through the Grow BC, Feed BC and Buy BC programs.


Denise Fong, left, assistant curator at the Burnaby Village Museum, joined sisters Pauline and Josie Hong to greet farm writers from across Canada to the Hong family’s Hop On Farms in Burnaby’s Big Bend. The farm was one of several tour stops that demonstrated the unique challenges of farming next to a major metropolitan area. CATHY GLOVER PHOTO


Bridging the urban-rural divide by PETER MITHAM


NEW WESTMINSTER – One of the most fascinating stops on the three tours organized as part of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation conference in New Westminster at the end of September was a sophisticated distribution centre in Burnaby’s Big Bend industrial area. Situated a stone’s throw


from cranberry bogs, market


gardens, and nurseries, Food-X Urban Delivery is the latest venture of Peter van Stolk, founder of 22-year-old Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery Inc. (SPUD). SPUD began as a box program for local produce but has since grown beyond those humble roots.


Opened last fall, the 74,000-


square-foot facility in Burnaby handles more than 1,000 orders a day but has a


capacity of 4,200 and could expand to handle 5,000. The annual throughput is worth upwards of $400 million. Suppliers include a half-dozen local farms, such as Snow Farms Ltd. and Fraserland Organics of Delta. A second, smaller facility operates in Vancouver.


HIGH USAGE. HIGH CAPACITY.


The fulfilment centre ships daily to customers located between Whistler and Hope. The orders include those placed by SPUD customers as well as online orders with retail giant Wal-Mart. A few local shops such as Vancouver cheesemongers Les Amis du Fromage participate, too. “We’re still a local CSA


[Community Supported Agriculture] but with a lot more options,” explains van Stolk, who sees partnering with Wal-Mart as an extension of SPUD’s commitment to reducing environmental impacts. The arrangement with Wal-Mart makes better use of its own capacity and reduces the number of delivery vehicles on the road. Moreover, it gives local


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producers a chance to be on the leading edge of online shopping, which is estimated to account for about 4% of all grocery sales. Van Stolk says estimates indicate up to 25% of consumers will soon be shopping online.


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • NOVEMBER 2019


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