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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • MARCH 2020


Second health authority signs on to FeedBC Blueberries among the 40 products that will see greater opportunities


by PETER MITHAM


MAPLE RIDGE – BC-grown produce being sold into local hospitals isn’t just good for what ails the patients, it’s also helping local growers fighting to compete with imported product and in markets further afield. “This is great because it’s a challenge for us on


the frozen,” says Parm Bains, CEO of Westberry Farms Inc. in Abbotsford, which draws blueberries from 25 packing houses and 800 growers. “Our biggest markets in Canada are Ontario and Quebec and we are challenged by the freight rates down there.” Cheaper product flows in from Michigan, the biggest producer of blueberries in the US. Its proximity to the region means shipping costs are lower, giving it an advantage over berries from BC. Year-round availability of fresh berries in BC is also increasing, thanks to growing acreage in the southern hemisphere and Mexico. “We have the opportunity that we’re up against


fresh coming in as imports, and frozen, normally, are cheaper, so if we can continue to highlight that to our local consumers, it’s a big plus,” he says. “It’s a great opportunity for the growers and the industry.” Bains was among the guests invited for the announcement that Fraser Health Authority had signed on to FeedBC, the province’s initiative to encourage government-run institutions to choose local first when sourcing foods for their programs. The announcement took place January 29 in the dining room of Baillie House, a long-term residential care facility in Maple Ridge.


Fraser Health is the second regional health


authority after Interior Health to embrace the initiative. Other health authorities are preparing to follow. “Fraser Health was already purchasing local food.


We had been working with the ministry for the past couple of years, so its was fitting,” explains Noordin Karmali, a support services manager with Fraser Health Authority. The province’s agriculture minister, Lana Popham,


sat around a table with representatives of Fraser Health and Baillie House residents to enjoy an example of the food being made with local products. Fraser Health serves about five million meals


annually; local products claim a 29% share of plate. It purchases approximately $12 million worth of food each year for its owned and operated sites. Most health authorities work with a single distributor rather than multiple suppliers to streamline the purchasing process and reduce paperwork. Fraser Health sources products from 40 different local suppliers, but it’s always keen to add more. “We’re always looking at new vendors to come


in,” said Tina Hartnell, regional director, food and dietitian services with Fraser Health. To this end, Hartnell and Karmali attended the


Every Chef Needs a Farmer, Every Farmer Needs a Chef event the BC Ministry of Agriculture hosted last fall. It yielded some new connections Karmali is following up with to ensure they meet Fraser Health’s criteria for suppliers, such as being HACCP-


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certified. The next step will be adding them to the list of products its distributor, GFS Canada, carries. GFS Canada, like other distributors, has been steadily increasing the number of local items it stocks. It has had a BC category manager since April 2008, as demand began increasing and it recognized the importance of having someone on staff to curate the emerging category, identifying and securing BC items for its clients. Today, the revival of the Buy BC logo is providing a visual cue that’s making it easier to locate those items. The realization is one result of the pilot program with Interior Health. “When food distributors are gathering products


… it’s much easier for them to label and itemize things as BC products for health authorities to choose when it’s already got the Buy BC label on it,” says Popham. “The biggest lesson is … if it’s easy, they’ll do it.”


The cost of items is usually similar, meaning that


local purchasing doesn’t come at a significantly higher cost to health authorities. However, the value of putting money back in the local economy is priceless. Studies in Ontario have indicated that every dollar spent on local food generates approximately $2.50 in economic impact throughout the broader community. Given their significant budgets, Popham says


where institutions spend their money can make a difference. “The purchasing power that health authorities


have in relation to the opportunities for farmers is incredible,” she says.


TASK force urges action


of technology means that could end up pushing farmers off the land if government doesn’t have their back. “This sector is going to


move really, really fast,” he said. “Government is excited about this and the opportunity that’s there. But I tell you, if we capitulate and we wait three to five years, the opportunity will pass us. I don’t want to see us miss this opportunity, and I don’t want to see farms becoming fallow land.”


The experience to date has not been encouraging, Gupta noted, describing how he visited a cherry orchard where half the crop was being sent to the landfill for lack of workers to harvest it. “Talk about an opportunity – 50% of the cherries are


going in a landfill!” he said. “Think what we could do with all that food, all that free input.”


But it wasn’t until the task


force conducted interviews in Saskatchewan that the penny dropped. “We’re sitting in


Saskatchewan, and they said to us, ‘If we were you, we’d take all that input and process it and make high-quality food for the world and test it on the local diaspora,’“ Gupta said. “I’m not sure why it never occurred to us until someone in Saskatchewan told us this, but it’s a totally obvious thing to be doing.” This is where the province needs to support innovation and the development of infrastructure to transform food waste into marketable


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products. Gupta urged everyone to keep the pressure on the province, including its agriculture minister, Lana Popham, to implement the report’s recommendations so that entrepreneurs would have the resources to implement their ideas and pursue their dreams “We want to give


everybody the ability to realize them, to realize their potential,” he said. “Government cannot do ag- tech. Only we can. Government can just give us the tools to get there.” While innovation may change what farming looks like, the task force said it won’t change the passion at the heart of those producing, processing and selling food. “We have this belief that


young people are leaving the farm. They are leaving, perhaps, the traditional farm, but in their minds they’re redefining what a farm is and what a farm looks like,” said Dhillon. “Young people are not leaving food production, they’re just redefining how it’s exercised.”


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Newman agreed, saying the rise of robot farmers and tech-savvy growers isn’t the end of farming, only farming as we know it. “We might see young people going to university to become GIS experts or data analysts, but they’re still farmers,” she said. “We still found that passion, and it’s really inspiring.”


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