Sustainable Food Production, Consumption, and the Generation of

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esponses 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Consumer Awareness of Urban Agriculture Options 53% Rooftop Gardeing 97% Commuinty Gardening 48% Backyard Sharing 58% Edible Landscaping 48% 61.00% Gleaing Total Unaware The importance of gradual adoption of these and other strategies for sustainable production was echoed by Tim Ewanchuk, Lifecylcles’ Co-Director. Ewanchuk notes that rather than “pushing people” to change immediately, it is important to have people realize the options available to them (Ewanchuk, 2005). This awareness comes through education says Ewanchuk, “You need to first get people excited and interested about the issue and then you need to get them educated about the decisions related to that issue.” If Victoria is to meet the performance of Shanghai and Havana in urban agriculture, and if the region is going to succeed in creating a more sustainable more local food system overall, favourable government policies and a motivated population must both be present. Does Victoria have what it takes to realize a sustainable, local food system in the future? 2.5 What the future holds The move toward a sustainable food system will be marked by slow and subtle change (Ewanchuk, 2005). Ewanchuk envisions moving local production from the current rate of about 10 percent to as high as 20 or 25 percent in the next decade, and possibly as Aware Suggestions to Improve Local Food Production in Victoria More Alternatives 10% Increase Availability 13% Support for Farmers 23% Figure 5 Promotion/ Education 38% Reduce Cost 6% Attitude Changes 4% Preserve Land 4% Full Cost Accounting 2% 18
high as 50 percent in the next 30 or 40 years. This is a rosy picture; however if things do not change the future will not be so positive. According to Ewanchuk “if we have an earthquake or a huge ferry strike or planes couldn’t come, we only have enough food on the Island, especially Victoria for two, maybe three days maximum. So it’s clearly an issue. We have this amazing climate in place and yet we only have enough food on our shelves here for two days and I know with the available land we have, we could be growing probably 50 to 70 percent of our food locally.” In Ewnachuk’s vision, with more favourable government policy, backyards could be used 50 to 70 percent more and a small percentage of park space could also be devoted to food production. For Lorie Hrycuik (2005), Food Security Consultant with the Vancouver Island Health Authority, a sustainable food future involves rebuilding the connection between food and people: “in order for us to get to that sustainable local food system we have to change our values around food and so that’s my mission – that we will actually come to acknowledge that food is an important part of our community and it is an important part of health and it is an important part of our [way of] thinking.” Respondents of the questionnaire for the present study echoed this sentiment calling for both attitude changes and more promotion and education around local food and sustainability. But there is a limit to what the general population can do in this matter. It was noted by respondents in the present study, that consumers need more alternatives that give them the opportunity to support local production and grow food on their own. Of the people surveyed only 47 percent grew their own food and of those that did not, 55 percent cited restrictions in space and 27 percent had a lack of time. Furthermore, consumers can only buy as much local produce as is grown. Another common response was that there needed to be more support for farmers from both government and retailers. As Hrycuik points out, even though there may be plenty of arable land in the Victoria region there are not enough people to work that land as the current generation of farmers ages and retires. Hrycuik suggests tackling this multifaceted problem with subsidies for local farmers and more local markets accessible to consumers. These suggestions mirror the representation of the food system as a “marketscape” as proposed by Lyson and Green (1999). The marketscape is an understanding of food systems as geographic landscapes of production and consumption. This is compared to the idea of a “food shed” which considers the flow of food to consumers. “Marketscapes encompass all of the institutions and organizations that produce, process, distribute and consume food in an area”(Lyson and Green, 1999:134). Both local and global food systems can be described as marketscapes. Lyson and Green describe the typical local marketscape as including “farms, 19
Page 1 and 2: an online series of research papers
Page 4 and 5: Table on Contents 1.0 Sustainable f
Page 6 and 7: Consumer perception and public poli
Page 8 and 9: 3. What are the policies in place t
Page 10 and 11: 1.7 Key informant interviews analys
Page 12 and 13: 2.) What is the state of the art of
Page 14 and 15: 2.4.1 Conventional agriculture As m
Page 16 and 17: 2.4.2 Alternative food distribution
Page 18 and 19: This research revealed that awarene
Page 22 and 23: farmers markets, processors communi
Page 24 and 25: product quality, driven by consumer
Page 26 and 27: comparison of these rates from 2001
Page 28 and 29: variety of ways such as buying beve
Page 30 and 31: motivations to purchase food produc
Page 32 and 33: use a lot of their containers…buy
Page 34 and 35: Gerry Watson Abstract: In Canada po
Page 36 and 37: This focus on profit is strongly su
Page 38 and 39: incentives as it falls under provin
Page 40 and 41: some local produce cannot be bought
Page 42 and 43: Beyond the programs mentioned above
Page 44 and 45: 5.0 Conclusion The reader provides
Page 46 and 47: Awai, G. 2005: Correspondence with
Page 48 and 49: Jones, Andy. 2002. An environmental
Page 50 and 51: Pottier, J. 1999: Anthropology of f
Page 52 and 53: Appendix A Sustainable Food Product
Page 54 and 55: Sustainable Food Production and Con

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