Okanagan Bioregion Food System Project
Photo: Lindsay Peltz/Okanagan Bioregion Food System Project
A new study suggests the Okanagan could meet most of its food needs by increasing local production.
The study by Surrey's Kwantlen Polytechnic University says regionalizing food systems can be a driver of sustainable community development and the basis for resilient local and regional economies and ecologies.
“Food systems cannot be separated from other planning and development activities. We need to recognize the inextricably linked nature of food systems and adopt a ‘food systems lens’ in all our planning activities,” says Dr. Kent Mullinix, director of the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems.
“Regionalizing our food systems by producing food closer to home, bringing the economic activity home to local communities, and having more control over our own food system through local policies, can help address some of these issues.”
The three-year Okanagan Bioregion Food System Project focused on farming and food systems in the Okanagan.
Other findings included:
Developing regional food systems can have economic benefits for the bioregion. These benefits are maximized when investments are made in the development of food processing, distribution and storage infrastructure.
Increasing the consumption of locally produced food does not reduce the environmental impacts associated with the food system, but changing diets does. When it comes to ecological footprint and greenhouse gas emissions, how food is produced, and the resources required, matter more than where it is produced.