Why Local | Defood

WHY IS LOCAL FOOD SO IMPORTANT?

THE OVERARCHING PROBLEM

Food insecurity and hunger is increasing around the world. Yet even as supply chains break down, prices rise and favourite food items go missing, we on Salt Spring Island continue to import 90-96% of our food. Commercial supermarkets only ever have 48 hours worth of food on hand – and being on an island, we're totally dependent on trucked food brought by fossil-fueled ferries that are increasingly undependable. In short, we’re losing our food production capacity just when we’re about to need it most.

THE LOCAL PROBLEM

Food production on SSI is very much a systemic issue – intersecting with water, land use, housing, labour shortages, income inequality, aging demographics, transportation and roads, indigenous rights, community health issues, energy use and forest preservation. How do we co-ordinate all of these issues to create a fair and equitable food system?

THE CARBON PROBLEM

The average distance that food travels from farm to table in North America is 5,364 km. Of the fossil fuels that are used in the world’s food system, only 10% goes into actual food production, and the remaining 90% goes towards the packaging, transporting and marketing. Buying and selling food locally helps to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and supports a more sustainable food system.
- A basket of imported food contributes 11,886 grams of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere
- A basket of local food contributes 118 grams of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere

THE TRANSPARENCY PROBLEM

Knowing more about where food comes from, how it’s produced, and what its impact is on the environment, human rights and regional economies is another key factor in why local food is important. People want to know what they’re buying. For instance, does the food we are importing include the use of
- hormones in farm animals
- drug residues in meat, milk and eggs
- genetically engineered crops
- untraceable, unethically sourced food
- green-washed food
- pesticides in crop production

THE SOLUTION

The fantastic news is, we have the ability and the resources to shift our dependence to locally-grown food, wild harvesting and water-based food sources, creating a demand that will drive (and fund) increased island food production to produce the great majority of what we eat and drink, and greatly lower our dependence on imports. While progress will be necessarily non-linear (we're changing a complex system!), our initial goal for Salt Spring Island as a DeFood model is to make sure that 80% of the food we consume – including staples like grains, dairy, and meat – will either be grown on Salt Spring or in our Southern Gulf Islands group in the nearest possible future. It’s doable. And once we've got practical experience working through the obstacles, we can be a resource for communities elsewhere to do the same, because every city and town -- including yours -- is in exactly the same boat.

Other benefits from eating locally (apart from saving ourselves from the coming Zombie Apocalypse) include:
- Fresher, more flavourful food

Local food is often harvested a few hours before its sold. Those fresh-off-the-vine strawberries always taste better. Buying local also leads to greater variety, because short supply chains enable farmers to grow varieties that focus on flavour (not surviving long distance transportation).

Supporting local economies and connecting with producers

In the past decade, there has been a huge growth in ways that we can buy directly from food producers: farmers markets, CSA produce box programs and U-picks, farm stands and (still to be achieved on Salt Spring) indoor year-round market. This keeps our dollars circulating in the community, helping not only local food producers, processors and distributors but also other local merchants keep their businesses viable, and we get the experience of interacting with the people that are growing, harvesting and catching our food. In the process, we grow a stronger sense of community.