2. 1 The new economy of local food jobs
Contents
1. contents
2. executive summary
3. overview
4. food system
5. food jobs
5. production
6. Processing
7. Distribution
7. Waste
8. Consumption
8. conclusion
9. acknowledgements
10. references
3. 2The new economy of local food jobs
Executive summary
W
orking directly with the
Vancouver Economic
Commission (VEC), we focused
on envisioning jobs that will directly
contribute to improving the resiliency of
the local food system in British Columbia.
Working within the framework of Village
Vancouver-Transition Town’s Food Energy
Descent Action Plan (FEDAP) narrowed our
focus to envisioning green local food jobs
and industries that would help contribute
toenergydescent.Dividingthefoodsystem
into five sectors including production,
processing, distribution, waste, and
consumption, we used a systems thinking
approach to help identify gaps within the
current local food system and envisioned
the jobs required to fill them.
Production:
• Gaps in knowledge and access to land
and infrastructure for local farmers
and food producers
• Recommended increase in local food
producer jobs through the transfer
of practical and business knowledge
and the implementation of innovative
land-use policies
Processing:
• Poor coordination and communication
between stakeholders, lack of training
and apprenticeship opportunities,
and high costs of entering the industry
• Create the position of second-grade
crop coordinator to coordinate
between sectors and provide low-cost
inputs for processors
Distribution:
• Complex network of companies
reliant on imports and exports
• Recommended development of
local food databases, which aim to
simplify the connection between food
producers and consumers
Waste:
• Gap in the recovery of commercial
food waste
• Create the position of a commercial
food recovery coordinator, which
would act as an intermediary or liaison
between sectors to help reduce,
reuse, and repurpose commercial
food waste
Consumption:
• Demonstrated need for consumer
demand of local food
• Proposed increase in local food
educator jobs to create more
awareness about the importance of
eating locally and seasonally and help
to build food literacy and increase the
demand for local food
Overall, we recognize that the local
food system is complex and envisioning
local food jobs for the future requires an
understanding of the inter-relatedness of
the food sectors. This interconnectedness
is important when designing education,
policies, and institutions that will shape
the local food job sectors of the future.
4. V
ancouver’s Greenest City Action
Plan1
includes goals to both
become a global leader in urban
food systems as well as to double the
number of green jobs from their 2010
levels by 2020. However, there needs to
be an incentive to invest in local food and
the green economy. In order to become
a global leader, jobs and industries
need to be developed to create a more
robust and financially lucrative local food
system. Furthermore, Metro Vancouver’s
Regional Food Strategy has also identified
“improve[ing] the financial viability of the
food sector”2, p. 28
as one of its key goals.
The need for this investment
has been recognized by the Vancouver
Economic Commission (VEC) — a body
which seeks to develop the competitive
business climate and sustainability of
Vancouver, among other initiatives, in
partnership with the City of Vancouver.3
Improving the financial viability
of the local food sector will also help
boost the local economy through the
multiplier effect — which is an economic
concept that suggests when products
are purchased from a local business,
it increases that business’s capacity to
spend money locally and boost the local
economy by keeping money within the
region.2
Therefore, increasing the capacity
of the local food system to turn a profit
would benefit BC’s economy as a whole.
Community economic development,
which stems from supporting local food
systems, is also a key principle of the
Vancouver Food Charter.
There are currently gaps in the
local food system that make it difficult
for the food industry to be financially
viable. For example, The Economy of
Local Food in Vancouver — a 2009 report
by the VEC — has identified that many
institutional food buyers admit that
switching to local food will increase their
administrative costs. It is important that
the local food economy is perceived as
lucrative and not a burden in order to
increase its financial viability. This can
be accomplished through the creation
of jobs and industries intended to make
collaboration between different areas of
the food industry more convenient and
financially successful.
Within the framework of Village
Vancouver-Transition Town’s Food Energy
Descent Action Plan (FEDAP) — a plan
which proposes reducing our energy
consumption through the food system —
we are seeking to identify opportunities
for green job and industry creation in the
local food sector that will help contribute
to a more resilient and sustainable food
system. We used three guiding questions
to direct our research:
1. Which issues can we
identify in the current
food system?
2. What do we envision for
the future?
3. Which jobs can be created
to reach these goals?
3 The new economy of local food jobs
overview
local food
“All food
originating from
the province of
British Columbia”
Local Food Jobs in the
City of Vancouver
Vancouver Economic
Commission
2012
Vancouver Greenest City Goals
• Boost the green economy
• Become a global leader in urban food systems
5. 4The new economy of local food jobs
food system
S
ystems thinking has played a
seminal role in the creation of
FEDAP in Vancouver because it
offers a holistic approach to envisioning
a sustainable and robust locally-focused
food system. Based on Rob Hopkins’
Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP),
FEDAP “sets out a vision of a powered-
down, resilient, relocated future, and
then backcasts, in a series of practical
steps, creating a map for getting from
here to there”6, p. 109
to help us move
from a being a region of high energy
consumption to a region of low energy
consumption.
Systems thinking involves
understanding the relationships that
each component plays within the whole
and applies this understanding to solving
common problems.7
Where traditional
problem solving is linear and tries to
‘fix’ a specific problem within a system
— which has the potential to create
unintended consequences — systems
thinking focuses on a cyclical cause
and effect framework, which takes into
account that all parts of a system are
interrelated and that change to one
component will have impact on another.8
Under FEDAP, a systems thinking
approach to community food resiliency
would reduce energy consumption
through a closed loop cycle, such as
using food waste to produce compost,
fertilizer, or biofuel across the entire
system.
6. According to a 2012 report by the
VEC9
, 381 of the 3,900 local food
jobs are within the production sector.
BC is only 48 per cent self-reliant in
terms of food production4
, and Met-
ro Vancouver’s Regional Food System
Strategy2
suggests that there needs to
be an increase in the production of local
food in order to create a more resilient
local system for a FEDAP future.
Gaps in practical skills and business
knowledge, compounded by a lack
of knowledge transfer
Throughout history, knowledge has
been transferred from one generation
to the next.10
As farmers retire from
food production, they take with them a
wealth of knowledge and leave the next
generation with considerable barriers to
successfully entry.
Lack of access to land and
infrastructure
Single-focus land-use policies restrict
agricultural development within the ur-
ban environment, and a lack of flexible
and diverse land-use policies in the ru-
ral environment prevent producers from
diversifying production and business
practices such as incorporating process-
ing and retail into their operations.10
Multi-disciplinary educational
programs and institutions along
with internship programs and
incubator farms
Provide new food producers with access
to land, education, and the ability to
practice the skills required to run an ef-
fective local food production operation
with minimal risk.2
Innovative land-use policy
Use tax incentives to encourage
agricultural production on the
Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) and
implement innovative land-use policies
in urban centres to encourage local food
production close to urban markets.2
Creative and flexible land-use policy
could enable local food producers to
process and distribute product from one
central location.
Ultimately, the goal is to foster the next
generation of local food producers. By
enhancing local food production educa-
tion opportunities and diversifying land-
use policy, the capacity to produce more
local food can be increased. A more ro-
bust, resilient, and diverse local food
supply will be required in a FEDAP future.
5 The new economy of local food jobs
food jobs
production
identify
best practices
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
in partnership with the Richmond
Food Security Society is teaching the
next generation of food producers
practical and business skills.2
Fresh Roots Urban Farm Society11
provides mentorship opportunities
and incubator farms to facilitate
knowledge transfer between local
food producers.
Agricultural Enterprise Zones are a
form of comprehensive zoning that
enable local food producers to add
value to their product on site.2
Position: local food producer
envision
create
7. According to the Ministry of Agriculture
and Lands12
, BC’s processing industry
consists of a diverse array of small and mid-
sized businesses as well as local branches of
multi-national corporations. The Vancouver
Economic Commission reports that only
1,016 of BC processing jobs deal with local
food.9
Fragmented communication and
coordination
A strategic goal of the British Columbia Food
&BeverageProcessorsSteeringCommittee13
has been to increase communication
betweenindustrystakeholders.Connections
between processors are currently being
enhancedbyindustryassociations;however,
there is still a need to connect processors to
other food sectors.
Few opportunities for training
Aside from culinary training, there aren’t
many opportunities for education in the
processing industry. In fact, BCIT’s Food
Technology program is one of the only of its
kind in British Columbia.
High costs
The VEC has identified high costs of starting
a processing business as a major issue to
entering the industry.4
This issue of cost
is compounded by the struggle of local
processors to compete with multinational
corporations that sell their products in
British Columbia.4
Stronger links to other sectors
Virtual connections between processors
and other food sectors including email
lists and online directories could help
deepen the links between stakeholders
and enable more collaboration.
However, coordinators or infrastructure
such as a food hub can also help
facilitate this.
Apprenticeship and education
programs
Provide more opportunities for
processing training and work
experience in order to make the
industry more accessible through
providing individuals with the necessary
skills to be employed in processing.
The VEC identified the processing of
second-grade crops as an area for
development in the food industry.4
A
coordinator to connect the sectors and
facilitate the sale of second-grade crops
would help to improve processors’ access
to less expensive inputs as well as reduce
food waste.
6The new economy of local food jobs
processing
Position: second-grade crop
coordinator
best practices
The Small Scale Processors Association
(SSPA) connects processors
and allows for collaboration
between stakeholders.
BCIT’s Food Technology program
teaches practical processing skills and
acts as a resource for those already in
the industry.
Identify
Envision
Create
8. 7 The new economy of local food jobs
distribution
Position: food database manager
best practices
Organic Growing Company17
is the
largest employee– and grower–
owned wholesaler of organic fruits,
vegetables, and herbs in the Pacific
Northwest. It supplies natural and
fine food retailers, supermarket
chains, restaurants, home delivery
enterprises, and processors.
Squash & Vine18
is a new
online social network aiding in
communication and information
sharing between consumers,
producers, and retailers.
Sustainable Produce Urban
Delivery (SPUD)19
directly connects
communities with local food
producers through online food
orders and just-in-time home
delivery methods.
The distribution sector is a complex
network that is heavily reliant on
imports and exports and long-distance
transportation.4, 15
The system — which is
dominated by major food servicesdistrib-
utors like Sysco or Neptune and whole-
salers — favours high quantity orders,
which means that local food producers
and processors often struggle to gain ac-
cess to the distribution network.
Improved access to the distribution
network
Keeping FEDAP in mind, the distribution
system needs to be shortened. Network
relationships that directly connect local
producers and consumers need to be ca-
pable of serving a diverse scale of pro-
ducers with the ultimate goal of increas-
ing the accessibility — and therefore
decreasing the price — of local food.4
Public funding to improve access to
distribution system
Using cellular industry non-profits such
as Wavefront16
as examples, connections
within the industry can be deepened.
Wavefront is a non-profit organization
linking the cellular technology industry.
Their accelerator programs help wireless
companies grow and become market-
ready. This needs to be translated into
creating new companies that specialize
in shortening distribution chains in the
local food system.
Building an easy-to-use and intuitive on-
line database for local small– and medi-
um–scale producers would enable local
producers to network and consolidate
their supply to meet the demands of
large-scale buyers.
Identify
Envision
Create
waste
Position: commercial food recovery
coordinator
In 2010, the City of Vancouver unveiled
its “Zero Waste Vancouver” initiative.
This multi-faceted plan outlines a variety
of strategies to reduce and redirect
waste, while “nurture[ing] a Zero Waste
culture”20
amongst the organizations,
businesses, and individuals that call
Vancouver home. During this time, the
Integrated Solid Waste and Resource
Management Plan (ISWRMP) was also
adopted to ensure that Metro Vancouver
reaches these ‘zero-waste’ goals through
the utilization of socially, environmentally,
and economically sustainable practices.
Working within the ISWRMP
framework, we identified a gap in the
recovery of commercial food waste.
Producing about “95,000 tonnes of
food waste every year”22,
commercial
food services are the largest source
of organic waste in the region.
9. 8The new economy of local food jobs
Need to diversify current and
planned practices
Although ISWRMP has established
residential food waste composting
programs and resource recovery
through the creation of biodiesel,
solutions to redirect commercial food
waste to at-need populations needs to
be examined.
Lack of education and policies
Food safety education and policy are
key barriers in the implementation
of zero food waste policies that aim
to incorporate food redistribution
and waste elimination. Current food
education and safety policy models fail
to incorporate socially-minded food
policies; therefore, food redistribution
options are seldom explored once an
organization’s liability needs are met.
Lack of infrastructure
As the waste sector grows through
FEDAP and ISWRMP, so too, must the
infrastructure. One of the major issues
in the reclamation of commercial food
waste is the need for storage and
refrigeration.
Waste as financial asset or value-
added service
In order to shift perceptions and
business practices regarding food waste
disposal, waste needs to become a
financial asset. Changing perceptions
on food waste could result in:
Extend life span of commercial
food through waste recovery
With waste being seen as a value added
industry, product waste recovery would
be maximized to ensure profits.
Food reclamation for at-needs
populations
Give higher tax breaks or incentives
to companies that donate to social
programs instead of other waste
recovery avenues.
A Commercial Food Recovery
Coordinator (CFRC) will inevitably have
to wear a lot of ‘hats’. The primary
role of a CFRC would be to act as an
intermediary or liaison between sectors
and individual stakeholders. With waste
becoming a major avenue for resources
and potential revenue, the CFRC would
look to create and further developclosed
loop systems through the identification of
potential gaps and opportunities across
the entire food system.
Identify
Envision
Create
10. 9 The new economy of local food jobs
consumption
Position: local food educator
Although most of our research focused
on local food supply and supply
management, we also recognize the need
to increase the demand for local food.
We identified the consumption sector as
the source that will create this demand
and looked for gaps within the local food
system as well as some initiatives that are
currently working to increase the demand
for local food throughout Vancouver.
• Lack of food literacy
• Limited knowledge of
seasonality and locality
Local food educators can manifest in
many different forms. The ultimate
goal of a local food educator is to build
food literacy and knowledge about the
importance of eating seasonally and
locally in an attempt to create a greater
demand for local food. Within the Metro
Vancouver area, there are already many
organizations and individuals working
directly with consumers on various scales
to increase food literacy.
Schoolyard gardens and food
programs
Programs such as ThinkEatGreen23
, work
directly with students to increase food
literacy throughout the education system.
Community kitchens
Local food educators working within
community kitchens provide community
members with food skills and knowledge
about cooking with local and seasonal
ingredients.
Industry requirements and
certification
Working on a larger scale with industries
and institutions, certification programs
such as the Green Tables Network24
,
work to increase awareness about the
importance of offering local and seasonal
food as well as of transitioning to more
sustainable operating methods.
The primary goal of a local food educator
is to increase food literacy and awareness
about the importance of eating seasonally
andlocally.Inorderforlocalfoodproducers
to increase the supply of local food in the
future, there needs to be a demand. Local
food educators will work with consumers
at various scales to generate this demand.
conclusion
I
n order to effectively envision the
local food jobs of the future, we
decided to take a systems approach.
In taking this approach, we attempted
to identify opportunities to create
jobs within each sector of the current
local food system. In each sector, we
identified gaps and explored some best
practices that might be implemented
to fill these gaps. Having identified
the gaps, we then recommended key
job opportunities in each sector that
would contribute to a more robust and
resilient local food system.
It is important to take this
systems approach when analyzing the
various solutions — policy, education or
infrastructure — to increase local food
jobs throughout Vancouver. Solutions
designed to address gaps in one sector
will reverberate throughout the rest of
the complex system, and understanding
that all of the sectors within the local
food system are interconnected is vital
in creating effective and long lasting
local food jobs for the future.
Identify
Envision
Create
11. acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Vancouver Economic Commission, James Raymond, Candice Appleby, Wes Regan, Gavin Wright,
Chris Thoreau, Ursula Twiss, and Theresa Duynstee for their help and contributions to this report.
references
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10The new economy of local food jobs
12. 11 The new economy of local food jobs
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greentable.net/
Jenni Rempel, Ron Dressel, DC Central Kitchen, US
Environmental Protection Agency
image credits
contact information
Jeff Lemon
jeff.lemon@gmail.com
Alex Chen
alexaca79@gmail.com
Trevor Dore
tdore@sfu.ca
Kelly Thoreson
klthoreson@gmail.com
