Piloting Local Food at UBCO
Small-scale farmers play an important role in our community. They support the sustainability of rural and farm economies, protect and enhance natural resources, and support the supply of fresh, nutritious food. When we buy locally-grown, seasonal food, it helps our economy, the environment and our health. It also brings the community together!
Did you know that small-scale farming is the most common form of farming in the North Okanagan?
These farms tend to have more diversified and resilient farming practice and products, and often practice greater environmental stewardship.
The North Okanagan has the highest number of certified organic farms in all of British Columbia!
Small-scale farmers are up against transnational corporations that control most aspects of food production and supply, in which industrialized agricultural systems offer cheaper imported foods.
In short: It’s hard for our local small- and medium-scale farmers to compete with the global food system.
Okanagan farmers need an institutional champion to incentivize and support the coordination of aggregation of local food. This is why UBCO Food Services has stepped forward to partner with Land to Table (L2T) as part of a pilot project to bring more locally procured food to our campus community. Choosing to purchase locally-grown food is an important way for us to support our local economy, contribute to our community, and help protect the environment, while supporting UBCO’s Food Vision and Values!!
Meet UBCO's Local Providers
Curlew Orchard
Photos: Curlew Orchard Facebook
Named after the endangered Long-Billed Curlew that once roamed the hillsides around Vernon, Curlew Orchard is a certified organic farm dedicated to growing delicious fruit in balance with nature. Six acres of the property are planted with apple trees growing primarily Gala, along with Ambrosia, Macintosh, Spartan and Granny Smith. Another acre is devoted to permaculture, with a mix of fruit trees, berries, herbs, vegetables and diverse companion plants.Â
Shuswap Organics
Photos: Maylies Lang
Owen and Emily are the brains behind Shuswap Organics. They work together to bring you a delicious line of local preserves, and fresh organic vegetables. You’ll find Emily experimenting in the kitchen and farming in the fields, and Owen taste-testing new recipes and selling food products at farmers markets and stores. They moved to the North Okanagan from Vancouver to farm, and along the way started making jams and pickles to preserve the seasons’ bounty. They are proud of what they produce, and hope you can taste their care for quality in every bite.
Okanagan Select
Photos: Adobe Images
Okanagan Select offers high quality, sustainably-fished and local wild sockeye. Their goal is to protect, enhance, conserve and continue to restore B.C.’s salmon stocks using the responsible and holistic traditional practices of selective fishing handed down from Indigenous ancestors.
A member of Slow Food International and Slow Fish Canada, Okanagan Select is devoted to promoting good, clean, fair food. Proceeds from their sales are reinvested in the conservation of native fish and aquatic resources in the Columbia Basin.
Beliefs and traditions are a very important part of First Nations’ culture and often reflect a deep understanding and respect for nature. Okanagan Select honours these roots by using traditional Indigenous fishing practices that help protect salmon stock. The goal is to provide a high quality product from sustainable fisheries that will not jeopardize our future wild salmon stocks, while honouring the resiliency and prosperity of our natural environment by using only selective fishing methods.
The fishermen utilize abundance-based methods to allow the fish to get to the spawning grounds, honour ecosystem-based fishery, and practice lifecycle analysis to understand the fishery and its impacts. To ensure the sustainability of the salmon and our local ecosystem – fish are hand-picked with fish-friendly methods – like troll, seine, traps, and dip net.
The Okanagan Nation Alliance has turned traditional concepts into modern selective fishing practices to minimize bycatch.
Home-Grown Ingredients
Where Your Food Comes From
Why Land to Table?
Land to Table (L2T) is a network of community partners – including UBCO and local farmers – working to build a thriving, healthy and resilient local food system throughout the Okanagan Valley. The idea is to build relationships along the food value chain – from farmers to processors, distributors, chefs, food waste managers and even the UBCO campus community – to overcome challenges to local food procurement, and:
Promote access to fresh food, stewardship of the environment, equity in the form of livable wage for farm workers, and decent livelihood for farmers.
Develop an innovative model for institutional local food procurement on the strengths of these relationships.
Tell the story of why local food matters, and the values that are embedded in the local food that UBCO is purchasing.
Here are just some of the amazing reasons why UBCO supports local food procurement:
BUILDS PARTNERSHIPS
A well-connected and co-ordinated network can create a food system that is economically prosperous, environmentally sustainable, and socially accessible.
- These partnerships help build a thriving, healthy and resilient food system that nourishes people, sustains equitable livelihoods, regenerates the environment, and celebrates the culture of the region.
- Collaboration and innovation: When people and organizations come together with common goals, they can share ideas, knowledge and energy to co-create solutions that are mutually beneficial for not only those in the partnership, but the community as a whole.
SUPPORTING LOCAL ECONOMY
Procuring locally-grown food means money spent on those goods stays in the community, and helps local growers and farms prosper.
- Local Farmers Keep More Profit: Because local farmers don’t have the same transportation and distribution costs as large agricultural businesses, they can retain more of the profits from their sales.
- Creates Jobs: By supporting local food producers, you directly contribute to helping your friends, neighbours and other community members find sustainable employment. And when local food producers can supply their products to other local businesses, it further supports the local economy.
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ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Locally-grown food harvested at the peak of its freshness and at the height of its season are more likely to have experienced less artificial intervention to grow.
- It’s Often Pesticide-Free: Many growers use natural pest repellents to preserve the health of the food they distribute.
- Preserves Farm Land: Eating local protects farmland, saving it from industrial use and attracting types of biodiversity that gives wildlife a place to live and thrive.
- Reduces Food Miles: This helps alleviate our dependence on fossil fuels, cuts back on greenhouse gas emissions, and lessens the need for preservatives to keep food fresh during transportation.
SAFETY & ACCOUNTABILITY
- Improves Food Safety: Food safety refers to a food’s level of contamination risk. The more steps between you and your food supply, the greater the risk of food contamination. Buying local reduces the risk of eating unsafe food.
- Promotes Accountability: When food is raised and grown locally, the consumer better understands how and where their food is being produced. This awareness encourages local farmers to use sustainable agriculture practices and be more accountable to safe ecological practices, which may include not using pesticides or implementing systems that are less resource intensive than commercial agriculture. Â
FOOD QUALITY
Eating locally-grown food can help deliver a high-nutrient content, as it is often grown with the use of fewer chemicals, and is harvested at peak freshness. And when you eat food that is grown within its natural season, it tastes better.
- It Supports Diet-Related Conditions: Locally-grown food can help support any possible digestion issues that people with food allergies may experience with other types of food.
- It Encourages Eating a Well-Balanced Diet: When you choose to buy locally grown food, you can incorporate more healthy proteins, fruits, vegetables and whole grains, as opposed to choosing processed or packaged foods.
UBC'S CLIMATE ACTION PLAN
Procuring locally-grown and harvested food supports UBC's Climate Action Plan.
- The development of UBC Okanagan’s first Climate Action Plan 2030 (CAP 2030) is underway. The plan will chart a course to accelerate reduction of emissions from our core operations by 2030.
- It will identify new ways to reduce emissions in areas that each and every one of our university community members has influence over, including how we travel to campus, our food choices, the amount of waste we produce, and how much business air travel we do. More info
Know Your Climate Vocabulary
Value Chain
GHGS
Climate-friendly foods
Carbon footprint
