Untangling the food web: farm-to-market distances in British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

One of the stated missions of many farmers' markets and their advocates is to bring consumers closer to their producers, providing enhanced social capital between the two groups, increased loyalty to local food producers and increased economic opportunity to those producers. Most markets also imply an environmental benefit from shopping locally through a reduction in food miles and thus a corresponding reduction in carbon emissions and resource use. To better understand this claim, farm-to-market distances need to be available in a clear, understandable and accessible way. This paper introduces food webs, a graphical representation of the distance travelled and the regional catchment for producers of urban farmers' markets, as demonstrated in British Columbia, Canada. The food webs show farm locations in an easily accessible manner, the degree to which farmers' markets are serving local food producers and the nature of those producers. The results show a large variation in distance travelled to markets and suggest that a critical examination of what “local” means in the context of farmers' market is needed.

Keywords:

• farmers' markets
• local food
• food security
• geographic information systems mapping