local food

When the pandemic first hit, many people started looking up at the stars, searching for respite from the chaos on Earth. Yet for Joshua Evans, a Canadian PhD student of geography at Oxford University, the heavens evoked more than freedom from lockdown: A few weeks earlier, he had sent a pot of miso to the International Space Station (ISS) and its return was imminent.

We need to change what we eat. Will bashing beef and slamming seafood help? 

Last spring, Shirlene Coté was hit with surging demand for an unusual product: Boxes filled to the brim with her farm’s produce, delivered weekly during the growing season to customers who paid a lump sum in advance. Demand hasn’t let up since.

Robots, blockchain, and high-tech plankton might soon be producing food for British Columbians.

It is safe for small B.C. farmers to slaughter their animals on-farm, newly released government documents suggest.

Before the internet, people struck with food poisoning had few choices to find out what went wrong. Now, they ask Google or post to social media.

When the pandemic hit last spring, B.C.’s seed farmers experienced a tsunami of demand for seeds as the number of home gardeners surged and major U.S. seed companies stopped shipping to Canada. For many, growing and cleaning enough seed to fulfil the flood of orders was near impossible.

Hundreds of B.C. spot prawn harvesters might soon be out of work thanks to a recent decision by Fisheries and Oceans Canada that makes selling spot prawns frozen at sea illegal.

Food hubs — community-run centres that provide shared space for small-scale farmers and food processors — can help improve local food security and shorten the supply chain.

The wine list at Shira Blustein’s restaurant probably won’t be getting much cheaper, but thanks to recent changes to B.C.’s liquor laws, it will soon be more interesting.

Julia Smith has a problem. Despite litters of fast-growing piglets and surging demand for her pork, she can’t find an abattoir that can slaughter them before December. Demand for local meat has surged during the pandemic, leaving the province’s abattoirs booked months in advance and many small-scale producers struggling.  

Eating local on university campuses is often difficult, but it will soon be getting easier for many B.C. post-secondary students.

Eating more plants is the key to eating local and sustainably, according to a recent study modelling how more than 350 major U.S. cities could feed themselves.

When Nathan Bennett looks at B.C.’s fisheries, he sees problems — and not only those associated with low stocks. He also worries about the people who catch the fish.

A high school comedy, a timely healthy eating experiment and a mid-life bender.