OPINION-EDITORIAL

BITE INTO B.C.’S SUMMER HARVEST & SUPPORT LOCAL FARMERS

 

By Steve Thomson Minister of Agriculture and Lands June 25, 2010

 

VICTORIA – As you sit down to eat your next meal, pause for a moment and think about where your food was grown. All of the fresh food and drink needed for a summer picnic or barbeque is available at British Columbia’s many local farms, markets, and grocers. Yet so often our food travels thousands of kilometres by truck, train, or airplane before it reaches our plates.

 

This summer, I encourage British Columbians to make buying local a priority. Buying local not only reduces the distance food travels from field to fork, it also supports family farms and the future of agriculture. B.C.’s passionate farmers and ranchers are the same people who make up your community. They are your neighbours, not anonymous growers in another country halfway around the world.

 

Buying locally brings us back to a time when our food was freshly picked, raised with heart, and could be traced back to the field it came from. Today all of this is possible in B.C. Our farmers grow a wide variety of crops, from grains, vegetables and berries, to tree fruits, beef, dairy and poultry. We are the most diverse agriculture industry in Canada. The agri-food industry is an important contributor to the provincial economy with more than 225 food commodities produced in B.C., totalling over $22 billion annually in consumer sales and supporting over 305,000 jobs.

 

Buying local is easy. We have access to an abundance of delicious, local food in B.C. We grow more blueberries, sweet cherries, apricots and raspberries than any other province in Canada. There are cattle grazing in fields on more than 4,000 ranches from our coast to the Alberta border. B.C. is also home to more than 700 vineyards that annually produce approximately 15 million litres of wine. So this summer, please consider buying and eating local food that has been grown virtually right here in your own backyard.

 

Thank you for your support for B.C.’s agriculture and agrifood sector.

 

To find a farmer’s market in your community, visit www.bcfarmersmarket.org.   

 

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