Executive Summary
Intro: This report is a collaboration between The Vancouver Food Strategy and UBC’s LFS 350 class in investigating a community food security issue. While research indicates that food retailing power is mainly controlled by a few multinational corporations, small locally owned food markets may be more likely to benefit local communities, especially local food producers and the local economy.
Inquiry question: Our project is based on the Asset Based Community Development concept, which utilizes existing community strengths to achieve a goal. This project investigates community stakeholder opinions on the value of locally owned food markets.
Methods: We prepared a set of questionnaire to interview owners at 11 food markets in Richmond regarding their opinions on local food produce and local food retail ownership.
We introduced our project objectives to the store owners and informed them on the general lack of support for locally owned food retailers in Metro Vancouver. We then presented them our consent form in order to incorporate their information into our final report.
Results: In total, we visited 11 locally owned markets, in which 6 of them agreed to complete interviews with us. The owners who disclosed information all live in the Metro Vancouver area. One owner questioned the precise meaning of “local food system” while the rest were supportive of how locally owned food markets benefit the community. All six owners had business connections with local producers. In general, locally owned food markets provide more support for local producers. Three market owners acknowledge the importance of providing local food in their markets, while two other market owners are indifferent about the subject.
Recommendations: There are efforts of supporting the growth/development of a stronger/more secure local food system. However, there is no consensus on the definition of “local”. It will be helpful if the community could gain a better understanding of “local” and be able to acquire more knowledge on local food systems and foster asset-based community development.
Conclusion: A major finding in our research is that there has been an increase in attention towards purchasing and supporting local produce. However, more attention needs to be brought to the importance of local ownership rather than local production.
What:
The moment of significance that occurred in this course is the conversation we had with our course instructor which lead to reconstructing our original project plans and change of scope on the project objectives. Our initial goal in the CBEL project is to investigate and identify places where local residents are able to access locally produced foods in their respective neighbourhoods. In order to tackle and reach this goal, the group has decided to do online research on local grocery stores that support local producers. In addition, to raise awareness of the existence of these businesses, our group had decided to establish an online database that is open for public access.
The scope change:
After the conversation with our course instructor, we were highly encouraged to change the scope of the project. Our instructor stated that local food production has very limited power in food systems. Whereas, the majority of the influence comes from the question of, “who owns this food business?” With our new scope in mind, we decided to shift the focus from something static— final consumer product, to something more labile— stakeholders’ opinions and values. In addition, we are trying to comprehend how the action of store owners can influence the development of the community. Therefore, it is an important moment of significance of our project.
The arising problems:
During the interviews the group came across a number of unexpected challenges. For example, there were language barrier issues in which caused certain stakeholders to be uncomfortable and unwilling to participate in the interview. In another case, the interview was conducted in Cantonese. However, the premise of our project is relatively discipline-specific. That said, there are many academic and/or field-specific terminologies that could not be translated with 100% precision. Language barrier issues were also the cause of unwillingness to sign the consent forms provided by the course instructors.
Furthermore, we came across stakeholders who were willing to sign an electronic version of our consent form through email, but unfortunately became unresponsive and failed to follow through with their promises. A similar problem was encountered when the group tried to reach out to local producers. Again, an electronic version of our consent form was issued to these stakeholders, but the response rate was null.
Other cases included undiplomatic stakeholders who belittled our project intentions. Although we were respectful of their opinions and wanted to maintain a professional attitude, it was easier said than done without displaying any slight reactions of awkwardness.
So What:
This scope changed helped us comprehend and critically reflect on the roots of the issues in the food system. By investigating the opinions and values of local store owners, we come to a better understanding of the market power that exists in the food system. Local food provides limited social and economic benefit to the community, on the other hand, local businesses are the key to increase social proximity and economic benefits of the community. We utilized the concept of ABCD to devise our project. The opinion and values of the owners are part of the assets of the community. It is our interest to discover the potential and assist the community to achieve the project objectives. The significance also taught us the ups and downs of teamwork in a group project. It is inevitable that there will be challenges; however, the attitude and action we take are what matter. Group projects do not always unfold according to original plans and the responsibility of finding an alternative provides new learning opportunities. The scope change served as a milestone in our project, without the input from third person, we could not see the superficiality of our intention.
With the problems that we encountered while delivering and executing the project, we learned that there is a vast fluctuation in opinions of stakeholders. The overall inconsistency of values hinders the food system from moving forward in addressing socioeconomic issues. We see that many store owners (and managers) follow traditional business models with pure profit orientation in which financial value is the main drive/purpose of entrepreneurship. At first we were rather surprised at how little attention was paid into addressing the problematic implications of a food system, but in hindsight, we are well aware that food markets are businesses and the industry is competitive. Furthermore, the blatant existence of these problems are what drives our project, giving it direction/a goal. Therefore, experiencing the situation first hand affirms the significance and purpose of our project.
Moreover, it would be unethical and ignorant to assume that stakeholders who are unfamiliar with the English language are less concerned with social welfare aspect in food systems. However, we should consider and reflect upon ourselves, “can language barrier hinder these stakeholders from becoming more connected with an English-speaking society/community?” Cultural estrangement could potentially cause individuals to become detached from the community, making it difficult for the affected individuals to fully submerge into making positive impact in the local food system. In a system that heavily involves community engagement and connection, cultural isolation is an issue that should not be overlooked.
Now what:
To maximize efficiency of our CBEL project, LFS 350 course could consider establishing connections with stakeholders in advance, in order to minimize logistical difficulties. With the short amount of time allotted to complete the task, instead of allocating time trying to convince stakeholders of our legitimacy, it would be beneficial to spend more time on in-situ research and collecting more data to increase sample size and reduce bias/anecdotal evidence.
Since we did not have a distinct community partner to collaborate with, it created more barriers for project. We feel that there is great potential to investigate the ownership in the local food market system. However, it is very time consuming to justify ourselves and our intentions within timely fashion as most of these stakeholders run and manage their own businesses and do not have the luxury of time to sit down and carry on an open-ended conversation regarding community incentive to improve food systems.
To move forward from the difficulties the group faced, the group must take into account and be more considerate of the views and situation of stakeholders. For example, as students in LFS 350, our interest is to implement/introduce positive change in food systems by valuing specific aspects such as local food production and local market ownership as a means of serving socio-economic good. Although we tried to stay unbiased, there were times when our group inevitably “forced” our opinions onto the interviewees, potentially making the data less candid than it could have been. Therefore, professionalism needs improvement in order to render the project more successful. Furthermore, in a multicultural society like Metro Vancouver, it may have been slightly insensitive to only provide English versions of the consent form, putting stakeholders illiterate in English into awkward and embarrassing situations. Therefore, the LFS 350 course may consider providing consent forms in different common languages spoken in the local area as a means of being more culturally inclusive.
We hope we can inspire future LFS 350 students’ interests to continue to explore and investigate the market/store ownership aspect of the local food system. There are still many issues that need to be discovered and addressed. Even though it may be a challenge to collaborate with not only the community, but also with group members, the hands-on experience and development of professional skills are irreplaceable.