Farewell

Group Blog Posting 5: Farewell

Executive Summary from our final report:

To address the issue of food insecurity within the Vancouver community, we chose to focus our Community Based Experiential Learning (CBEL) Project on Vancouver’s Farmers Markets. Specifically, we wanted to analyze the cost barrier imposed on community members, and their desire to access the fruits and vegetables available at local Farmers Markets. Our project partner was the BC Association of Farmers’ Markets, which has a mission to transform the global food system into a more local and sustainable marketplace for the community, environment and economy. One of our project’s objectives was to uncover the validity of the common perception that Farmers Markets are expensive and that shopping there is an elitist movement only affordable for the rich. Another objective was to provide a produce cost guide for our partner organization, so that they could evaluate possible cost-based initiatives to make Farmers Markets more accessible to community members. To achieve these objectives, we had numerous inquiry questions. For example, if Farmers Markets have the most expensive produce in the area, what strategies could be implemented to make them more accessible, and who should take on this responsibility? Our method of approach included choosing three different neighbourhoods within Vancouver to analyze how different socioeconomic classes may influence the price of produce. From each neighbourhood, we compared the prices of produce of a Farmers Market to three types of grocers within a fifteen minute walking distance. The three types of grocers included a chain superstore with organic produce, a locally owned grocer and a small produce shop that offered the cheapest options in the neighborhood. This provided a range of price points for produce within each community for our analysis. The results from our data showed that produce available at the Farmers Markets was more expensive compared to other grocers in the area, but that there were no significant price discrepancies between the three Farmers Markets. We hope our findings will be of service to our community partner, in their efforts to increase the role of Farmers Markets as a food security initiative. In moving forward, we recognize that food security is a complex issue that requires more than a price consideration. Thus, this limitation in our project provides an opportunity for further investigation into other possible barriers, like variety and convenience, which may be preventing community members from accessing their local Farmers Market.

A moment of significance using the “What, So What, Now What” framework:

As a group, we believe that the greatest moment of significance came in the recognition that community food security is a complex issue, and thus a single solution, like price, is not sufficient when trying to implement initiatives of change. At the beginning of our project, we decided to focus on the cost barrier imposed on residents in their desire to access the fruits and vegetables offered at their local Farmers Market. However, we quickly learned that other factors, such as the variety of produce item offered, convenience in location and time, and information on Farmers Markets, were equally valuable determinants that prevented community members from accessing their Farmers Market. This learning experiences was frustrating, because it demonstrated that our project’s narrow scope of analysis had numerous limitations, thus preventing its wide applicability and usefulness that we had originally hoped it would have.

Because our project was limited in the size of our sample and number of factors it analyzed, we cannot conclude that the price of produce at the Farmers Markets prevents community members from accessing these food items. This could mean that treating the complexity of food insecurity in such a simplified way may not be the best method of approach. As Sobal, Bisogni and Jastran (2014) argue, food choices involve many dimensions, which require interdisciplinary considerations, as people’s decision making is highly dynamic and contextual. Reflecting on ourselves, we also realize that our decisions on where to shop are influenced by a multitude of factors, including cost, time constraint and the variety that is offered at the store. We believe that it is crucial to examine the interplay of various determinants of people’s food choices in order to accurately understand the issue of Farmers Market’s inaccessibility. The iPES-FOOD report, one of the readings in LFS 350, also points out that a single discipline approaches in addressing a problem related to food systems is inappropriate. Thus, we need to consider how applicable our project’s findings are in addressing the issue of community’s food security within the three neighborhoods we analyzed, and what further issues need to be addressed before decisions can be made.

Now that we have recognized the complexities of food security and the limitations of our project, we hope further analyses will be conducted to address the issue of community food security within the Vancouver community. We do not pretend to hold all the answers, and we do not believe there is a single solution to addressing all the barriers faced by community members in their desire to access their local Farmers Market. However, what we do know is that there is room for progress, and that we hope our CBEL project has highlighted the need to further examine the role of Farmers Markets as a food security initiative within the Vancouver community.

References

  • Sobal, J., Bisogni, C. A., & Jastran, M. (2014). Food choice is multifaceted, contextual, dynamic, multilevel, integrated, and diverse. Mind, Brain, and Education, 8(1), 6-12. doi:10.1111/mbe.12044