The Sunshine Coast has been included in a research project whose aim is to create a regional food system design for southwest B.C. in 2050.
“The project is unprecedented in North America and is very ambitious,” Kent Mullinix, director of the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems at Kwantlen Polytech University, said Oct. 16.
Appearing before the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) planning and development committee, Mullinix said the objective of the $1.2-million bio-regional food system design project is to maximize food self-reliance, creating jobs and economic opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses.
“We recognize that our food system is quite tenuous and it’s going to be challenged in the very near future by rising fuel prices, climate change, population growth and changing global economic circumstance,” Mullinix said.
Mullinix said the project is “entirely consistent” with the SCRD’s agricultural area plan and should support its objectives.
“We intend to produce a design and a plan that is realistic, grounded and doable,” he said.
Directors agreed to endorse the project, joining 17 other local governments in the region as well as the Agricultural Land Commission, and consider a work plan that would assign a staff person as liaison for 10 hours a year over the next two years.
After requesting a “modest contribution” of $30,000 over three years, Mullinix was asked to submit a funding proposal for the first round of the 2015 budget process.
The southwest B.C. bio-region encompasses Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, Sunshine Coast, Powell River and Squamish Lillooet regional districts.
