Transcript Be a Locavore! UPEI School of Business February 7, 2009 `A Whole

2ND Annual
Locavore Challenge
UPEI School of Business
Executive MBA Program
February 6, 2010
‘A Bioregional Approach to
a Local (Food) Economy’
The Mission of
The Institute for Bioregional Studies Ltd.
"To foster community and regional development
through research, consultation and educational
programs that encourage the adoption of technologies
and practices which are socially, economically and
ecologically sustainable."
The Institute for Bioregional Studies Ltd. (IBS) is a non-profit,
charitable organization.
(Charitable Status # 88980 9737 RR0001)
www.ibspei.ca
WHY YOUR
WORLD
IS ABOUT
TO GET A
WHOLE LOT
BETTER
PHIL FERRARO
BUT……………… the transition will not be easy.
Local Food – NOT for Market Opportunity, but
because it is one step toward a more sustainable
(i.e. ‘Bioregional’) economy.
Bioregionalism is a framework for building
sustainable systems that are physically and
culturally unique.
Shifting Economic Paradigms
Conventional Model
• Innovative
• Competitive
• Efficient
Emerging Bioregional Model
• Secure
• Accessible
• Fair
• Ecological
Engages in activity that is
deemed valuable by other
people - a “winner take all”
attitude and a “culture of
desire.”
Works to assist and unite, the
work of others for a
collaborative, harmonious, and
self-reliant future.
PEI’s Economy
Shifting away from an agrarian
based economy to one
diversified in the sciences,
information technologies,
aerospace, tourism and finance.
However, a vibrant and the
sustainable economy and the
sovereignty of a region remains
dependent upon its ability to
maintain a vibrant agricultural
sector that can feed itself, protect
its environment and provide a
‘good life’ for future generations.
How Many People Can We Feed?
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Projected Global Population = 10 Billion in 2050.
N. American diet of 800 Kg grain/person/year - 2.5 billion people
Italian diet of 400 Kg grain/person/year - 5 billion people
Indian diet of 200 Kg grain/person/year - 10 billion people
(A decrease of .5 births per family in developing countries can
reduce the peak global population to 7 billion.)
Why the I.C.E. Corps
are not S.A.F.E.
• “Monopolization shifts competition from a
horizontal plane to a vertical plane. Rather
than competition between companies we get
competition between the monopoly and all the
people under its power (i.e. workers, suppliers
and customers).”
• "The privatization of government services and
functions results in the growth of corporate
power into a political form, which
systematically dismantles social programs.”
Barry Lynn, ‘Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism
and the Economics of Destruction’
Multinational corporations are now operating in
developing countries that lack sufficient
regulations.
March 2007, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that cheap and
adulterated Chinese products are poisoning us, our children, and our pets.
• Menu Foods announced a
recall of pet food .
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• Toothpaste makers had used
diethylene glycol, a component
of brake fluid and antifreeze, as
a sweetener.
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• Toy makers had coated their
products with lead-based
paints.
• Farmers had fed unapproved
drugs to catfish that were
bound for N. America.
• Jan, 2010, Global recall of
children’s jewellery laced with
cadmium.
•
•
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January 2010
January 15, 2010 - Hines Nut Company Announces Recall
of Pine Nuts Because of Possible Health Risk
January 15, 2010 - MuscleMaster.com Conducts a
Voluntary Nationwide Recall of Body Building Products
January 15, 2010 - Parkers Farm, Inc. Expands Recall to
Include All of Its Products, Regardless of Code Dates,
Because of Possible Health Risk
January 15, 2010 - McNeil Consumer Healthcare
Announces Voluntary Recall of Certain Over-TheCounter (OTC) Products in the Americas, UAE, and Fiji
January 14, 2010 - FDA Health Alert for Merrick Beef
Filet Squares Dog Treats Packaged and Distributed by
Merrick Pet Care
January 14, 2010 - PEO Chapter FO Recalls Roasted
Hazelnuts Because of Possible Health Risk
January 13, 2010 - HAPPYTOT Stage 4 and
HAPPYBABY Stage 1 & Stage 2 Pouch Meals - Recall
January 13, 2010 - Nurture, Inc. Issues Voluntary Recall
on select HAPPYTOT Stage 4 and HAPPYBABY Stage 1
& Stage 2 Pouch Meals Due to a Packaging Defect that
could cause a Possible Bacterial Contamination
January 11, 2010 - Heluva Good Recalls Cold Pack
Cheese Products Because of Possible Health Risk
January 09, 2010 - Rudolph Foods Issues Allergy Alert on
Undeclared Milk in Product
January 08, 2010 - Parkers Farm, Inc. Recalls Several
Products Because of Possible Health Risk
January 06, 2010 - Bao Ding Seafood Recalls Boiled
Horse Mackerel
January 05, 2010 - ev3 Endovascular Inc. Trailblazer
Support Catheter: Class I Recall
January 04, 2010 - Harry London Candies, Inc. announces
a voluntary and limited recall of Harry London Chocolate
Pecan Caramel Stars due to an undeclared allergen
We have mirage of infinite
choice which is really a hall
of standard-issue products
that are distinguished only
by the words and colours on
their labels.
Concentration is not the exception but increasingly the rule.
Colgate-Palmolive and Procter &
Gamble split more than 80 percent
of the market for toothpaste.
Campbell’s controls more than
70 percent of the shelf space
devoted to canned soups.
Frito-Lay has captured half the
business of selling salty corn chips and potato chips.
Nine of the top ten brands of bottled tap water are sold by PepsiCo
(Aquafina), Coca-Cola (Dasani and Evian), or Nestlé .
Our economy is filled with hidden monopolies that
control, restrict, and determine what we buy, with little
or no regard for any real market forces.
•We have never seen such
power to govern our industries
concentrated in so few hands.
•We have never seen such
physical concentration of
production.
•We have never seen such top-down competition
and thus the destruction of so many of the real
assets, skills, and products .
•We have never before faced such a lack of real options.
‘When food brands operated
their own factories they were able
to isolate a supply problem far
more swiftly and with far less
disruption at the point of sale.’
‘The most disturbing revelation is not even the
fragility of our food systems, but that some of our most
cherished beliefs about how the economy works
appear to no longer be true.’
Barry C. Lynn, senior fellow New America Foundation, business and political
journalist. Author, of: Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction.
Wal-Mart sells over half of
all the groceries in many big
metropolitan markets.
It provides 30 percent and sometimes
more than 50 percent of N. American consumer products.
Wal-Mart registers nearly $20,000 profit every minute of
every day. Wal-Mart annual profit exceeds $10.3 billion.
A WAL-MART CONTAINER ARRIVES
IN THE U.S. AT A RATE OF
1 EVERY 45 SECONDS
•5 of the richest 13 people in the world are members of the
Walton family.
•28 hours a week is considered fulltime work at Wal-Mart.
The average Associate earns $10.84/hour. = $19,165/year.
•2/3 of Wal-Mart’s workers cannot afford the company’s
insurance plan.
•Wal-Mart may be the most Innovative, Competitive and
Efficient corporation in the world.
I.C.E. Corps Have Homogenized Big Media
Five corporations -- Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News
Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom
(formerly CBS) -- now control most of the media industry in
the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth.
Independent, public and local news services are being
dismantled.
I.C.E. Corps have created the
‘Military Industrial Complex’
"Our military organization today
bears little relation to that known by any
of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by
the fighting men of World War II and Korea.
We have been compelled to create a permanent
armaments industry of vast proportions.
We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.
We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted
influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial
complex.“
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address; January 17, 1961.
I.C.E. Corps. have taken control of our food system.
Dean Foods controls 40% of the fluid milk supply in the USA, and
almost 70% of fluid milk in New England-causing prices to fall
faster than since the Great Depression.
Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), and Conagra control
80% of pork and beef production, and the most the world's grain .
Monsanto, owns patents to 93% of the world’s
soybean crop and 80 percent of corn.
Three companies, Bayer, Syngenta, and BASF control
about half of the global agrochemical market.
Monopolies result in tremendous negative consequences
on our food security, and ultimately on consumer choice.
These firms often mandate the use of a certain technologies. If
producers stray from the prescribed methods, they may find their
contracts terminated.
I.C.E. Corps block scientists from
independent research on GMO crops
• If you buy genetically modified
(GM) seeds you may not save
the seeds from your harvest.
• You are also prohibited from using
the seeds for research. That means
research into GM crops can be done
only by the biotech companies or with
their approval.
Our current food system, is not sustainable.
Global:
• Foreign interests control 15 to 20 million hectares
of farmland in developing countries.
Equivalent to 50X the size of Prince Edward Island.
(Beware of the ‘Gates-Rockefeller Alliance for a Green Revolution.’)
• Food prices soaring due to manufactured constraints.
• Food distribution accounts for 10% of annual CO2 emissions.
• Avian Influenza, H1N1 Swine Influenza, MRSA, BSE are diseases that
entered human populations from industrial agricultural operations.
• Fertilizer run-off created a 7,000 square mile dead zone in the Gulf of
Mexico.
• In the event of a ‘food shock’ North American cities
only have only a three day supply of fresh food.
• From 1987 to 1997, consumer expenditures for U.S. grown food
increased by $185 billion. Nearly 85 percent resulted from an increase
in marketing costs.
• In 1997, the farm-to-retail price spread rose by an average of 4.7
percent while farmers received 4.4 percent less for the food they
produced
• Average return on equity (1986 and 1991) for farmers was roughly
2 percent. The average return for food manufacturers was roughly 17
percent.
(US Dept. Agriculture).
• Declining Farm Share of Food Dollar
1980 – 30%, 1987 – 30%, 1997 – 23%, 1998 – 21%, 1999 – 20%
Our current food system, is not sustainable.
Canada:
• Tens of thousands of farmers
sell to only 1 or 2 corporations.
• Food travels 2400 kilometres
from field to plate.
• 38% of food available for retail
sale is wasted.
• Adverse affects of industrial
farming on water, soil and air quality
linked to decline in nutritional value of food.
• 8 of 10 leading causes of death are diet related (Statistics Canada, 1997).
• Increasing reports food contaminated with pathogens and
foreign substances including listeria, E. Coli, salmonella,
melamine, pieces of glass, Bisphenol A.
• Simultaneously export & import same product.
• Canada’s average ecological footprint is 7.25 ha/person.
Beware of the nutritionists and food scientists
who want to extract, genetically modify, make
‘functional,’ ‘enrich’ and ‘medicate’ junk food to
pass it off as ‘health food.’
‘Eat Food. Not too much, Mostly plants,’
Michael Pollan, author ‘In Defence of Food.’
Our current food system, is not sustainable.
Prince Edward Island
Growing the Island Way
The Next Chapter for the Agriculture and Agri-Food Economy of Prince Edward Island
Commission on the Future of Agriculture
• Until the 1960s, small mixed farms provided local
food under a low-intensity agricultural model,
with relationships forged at the community level.
• Since then, the number of farms in PEI dropped
from more than 10,000 to fewer than 1,700.
• Conversely, between 1986 and 2006, farms with gross revenues of over
$500,000 increased fivefold, from 44 to 240.
• 637 farms reporting gross income of over $100,000 occupy over 80% of
our agricultural land and generate about 80% of PEI’s farm cash receipts.
• In the 1970s, one in seven Island farmers was under 35 years of age. Today
it’s less than one in 10 and there is no sign that the trend will reverse any
time soon.
Our current food system, is not sustainable.
Prince Edward Island
Growing the Island Way
The Next Chapter for the Agriculture and
Agri-Food Economy of Prince Edward Island
Commission on the Future of Agriculture
• “Farmers are fighting a losing battle of mere economic
survival. The industry cannot thrive by competing in
globalized, efficiency driven commodity markets where
the largest scale, lowest operating cost, and least regulated
operations win the day.”
• “The commodity system has created a “vicious circle” in
PEI, where ever-declining profit margins have forced
farmers to consolidate and intensify their operations,
resulting in negative environmental impacts that lose
farmers the respect of the community and, in turn, costs
them their own self-respect.”
Our current food system, is not sustainable.
Prince Edward Island
Growing the Island Way
The Next Chapter for the Agriculture and Agri-Food Economy of Prince Edward Island
Commission on the Future of Agriculture
• “Today, globalized industrial agriculture is on the verge
of a third wave.”
• The trend toward fewer but more specialized farms,
along with a concentration of processing and retail,
resulted in declining economic viability, and
environmental degradation.
• “ This third wave will feature a global agricultural response to energy and
environmental issues. It will include new technologies like customized, satellitebased weather forecasts, genetic improvements in crops that allow for reduced
pesticide and nutrient inputs, and foods with improved health benefits to
consumers.”
Which economic paradigm does the Commission endorse; the
I.C.E ‘winner take all’ model or the emerging S.A.F.E. bioregional model which supports collaboration and self-reliance?
ISO 26000 - ‘Social Responsibility’
is important to a S.A.F.E. economy
Conscious of what we
buy, and how it is produced.
• Environmentally harmful production,
• Child labour,
• Dangerous working environments and other inhumane
conditions.
Companies aiming at long-term profitability and credibility
are starting to realize that they must act in accordance with
norms of right and wrong.
Why Localizing the Economy is S.A.F.E.
Enhances consumer trust .
Provides icons of local
identity and pride.
Greater community welfare,
less social strife, and greater
equality.
Local jobs and reinvest profits in the community.
Local businesses attract tourists and future entrepreneurs,
promoting creative economies, and stimulating charitable
contributions.
A community that cannot sustain itself places
burdens on the ability of other communities to
sustain it.
S.A.F.E. businesses that meet local needs
sustainably can, teach communities in other parts
of the world to be sustainable.
A bioregional, S.A.F.E., economy is not exclusively
a geographically ‘local’ economy.
It aims to serve the bio-region first;
creating self-reliance and then
exporting surplus to ‘niche markets,’
(i.e. specific customers with whom we
enjoy a special relationship).
Not only about price, quality, safety,
reliability, nor consistency.
It is about the intangible qualities of trust, security,
fairness, ecological sustainability and friendship.
It is about collaborating with partners rather than
competing with rivals.
Growing awareness and demand from consumers to eat
differently for both health and economic reasons.
• 42% of Canadians regularly purchase locally grown food
(Ipsos Reid, 2006)
• 71% of Canadians say benefit of local food is that it helps your
local economy (Ipsos Reid, 2006).
• 30% spending increase at Farmer’s Markets between 2004-8 .
• 90% of households indicate they had purchased local food in the
past 12 months.
• 1/3 of Canadian households say they will buy more local food
next year.
• Over 75% of Canadians identify taste, nutrition, security,
environment and economy as very important reasons for buying
local foods.
While dollars spent with large corporations almost immediately leave the
community, dollars spent on local food products circulate within the
community 8 to 15 times, drastically improving the value of your
purchase. (BALLE, 2009)
Shifting to a more local economy
creates jobs and increased output,
earnings and business taxes.
For example,
•
A 20% shift to local foods in Detroit
and five surrounding counties results in
35,822 jobs and $3.4 billion in increased
output, $900 million in increased earnings,
and $155 million in increased business taxes
(Shuman, 2009).
•
20% shift of food dollars to local food in King County in Seattle, Washington
would result in nearly $500 million annual income increase (Sontag, 2008).
In early 2009, 2000 Edmontonians, committed to
shift 40% of their current food dollars to local food.
The result was a shift of $2.3 million dollars
annually to purchasing local foods.
If 25% of residents responded similarly, this would mean over $330 million
would be shifted to local foods. The multiplier effect would bring the
economic impact to over $2 billion.
On Prince Edward Island, a 20% shift in local food purchases would infuse
an additional $3.6 million into the local economy.
The multiplier effect would bring the economic
impact to over $22 million, annually.
Can local food jump-start the economy? December 9, 2009
“All locally owned businesses can help the economy grow. But food
businesses are the gateway for many people to rethink their
relationship with local stores. ……….. food is at the forefront of local
businesses' driving of economic growth, providing a model for other
kinds of entrepreneurs.”
Weaver Market. Carrboro, North Carolina
12,000-members, includes three grocery stores, a
commissary and an Italian restaurant, an affordable
housing cooperative and a locally owned radio
station.
It donates more than $60,000 each year to local
schools and other nonprofits.
Zingerman's in Ann Arbour, Michigan
It began as a 1,200-square-foot deli in 1982 and now
includes a catering company, bakery, mail-order business,
creamery, a full-service restaurant, a coffee roastery and a
consultancy called ZingTrain that teaches customer service to
other small businesses. Zingerman's employs 525 people,
with revenues of $27 million.
Food Trends to Watch in the Next Decade:
Source: The Way We Eat: Creating a Vibrant & Sustainable Local Food Economy
Greater Edmonton Alliance
A resurgence of family dinners and dinner parties.
Research confirms that families benefit emotionally as
well as nutritionally.
Children who eat meals with their families do better in
school and are less likely to fall into substance abuse.
Voluntary Simplicity is now
trendy even in food.
Foodies will seek simple
preparations with few ingredients.
Farmers' markets will gain even more prominence. And
locally produced food will be more and more sought after.
Snack foods and prepared meals.
Childhood obesity may slow down but will remain
throughout the decade. Thanks to the food processing
lobbies and HFC.
1 billion people are malnourished;
1 billion are obese.
A trend away from restaurants and toward dining
trucks, street vendors, informal and authentic ethnic
food.
The restaurant chains will fight this with scare tactics
over food safety.
Increase in programs, initiatives, and even legislation
to improve our health, especially diabetes and heart
disease.
Plant a garden Urban agriculture, Edible landscaping,
Permaculture design.
Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy
Forging Food Sovereignty
for Human Rights and Sustainable Livelihoods
• End the injustices that cause hunger, poverty and
environmental degradation throughout the world.
• A world free of hunger is possible if farmers and
communities take back control of the food systems
presently dominated by transnational agri-foods industries.
• People have a right to healthy and culturally appropriate
food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable
methods, and their right to define their own food and
agriculture systems—at home and abroad.
Incubator Farms and Agricultural Entrepreneurship
programs can help new and young farmers, and develop
practical as well as entrepreneurial skills.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Prince Edward Island’s economy will be sustainable when it is SAFE:
» Secure,
» Accessible,
» Fairly traded ,
» Ecologically responsible.
www.ibspei.ca