The Our Food Survey in Southeast NB

As you know the Our Food Project is part of the nation- wide effort to make it easier to grow, sell, and eat healthy food.  Our Food Southeast New Brunswick is doing this by on creating a Regional Food Charter.  Part of the research in understanding our local food system has been to learn where people buy, eat, or grow their food today.  We shared a survey to get an idea where and how people access their food and how far they travel to get their groceries

Most people (92%) said that they make an effort to buy local meaning most of the 450 participants where foodies 🙂

Here is a snapshot of some of thinking behind local buying:

The biggest reason Southeast NB foodies buy local is to support the local economy and community – This came ahead of nutritional value and the perspective of sustainability.

Most of the study group (68%) grow some of their own food and many forage fish and hunt – This means we have some great food skills kept alive out there in the woodwork!

A quarter of the participants own land that was used for agricultural purposes in the last 10 years – As we all know the land is there ready to be used to grow food we need a food system that values this!

Before boring you with anymore numbers I want to share the results of our calculation of how far people travel to get their groceries – The average distance (one way & as the crow flies) was 100 km for people living in rural areas and 25 km for people in urban areas!

Check out the map below:

The idea of a regional food charter is to get communities, businesses, governments and decision makers to factor our food system into the by endorsing an non-legally binding charter. The clincher is that this charter comes with specific actions that eaters, growers, business & institutions and policy makers can take to create change!

Check out the example of the Guelf-Wellington food Charter and the super toolkit that goes with it. I bet many of these actions apply to your community and your daily choices too!