Chris  speaks to the City Council, Summer 2015

Good afternoon Nanaimo Council and Mayor,

My name is Christopher Brown. I’m a local organic farmer with Farmship Growers Cooperative, the president of the Bowen Road Farmers Market, a board member of Nanaimo Foodshare, the Bastion Waterfront Market, the Island Roots Market Cooperative, and an agricultural Entrepreneur, activist, optimist and dreamer here in Nanaimo. I’m here to speak on behalf of the blossoming local food movement in regards to the Beban park master plan.

We are pleased that the Beban park master plan includes an area for a year round farmers market in its agricultural options. However, we urge the city to include in the plan a year round, covered farmers market within this area. A Farmers Market needs to be covered to be year round, and the market needs to be year round to provide continuous, locally produced food for our community and to build the agricultural sector of our local economy.

To be blunt, the agricultural system on Vancouver Island is broken. This is evident by the fact that only 3% of the food we consume on the island is grown on the island.

The question I ask to you today is, “What are we going to do about this problem? How will we fix our local food system?”

I believe one of Nanaimo’s solutions lies within rethinking Beban Park.

Beban Park has an agricultural history, and the city is designing to increase usership. A year-round farmers market would guarantee year round usership and solidify its agricultural heritage. Food is something that we all have in common. We would be catering to everyone, and not a singular specialty user group. I greatly value the fact that Nanaimo invests in its health and wellness, but for some reason healthy food, here and elsewhere, has been overlooked. As California dries up, this is something we can no longer ignore.

Food security, like water, is a civic responsibility. But with challenges lie solutions.

I propose that an agricultural center is built at Beban Park. This center would house the year round farmers market, as well as provide spaces, available for rent, for food security and education user groups, such as Nanaimo Foodshare, Community Kitchens, VIU or Community Gardens, just to name a few. This center could also have spaces for community food storage and distribution, a seed bank, classrooms, a value adding facility (something lacking significantly in Nanaimo), and spaces for other agricultural needs.

I invite you all to investigate how world wide, farmers markets are often the center of many great cities.

As a farmer, one of our biggest challenges and our current bottleneck is lacking a central marketplace. Yes, there are many local farmers markets, which judging from how busy Cedar was yesterday are increasing in popularity and awareness, yet it’s so much work for us to pack up our produce and bring it into town three days per week. A market in the heart of the city would allow us to distribute our food more efficiently and reach more customers.

I see the revitalization of a food resilient local economy as a tremendous economic opportunity.   If Only 3% of food is grown locally, and 2% of Islanders shop at farmers markets, well, you can see why it’s an exciting time to be in the local food business. I dream of creating jobs for many young farmers within our community.

We are fortunate to have a year round growing climate here on the island. Vancouver Island could become food secure within a generation if we nurture agriculture awareness, and create opportunities for farmers.

Studies show that young professionals are moving to cities that have an existing local food culture. We are becoming increasingly aware of how industrial agriculture is feeding us poison and destroying nature, and so we need to provide alternatives to the chemical corn and GMO potatoes available at the big box grocery stores. The culture of food awareness is growing and we must innovate to accommodate the challenges we face in a warming and drying world.

In closing, I would like to share a vision with you: Imagine Beban Park has an agroplex with a year round market, education and food security spaces, a community kitchen and café, and space for food storage and processing … then Imagine the agroplex surrounded by a public food forest park, such as the 7 acre one they have installed in Seattle. And then imagine, years down the road, a state of the art greenhouse education facility, such as the Blodel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver. Nanaimo could be world famous for its food its agricultural initiatives, but we need the city to take the lead, and work hand in hand with its local food citizens to realize this vision.

In closing, I’d like to finish with two quotes from one of my farming heroes Joel Salatin, and one from me:

“The average person is still under the aberrant delusion that food should be somebody else’s responsibility until I’m ready to eat it.”

“You, as a food buyer, have the distinct privilege of proactively participating in shaping the world your children will inherit.”

“Local food solves global problems.”

Thank you.