Welcome to Local Food Manitoba. A website where you can learn about the advantage of local food systems as well as find out about local food programs and projects in Manitoba.
Food is one of the most basic necessities of human life, yet often a huge physical and psychological distance exists between consumers and producers in today’s mainstream intensive industrialized agriculture system. This disconnect is so severe, in fact, that many consumers have little idea about where their food actually comes from. A 2013 UK survey showed that there is a lot of confusion in the younger generations about where their food comes from, with nearly a third of the respondents in this survey thinking that cheese comes from a plant (BBC, 2013). Margarette Purvis, president and CEO of the Food Bank for New York City writes, “many children don't know where their food comes from...many of them think food originates at the grocery store” (Purvis, 2011). This lack of understanding of food systems has detrimental consequences that manifest themselves through environmental, social and economic damage. Local food systems and alternative agriculture programs help to (re)bridge the gap between the consumer and producer by making tangible connections between the two parties. Local food movements help teach people how to grow their own food or help to directly connect farmers and consumers in order to build relationships around food. Local and alternative food systems exist in many forms and at many different scales including:
Food is one of the most basic necessities of human life, yet often a huge physical and psychological distance exists between consumers and producers in today’s mainstream intensive industrialized agriculture system. This disconnect is so severe, in fact, that many consumers have little idea about where their food actually comes from. A 2013 UK survey showed that there is a lot of confusion in the younger generations about where their food comes from, with nearly a third of the respondents in this survey thinking that cheese comes from a plant (BBC, 2013). Margarette Purvis, president and CEO of the Food Bank for New York City writes, “many children don't know where their food comes from...many of them think food originates at the grocery store” (Purvis, 2011). This lack of understanding of food systems has detrimental consequences that manifest themselves through environmental, social and economic damage. Local food systems and alternative agriculture programs help to (re)bridge the gap between the consumer and producer by making tangible connections between the two parties. Local food movements help teach people how to grow their own food or help to directly connect farmers and consumers in order to build relationships around food. Local and alternative food systems exist in many forms and at many different scales including:
- Farmer’s markets;
- Community supported agriculture programs (CSA);
- Gardening projects; and
- Food-sharing organizations