RDI Research Advances Regional Food Security Efforts

The Basin-Boundary region is host to a number of diverse community-based organizations working to support local agriculture and promote consumption of locally-produced food. The RDI’s Regional Food Systems project helps these organizations achieve their mandate by engaging in research designed to meet some of the region’s key agricultural information needs.

To set the stage for future work, the project began with a review of Kootenay regional districts’ agricultural plans. This review confirmed that many of the issues facing agriculture in the East Kootenay, Central Kootenay, and Kootenay Boundary regions are shared. The review, which is summarized in a report and video, has been a useful information piece for initiatives like Community Futures of Central Kootenay’s Rural Regional Food Policy Council Pilot project proposal and the recent Fields Forward Partnership.

 
As the research project moves toward completion in March 2016, the RDI will release several additional products linked to ongoing research. Current research activities were prioritized by the project’s advisory committee and include an analysis of agricultural climate trends, an analysis of innovation and supply networks in the region’s beef industry, an assessment of agricultural land use and productivity using remote sensing technologies, and a review of innovative approaches to removing barriers to increased agricultural production.

In addition, RDI’s work will involve research intended to support the successful formation of a regional food policy council—something that was prioritized in all three regional agricultural plans and is currently being pursued by stakeholders in the Central Kootenay region through Community Futures pilot project. This pilot project is awaiting a funding decision from the BC Real Estate Foundation.

“There is certainly no shortage of energy in this sector,” says Dr. Terri MacDonald, Regional Innovation Chair at the RDI. “Realizing the potential of agri-food in our region is a priority emerging in a number of communities including the recently launched Field Forward Partnership that is supporting local food and farming in communities from Yahk to Riondel.”