(RE)APPROXIMATING FOOD PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS IN METRO VANCOUVER, CANADA

Abstract

This paper interprets the Metro Vancouver food localization movement, thorough the lens of the second generation of food sovereignty, with the objective of exploring its economic dimensions. First we promote a theoretical discussion of food sovereignty explaining that it started in a rural setting of the global south as a means to contest the international neoliberal trade system, and how it has adapted in the global north to incorporate consumers. We then discuss the contradictions between British Columbia's and Metro Vancouver's food systems. In sequence, we present the results from interviews of the movement's stakeholders, offering a qualitative analysis. Our findings demonstrate that there are several economic consequences, identifying: i) farmer markets as currently the most significant channel for the commerce of local foods and how they have been responsible for (re) approximating food producers and consumers; also, ii) institutional markets as a next step that can represent a true democratization of good food.