The by-design, vertically integrated, local and regional food economy. Part three

Part one and two recap : From securing the business of local and regional anchor institutions, entering into professional level supply contracts with these institutions; to taking advantage of import replacement and economic gardening opportunities; to offering pooled strategic marketing, legal and finance supports to craft producers, restaurants, and local farms and farmers’ markets, the strong basis of a vertically integrated local food economy ecosystem can be established. Then things get ambitious.

The skills, experience and knowledge to build the local food economy are present locally in abundance. A refocused City economic development arm has the ability, properly tasked, to work with current local food enterprises to create a public good far greater than the sum of the parts.

The crown atop the food economy ecosystem, the creation of a City-owned public market, anchoring catalyst of an ambitious vision of downtown renewal and regeneration requires talents not available here or in any but the largest cities in the country.

"Great markets can spark urban revitalization, foster community diversity, and improve public health. Across the globe, we’re on the verge of a new era of market cities, with expansive networks to connect people and places.” @PPS_Placemaking https://t.co/8XRdUx6f0a

— The Economic Garden (@Economicgarden1) September 17, 2020

Around the world, pubic markets are key municipal assets that, done right, punch above their weight economically, socially and culturally. This is where the local food economy can achieve real security by connecting consumers, at scale, with the local food economy ecosystem. To realize the vision of a Nanaimo City-owned public market catalyzing downtown urban renewal and regeneration the following are imperative :

• The re-reinstatement immediately of the role of Chief Planner, a progressive proactive hire reporting directly to the City Manager, the CAO.
• The creation by a skilled team of professionals, chosen through an RFP competitive process, a city-centre specific urban plan.
• The creation as recommended by the Downtown Waterfront Initiative headed by former VIU VP Dave Witty of a Public Development Corporation.

There is now a much loved and respected community market, Island Roots. They’ve done especially well coping with the COVID-19 pandemic offering innovative ways to support local producers and their customers. They have a proposal in front of the City to expand at their present location, a large park outside the urban core. I’ve expressed my concerns that the market will struggle at this location, unable to benefit from the mix of activities around it and unable then to benefit others in a mutually supportive way. The proposed Island Roots Co-op Market at Beban Park

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The by-design, vertically integrated, local and regional food economy. Part two

Supper the other night —al fresco— at a new restaurant downtown. Every sprout, every salad green and root vegetable, even the ribeye steak sourced locally.

The farm-to-table movement is one element of the vertically integrated local and regional food economy I wrote about in part one.

The farm-to-table movement and many of the elements of a local food economy are in place now. Missing is an organizing authority to work with each element, to coordinate, to grow the mutually advantageous elements of the local food economy ecosystem.

This requires a rethinking of the role of the City’s economic development arm. A reversal of focus from searching far and wide for the large branch plant employer to nurturing and growing the resilient local economy. Craft producers — brewers, wineries, distillers; startups, farms, market gardens, restaurants, farmers' markets, specialties and related enterprises.

1. My small neighbourhood—Old City—currently has a Greek restaurant, Tex-Mex, Italian, Japanese, a Cupcakery, specialty food import + cheese shop, beer+wine store, 2 coffee bars, 3 lunch cafes, 3 pubs w/ kitchens. New Japanese restaurant opening soon.Confident it'll also do well.

— NanaimoCommons (@NanaimoCommons) May 19, 2018

With the foundational work described in part one done, local economic development would hold monthly public presentations on starting a business in the local food economy, connecting startups and established businesses with resources: legal, accounting, marketing, regulatory.

And one econ-dev function would be to invite submission of business ideas. Qualifying ideas would go into an intense incubation period, the outcome of which would be a completed business plan ready to present to lenders and investors. Alternative business models like co-ops and social enterprises should be stressed. And City economic development would be looking to partner with financial institutions especially Island-based credit unions to create innovative financing and investment tools.

I took just such an incubator at VIU years ago that resulted in a business my wife and I grew and sold in 2009. Joint federal funding was available for this incubator then and no doubt would be now.

A re-focused economic development arm would investigate local applications of concepts like import replacement and economic gardening (an entrepreneurial approach to economic development that seeks to grow the local economy from within). Economic gardening is being applied successfully on a large scale, growing already large enterprises larger. Local focus would be to identify smaller enterprises in need of financial or marketing, planning or legal assistance, to grow larger, each creating new employment.

Earlier post : On a self-reliant, resilient and regenerative local economy. 1 Next : up the chain to the downtown public market catalyzing renewal in the urban core. Part three.

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The by-design, vertically integrated, local and regional food economy. Part one

"We need to view cities as the complex, adaptive systems they are—and when we do, we gain insight into how to address today's pressing challenges.” recent Strong Towns Tweet.

“Cities happen to be problems in organized complexity, like the life sciences… The variables are many, but they are not helter-skelter; they are interrelated into an organic whole.” Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Ch22 The Kind of Problem a City Is.

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This post, the first in a series on how Nanaimo can best emerge from the crises, the health crisis here now and the economic crisis to come, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, proposes a by-design, vertically integrated local and regional food economy.

Local and regional food security has been on a lot of people's minds the last few years. And all the more so the last few months. We can emerge from the COVID-19 crisis with a secure local and regional food economy ecosystem.

This chart from the 2016 Nanaimo Census Profile offers a snapshot of the local economy. We're a population centre, a transportation hub and we're the urban centre most important to our region. As in other small regional cities, the large payrolls are public sector (about 20% of the labour force are employed in the health, education and related sectors) and retail related services employ more people than any of the other sectors (almost 30%).

These are family-supporting incomes and we're fortunate to have them. They shouldn't however make us complacent about growing and strengthening our local economy, about the creation of local value. Many cities across North America are looking at import-replacement principles as a way to grow and make more resilient their local economies.

The supply and distribution of locally grown and produced food can only be as secure as it is fully integrated into the local mainstream economy. Creating family-supporting jobs at every point in the new economic sector. Here’s how, in these incremental steps, we can do that.

By Design.  Building on current strengths, and with an understanding of how cities are made up of complex, interconnected systems, the City of Nanaimo's economic development arm can begin to design the vertically integrated local and regional food ecosystem. This is incremental development within an ambitious plan that builds on the strengths of each proceeding element. The growing and producing of local and regional foods is the place to start.

Import replacement. We’re fortunate to have a strong base from which to grow and develop a secure local and regional food economy. Farmers’ Markets, community gardens, Vancouver Island University and others have acquired a key knowledge base in the growing and production of food and also in distribution, marketing and administration.

In To Combat Widespread Job Loss, Stay Local and Look to Import Replacement, journalist Valerie Vande Panne describes innovative ways some cities have successfully re-localized their economies. Some of these examples could serve us well here in Nanaimo as a way forward.

"In Cleveland, Evergreen Cooperatives has brought home multiple businesses and millions of dollars through enterprises including Evergreen Cooperative Laundry and Green City Growers. In the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, Wellspring Cooperative meets local food needs through their Wellspring Harvest Greenhouse."

Partnering with local anchor institutions, as detailed in the above nextcity.org article, beginning with surveying current purchases of the hospital, the K-12 school system, the university and others, to identify import replacement opportunities offers a solid foundation on which to begin to build a resilient and regenerative local and regional food economy.

Nothing happens in the city one-off. Everything’s connected to everything else. Design the urban environment for synergies that create social good or disconnected decay will be the inevitable result.

— NanaimoCommons (@NanaimoCommons) August 5, 2020

More to come : the craft producers, re-localized finance and investment, business incubators and start-up supports and a City-owned public market catalyzing downtown urban renewal.

The by-design, vertically integrated, local and regional food economy. Part two.

Further reading : Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jane Jacobs

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