Making Place for Local Food: Reflections on Institutional Procurement and the Alberta Flavour Learning Lab

Michael Granzow,Mary Beckie

doi:10.5304/jafscd.2019.091.042

Abstract

Part case study, part reflective essay, this paper examines questions of place and scale in relationship to local food initiatives and, in particular, institutional procurement. A recent emphasis on “place-based” rather than “local” food systems presents an opportunity to ask, What would local food look like here? The Canadian province of Alberta is a unique place defined by a set of geographical, historical, and cultural relationships and connections around food. Through the case of the Alberta Flavour Learning Lab (Alberta Flavour), an institutional procurement initiative focused on “scaling-up” local food, we discuss how an increased emphasis on context and place activates strategic directions for thinking about food system change. We consider Alberta Flavour as a site of strategic localism that involves actively crafting a scale of local food that functions within a particular context. Rather than reinforcing divides between conventional and alternative food systems, Alberta Flavour interfaces between the broader values of the local food movement and the current realities of Alberta’s agri-food landscape and culture. We argue that the initiative’s hybrid and pragmatic approach to “getting more local food on more local plates,” while not radical, nonetheless contributes to positive food system change through “transformative incrementalism” (Buchan, Cloutier, & Friedman, in press).

Highlights

When people think about the “local” in “local food,” they tend to think about proximity—the geographical distance between field and fork
Alberta Flavour is a novel local food initiative in the province, but one that represents a broader trend of scaling up local food through institutional procurement occurring across North America (Fitch & Santo, 2016; Reynolds & Hunter, 2017)
Bridging the Divide: Strategic Localism and the Politics of Alberta Flavour While Alberta Flavour strives towards a set of values and goals broadly associated with the food movement (Beckie et al, 2019), it relies on buy-in from institutions and companies bound by market logics

Summary

Introduction

When people think about the “local” in “local food,” they tend to think about proximity—the geographical distance between field and fork. The second author, a sustainable agriculture and food studies scholar at the University of Alberta, has been affiliated with Alberta Flavour since its inception in 2014 She has been directly involved in conducting research on this evolving community of practice, including the annual measurement and evaluation of institutional local food purchases, as well as overseeing the development of web and social media presence for the initiative. The first author, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Alberta, has worked as a research intern with Alberta Flavour since 2017 His role has involved profiling local food initiatives, managing social media accounts, and developing web content. We consider Alberta Flavour a particular scaling and emplacement of local food that, through its focus on institutional procurement throughout a politically delineated territory, aims to scale up the benefits of local food through forging strategic alliances. We conclude by situating Alberta Flavour’s efforts as an example of transformative incrementalism (Buchan et al, in press), presenting the initiative’s policy of scaling up through the development of cross-sector alliances and ambivalent messaging as a tactic towards the goal of broader food system change

Methods

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Conclusion