Bowen Agricultural Alliance

As of October 30, we’ve received 70 responses to the food and agriculture questionnaire — that’s just over 5% of Bowen’s approximately 1,340 households. We’ve reached our target goal of 67+ responses ahead of the November 1 workshop. A big thank you to all those who have participated so far!

Below is a link to the full survey report (to date) and a summary of some key issues.

Bowen Food & Agriculture Survey – Report – 30Oct09 (PDF)

Summary:

Survey respondents:

• 70 households.
• 94% full-time island residents.
• 70% respondents between 40 and 59 years of age. 17% between 60-80. 11% between 26-39.
• 49% of households represent couples with children. 16% working couples with no children. 10% retired couples.

Local food:

• 41% think on island (or coastline) is appropriate scale for talking about “local food”. 29% would expand the net to a 100 mile radius. 19% think BC lower mainland is appropriate scale.
• 37% of respondents estimate less than 25% of food their household consumes comes from within a 100 mile radius. 20% of respondents estimate their 100 mile consumption at about 25%. 30% say it’s about 50%.
• 23% of respondents shop at farmer’s markets frequently (6-11 times in past 6 months). Another 16% have purchased at farmers markets more than 11 times in the past 6 months. 25% have shopped at farmers markets fewer than 2 times in the last 6 months.
• Top 3 motivations to buy and consume local food: 1) quality / health / safety, 2) environmental / social impact, 3) accessibility. Local economic development plus community / personal connection not far behind.

Food growing and production:

• 60% indicate some food production for personal consumption. Another 19% are growing food for sale to others.
• 12 of 70 respondents participate in a food buying cooperative. 4 respondents participate in a community garden.
• Top three obstacles to growing / producing food at the household level: 1) not enough time, 2) poor soil / growing conditions, 3) lack of knowledge / skills. A number of respondents also mentioned poor sunlight and cost of deer proofing.

Food security:

• 47% of respondents rate Bowen’s food security level as “Very insecure”. Another 29% indicate it is “Somewhat insecure”. 10% of the respondents felt it was “Somewhat secure”. No one gave Bowen a “Very secure” rating.
• More optimistically, 53% felt food security would improve over the next decade. While 31% said it would become less secure.

Obstacles and opportunities:

• Key obstacles to agriculture and food production on the island (those having major impact): 1) Cost to purchase / lease land, 2) Lack of cultivated land for growing, 3) Limited financial motivation.
• Key activities to support expansion of local food security and agriculture (in order of ranking): 1) An organization to support agriculture on the island (e.g. advocacy, education, fundraising, project planning), 2) Local food markets and fairs (Bowfeast, Applefest, Bowfest, etc), 3) Community composting / soil improvements, 4) Municipal incentives for agricultural land / lease donation, 5) Expanded community gardens, 6) Community supported agriculture programs, 7) Formation of grower cooperatives, 8) Agricultural skills development workshops.

In addition to the structured questions, respondents provided a whole bunch of interesting and useful comments. Read the full report to find out what islanders are saying about food and agriculture on our island.

Have a different perspective from the feedback or priorities that your fellow citizens have provided? Then take a few minutes and fill in a survey. The raffle draw deadline has closed, but the questionnaire will remain open until further notice.