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Central Kootenay Farm and Food Directory moves to add marginalized peoples

Four BIPOC-owned businesses are now identified in the directory
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The Creston Valley Farmers Market. Photo courtesy Anice Wong/BC Farmers’ Market Trail

by Timothy Schafer

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Nelson Daily

Self-identity has become a part of agriculture in the Central Kootenay.

In its fifth annual Farm and Food Directory — a joint publication of the Central Kootenay Food Policy Council and Pennywise — a tool was added to enable Indigenous, Black, people of colour, youth and 2SLGTBQIA+ individuals to self-identify in the directory.

“Our purpose was to enable those who so choose to promote their identity, with the hope that it would better enable people to proactively support their businesses,” noted council policy director Abra Brynne in the blog The Courage to be Different.

It takes a lot of courage to be visibly different, Brynne explained in the blog, and that includes agriculture.

“Many of us who do not fit into the neat boxes of the norm choose to hide how we are different, unless we know for sure that in that particular time and place it is safe to be seen,” wrote Brynne. “And in our white-dominated communities, there are many who have no choice but to be seen — and yet we render them invisible in so many ways in our daily life.”

Already there are four BIPOC-owned and three youth-owned businesses self-identifying in the directory. Although none have self-identified as queer, the option is available.

The fifth annual Farm and Food Directory is available for free at tourist information centres, markets and local food stores in the Central Kootenay region, or online at centralkootenayfood.ca.