Following on the heels of the Deconstructing Dinner Film Fest, West Kootenay EcoSociety is hosting its third Conversation Café: Local Food Means Business.
“How can we increase our local food production and consumption regionally?” and “How can local people start viable food businesses as a way to achieve this growth?” These are some of the burning questions for panelists of the upcoming Conversation Cafe April 9 at Oso Negro (7 p.m.). Hosts John Alton and David Reid will interview panelists to elicit their personal solutions to the local food dilemma before turning it over to the audience for their input and conversation.
From home-based food prep kitchens, to an abattoir, to market gardens, locals are finding ways to get into the food biz. Yet is there room to increase many times over what we already produce here? Could we supply most of our root vegetables, meat, dairy products and eggs locally? Was there not a dairy in Nelson in the recent past, and a thriving orchard industry and could that be so again?
The panel of local food fanatics will address these pressing questions and more: Jon Steinman of Deconstructing Dinner; Valerie Sanderson of Soups in Season; Christina Yahn, The Queen Bees Project; Judy Morten, Tulaberry Farms; Madrone, Riverfarm; Colleen Ross, Canadian Farmers Union; and Michael Ableman, SoleFood Farms.
Come add to this evening of conversation on the topic of local food security and sustainability, as we discuss the challenges, as well as the potential, and look at inspiring solutions.