[lofo List] 300 words for SAF Ag. Dev. Fund letter of intent

[Daryl Hepting <hepting@cs.uregina.ca>]

Hi;

My apologies for the delay.  Please have a look to see whether
this fits with our discussion.  It is about 300 words (max for
the letter of intent form).

Best regards,
Daryl
--
Title:
Local Food as a Catalyst for Value-Added Industry Growth

Summary:
Saskatchewan produces so much of the world's food, yet much of what  
we eat comes from outside the province.  The realities of climate  
change make the reduction greenhouse gas emissions essential.  The  
import of processed food is a leading source of these emissions.   
There are other reasons to favour locally grown and processed food,  
which include economic development, jobs, community stability, food  
safety, just treatment of workers and humane treatment of animals.   
Local food production can provide an alternative to the disappearing  
family farm.  The success of local food initiatives around the world  
has proven their worth.  This project will focus on the opportunities  
that local food provides for Saskatchewan.  In particular, we will  
survey both consumers and producers to understand the priorities and  
issues of each group and find out the barriers to increasing local  
food production.  One of the barriers already understood is  
information.  The project will construct a local food directory (on  
the worldwide web and in print) that will be designed to address  
consumer and producer issues.  It will include geographic information  
so consumers will know how far away is the local food source. The  
directory will help to connect consumers and producers in concrete  
ways, so consumers will know how to incorporate local foods into  
their regular shopping.  Opportunities for new businesses and value- 
added industries can be identified based on consumers queries to the  
online system.  This information about existing demands can be used  
to target industries to specific regions of the province to maximize  
environmental and economic gain for the province. Such a directory  
could also be used to spur the development of food-based destinations  
and tourism.  Some of the barriers and issues identified by consumers  
and producers may not be addressed by the local food directory  
itself.  In these cases, an analysis of the issues and  
recommendations for action will be developed.
--
Daryl H. Hepting, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor  * Computer Science Department * CW 308.22
University of Regina * Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2
dhh@cs.uregina.ca    * http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~hepting
tel: (306) 585-5210  * fax: (306) 585-4745


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