[lofo List] article about lofo.uregina.ca for Regina Ecoliving Guide (short notice)

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

Hi;

The following is something I put together quickly from some
other things that have been written.  If you have the opportunity,
please send your comments. I know that it has my name on it, but
I didn't mean to give the impression that this something that I
am doing.  Because of haste, that message might not be clear
enough -- I will try to address that on my own, but as always your
comments are WELCOME.

Best regards,
Daryl
--  
Finding information about local food in Saskatchewan
at http://lofo.uregina.ca

by Daryl Hepting, Ph.D.

There is growing interest in local food production and consumption  
for its many benefits, including economic and environmental.   
Saskatchewan consumers who wish to follow this trend do not have a  
comprehensive resource that they may consult to find this local  
produce. Internationally, there has been a great deal of work to  
identify and develop best practices to both increase supply and  
demand of local food and to streamline procurement practices to  
permit locally grown food to fill institutional contracts.   
Adaptation of these practices to Saskatchewan can mean sustainable  
additional income and employment opportunities for farmers, a higher  
dollar return per acre for these producers, and stronger rural  
communities and regions in Saskatchewan.

Hosted at the University of Regina, a community site for people
interested in buying or selling locally produced food is a first
step to help make connections between producers and consumers,
and to educate the public about the economic, environmental, health
and social benefits of local food:
* economic: dollars spent locally have a multiplier effect and those
  dollars support people who want to stay on the land and care for it,
  and they encourage the development and maintenance of communities
  around and embedded in this food production.
* environmental: a great deal of greenhouse gas emissions are tied
  to food production, storage, and transportation.  Industrial food
  production also depletes the soil.  The concept of food kilometers
  refers to the distance food travels to get to the dinner table. The
  average number of food kilometers for a North American meal is
  about 2300.
* health: food safety, quality, and nutrition are increasingly
  important issues.  If you know and trust the people who are
  producing your food according to high standards, you can gain
  assurance about all these factors.  All eggs (substitute whatever
  food you like here) are not equal, despite the claims we hear
  to the contrary.
* social: community-based, civic agriculture can be an effective
  antidote to globally-traded food commodities and the destruction
  of family farms and rural infrastructure.  Food security and
  sovreignty are important concerns in this day and age.

The site is available at http://lofo.uregina.ca/, lofo is short for  
"local food."  The site came online over the summer and it is still a  
work-in-progress.  Your support is requested.  Free of charge, you  
may go to
the website and create a profile for yourself, specifying what you'd
like to buy or sell.  Through the "geoindex" feature on the site, you
can see where other producers and consumers, for any particular food
item, are located in the province.  Look around the site and please
give us your comments and ideas either through the forums on the
website or by e-mail to local.food@uregina.ca.  Make a link to the
site and tell your friends about it.

In time, we hope to provide the means to facilitate connections
between producers and institutional as well as individual consumers,
create an international inventory of best practices for local food  
production, consumption, and procurement - adapted to Saskatchewan;
and  create a software environment that allows producers and other  
interested parties to contribute and maintain information in the
directory.  Right now, the site is based on the open source software
called drupal.
--
Daryl H. Hepting, Ph.D.
Associate 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 * cell: (306) 596-6312


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