Bill Reynolds describes what WE need to do collectively to seize the opportunities that Local Food offers Alberta. The BIG WE includes the different level of government, private industry, academia and civil society. But collectively WE need to think about this as a system. Governments can Mandate but we all have roles to Encourage and Enable Local Food. We have to Appreciate our local food producers (celebrate their successes). We have to Inspire our budding entrepreneurs by sharing good knowledge and ideas from elsewhere. We need to Map our Local Food assets. And WE need to Mentor, individual to individual, business to business and community to community. The BIG WE requires us to ask whether our community's food system is profitable (economically, healthwise, socially and environmentally).
Bill Reynolds has been one of the early and continuing advocates of local food in Alberta. Bill has worked behind the scenes in initiatives such as Agri-Tourism, culinary tourism, market channel access and Explore Local. Bill Reynolds is Manager, Local Food Policy and Planning, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.
Bill Reynolds was interviewed by the Alberta Land-use Knowledge Network as part of their online course and discussion of Urban Agriculture and Local Food in the autumn of 2013. The course, Growing Insights, can be viewed at http://growinginsights.ca/
