As more restaurants have highlighted locally-grown food on their menus, small-scale farmers have made supplying these restaurants a key part of their business plans. Now that COVID-19 public health orders have closed most restaurants, these farmers — and their food — have been left in the lurch. With restaurants closed and many shoppers rushing to stock up at large grocery chains that source from places like California, local food organizers worry this doubling-down could undermine years of work building up smaller producers and vendors further destabilizing long-term regional food security.
“We’ve always known the food system has some flaws,” says Aaren Topley of the Public Health Association of BC. “Now that COVID-19 is happening, those flaws that we’ve seen are becoming more and more pronounced.”