Online tool from UBC tracks flow of produce into and through Canada
By Liam Nolan
With the current climate (weather and political) in Canada right now, many Canadians may be attempting to buy local, and these days more than ever, buy Canadian, but that is difficult to do.
It’s late winter and many Canadians have been buying imported produce for months now.
While stickers and supermarket signs tell us where our fruit and vegetables were grown, you might be interested to know the route they took to get to your local grocery store.
A new online tool from the University of British Columbia can offer some insight.
Canadafoodflows.ca has been described as “like Google Maps for your dinner plate” and is an interactive web application launched earlier this year. It tracks the produce flows of 18 fruits and 16 vegetables, based on a dataset from 2010 to 2022.
The flows distinguish imports from each specific U.S. state to Canadian provinces, the key supplying country of produce, international flows from other nations, and interprovincial flows within Canada.
The project was created using the research of Dr. Kushank Bajaj and Dr. Navin Ramankutty from the UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs.
“Many fruits and vegetables are harder to grow in the colder Canadian climate. On average, about 50 per cent of vegetables besides potatoes, and 75 per cent of fruits eaten in Canada, are imported,” said Dr. Bajaj in the February edition of The University of British Columbia Magazine.
Consumers can use this data to understand where the food they eat comes from, and how global trade, such as tariffs, can affect them.
The website's ability to be specific allows for insight into how individual fruits and vegetables may be transported, rather than broadly as a whole food group.
“It can be utilized to estimate consumption-based environmental footprints or sustainability indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions, groundwater depletion, biodiversity loss, food miles, and water pollution and understand climate risks embedded in Canada's fruit and vegetable supply chains,” Dr. Bajaj said.
The aim of the project is to empower policymakers, educators, and consumers to make more informed food choices.