The craze for locally grown food in Cascadia supports an industry of suppliers. But it's being squeezed by urban growth.
Consider three Vancouver markets that serve 5,000 customers per week and are on track to break sales records, according to this story in The Tyee. British Columbia reportedly is the only area of Canada where the number of organic farms rose in 2005, though pressure to convert farmland and the difficulty of maintaining a supply chain for meats is a threat.
The Seattle area has seen a similar trend, with an increasing number of community farmer's markets in King County -- 27 this year, up from 7 a decade ago. The demand for locally grown farm goods competes with transportation costs and land conversion. Even the Pike Place Market has converted some space for tourism-related businesses.
Vancouver's markets reportedly hope to find permanent, covered locations to accommodate customer demand -- if they aren't pushed out by construction staging for the 2010 Olympics. It will be interesting to see if corporate retailers help the cause. Organic home delivery is increasingly available and once-rare Whole Foods has grown from two stores in Cascadia to at least 13 open or planned.