Town of Cochrane Strategic Plan – Final Report October 2014
7.2.3.2 Market local food to the local and regional market
There are two aspects to this tactic: Demand-side and Supply side.
Demand Side: Raising pubic awareness of local food through marketing, education and tourism
opportunities can encourage local consumers to view local food as a positive and essential part of
Cochrane. Once consumers begin to make local food part of their seasonal shopping expectations,
demand for such products increases. The document Best Practices in Local Food: A Guide for
Municipalities94 highlights several best practices, including:
Develop a Local Food
Guide
A local food guide is key to marketing local food to the local and
regional market. This local guide should highlight Cochrane area
farm listings, restaurants using local produce, retailers, farmer’s
market hours, and seasonal recipes. The guide should be made
available on the municipal website and hard copies should be
made available residents at the Tim Horton Recreation Centre, the
local library, and at tourism destinations.
Profile local producers
The Cochrane website can be used to profile local food producers,
the history of local agriculture, as well as the operating hours of the
local farmers market. The Cochrane municipal website should link
to the Facebook page for the Cochrane Farmer’s Market. Other
promotional opportunities include organizing community feasts to
celebrate and share local foods and showcasing local providers at
community events. For example, Cochrane could broaden the “fish
fry” focus of Summerfest to become a culinary experience that
features local and regional products and growers in addition to the
fish fry.
Connect agriculture to
local and regional brands
The local brand and the use of distinctive packaging using
“Wonderfully Unexpected’ can help generate local demand for
local food. Cochrane-produced goods associated with the brand
could go through a quality assurance process, and can give
retailers and consumers a guarantee of quality. A committee should
determine the criteria and verification process (such as farm visits
by a committee). If NeCN develops a regional brand for
Northeastern Ontario produced foods and goods, consider merging
with or co-branding with that brand.
94
Deloitte for The Ontario Municipal Knowledge Network. (n.d) Best Practices in Local Food: A Guide for
Municipalities. Available at: http://www.amo.on.ca/AMOPDFs/Reports/2013/2013BestPracticesinLocalFoodAGuideforMunicipalitie.aspx
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