Rebecca Richards has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and in Economics from the University of Calgary, and a Master of Arts in Political Studies from Queen’s University. She is excited to be growing her career in her field where she can make a positive impact in the local West Kootenay communities and help bring sustainability to industry and the economy. Most recently, Rebecca has worked on supply chain challenges in the last 2 years, researching the impacts of global supply chain disruptions on West Kootenay businesses and looking for local solutions. She is excited to be working now to address a long-standing distribution problem faced by the agriculture & food sector in the Columbia Basin.
From A to B - Food Transport in the Basin
The challenge of moving food products throughout the Basin is ongoing
and increasing. This facilitated discussion will give an opportunity to share your needs and discover opportunities for improving logistics throughout the region. This conversation facilitated by Gerri Brightwell and consist of a presentation by Rebecca Richards called – Where Our Local Food Goes! Mapping the Distribution of Local Food Products in the Columbia Basin.
“The local agriculture and food production sector has long struggled to deliver products to local consumers in a cost-effective manner. Barriers to distribution include geography, transportation costs and a low-density consumer market which prevents individual food producers from taking advantage of economies of scale in distribution. Currently, it is also challenging to organize in order to achieve economies of scale, which may make transportation more cost effective, because we do not know where patterns of distribution already exist. The project presented in this talk aims to solve this problem. We need detailed data on distribution from individual food producers collected and presented in a visual format so that patterns can be identified. Once we know where density in transportation is already occurring, it will allow for action to formalize and grow coordination efforts.”