Agriculture Minister Lana Popham was in Kelowna Wednesday night to promote the 'Buy BC - Eat Drink Local' campaign that'll launch next spring - the campaign was postponed this year because of BC's record-breaking forest fire season.
Popham was joined by the province's key players in the agriculture, seafood, and food and beverage industries at Sandhill Winery.
She says the idea behind the campaign is to ensure BC food and beverage producers, and restaurants, take advantage of evolving consumer tastes.
"Back in the old days people used to see a good that said 'imported' and they would think that's very 'chichi' - an imported product on the menu - but now it's 'where's the local stuff?' It's so exciting that this is becoming the way of doing business, and we wanted to make sure that every restaurant across BC has the ability to participate fully in this program," she says.
Popham says restaurateurs can sign up now for the campaign and get their profiles on the new 'Buy BC: Eat Drink Local' website.
The government is also bringing back the Buy BC logo, which was cancelled by the previous Liberal government in 2001.
"This Buy BC logo will be on the products that are really grown in BC - and products that are really processed in BC," says Popham. "It'll allow consumers who may not have the time to go to a farmers market, they're doing regular grocery shopping, it'll make it easier for them to make that choice and that was really the success of Buy BC, it was consumer recognition."
Popham says another part of the program will be to get more BC grown food into hospitals - she says currently most of the food served in BC's hospitals is purchased outside of the province.
There's more information at eatdrinklocal.ca