A friend, who works at a camp in Northern Alberta, told me that they eat beef from New Zealand at camp. That always seemed strange to me: Why would a company import beef from so far away when the local producers are renowned for their high-quality beef?
Ronald Coase might have something to say about it. He was one of a special few economists that received the posthumous honour of an obituary in The Economist and he is renowned for his original ideas around why the world is organized the way that it is. Particularly, how companies help society.
Coase gave another voice to the debate on why capitalism is good. In contrast to the chorus that is dominated by 'greed is good' and individualism, he helped show why we work together.
A big idea that came out of Coase's work was that "markets and hierarchies are alternative co-ordination mechanisms for economic transaction" (thanks, Wikipedia). This means that you can either go out into "the market" and seek someone to do something for you, or you can build an empire to do it yourself. His work helped formalize our understanding of when things businesses tend to get bigger, and when they tend to wind down.
For my friend's mining camp in Alberta, it is apparently cheaper and easier to bring in food from far away. If they were planning to have a more permanent operation, maybe they would be more inclined to source food locally. There are probably other camps that use food from within the province and the distinction of local versus foreign food may well depend on how long the camp plans to be in operation and whether they want to build up an empire of their own, or not.
Mining is a long-term project. The company is committing to build some sort of empire at the site, but they don’t try to do everything themselves. There are many different types of contractors that play an important role. I wonder about the food at camp. How much is the food prepared before getting to camp and who does this preparation?
It seems to me that remote industrial sites have some of necessary ingredients to do their own food production, like water and electricity, but mining companies are not in the agriculture business. They need to focus on delivering excellence in their mine operations, and food is a small part that may not be so important to people who don't actually live at the camp.
And I wonder how food production at camp might change in the future. We are seeing new technologies that allow for "integrated farming". This not just about reducing waste, but about producing more things from a single site.
A great example of integrated farming is aquaponics, which combines fish farming with hydroponics. There are a couple small aquaponics farms on Vancouver Island that I know of, Rain Coast Aquaponics and Blue Roots Farm. They are exciting businesses that provide high-quality ingredients to local restaurants.
Could we see something like aquaponics happening at a larger mine site in BC someday soon? It would be hard to provide enough food to act as a sole-supplier for a mine camp, but there may be an opportunity there for someone. If not the mining company itself, maybe the contractor who provides food to the camp. "Farm to table" at a mine camp, anyone?
There's been a lot of talk about urban agriculture here in Vancouver, but I haven't heard nearly as much talk about agriculture at remote mining sites. There are probably some good reasons why no-one is talking about it, but I will stay tuned to see if something interesting happens there in the future. I can just imagine a small agriculture industry developing in a town like Stewart, BC, to provide fresh food for local mines in the area.
