Ivan Emke began a project a few years ago following his retirement as an honourary research professor and administrator at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Grenfell Campus.
To date, Emke has produced over 70 episodes and counting on his podcast called Fit to Eat: The Newfoundland & Labrador Farm and Food Show.
Every Tuesday at 6pm, a well-informed, well-facilitated, 30-minute episode conversing with a guest is curated and released on several community radio stations and organizational web sites. Guests include farmers, chefs, veteran farmers, food producers, beekeepers, hunters, homesteaders, innovators and more.
“Many of us have devoted a significant amount of time to eating, and to talking and reading and thinking about eating,” says Emke. “However, perhaps we have spent much less time thinking about where our food came from, or who grew it or raised it or hunted it or collected it ... or made it in a lab.”
Emke discusses the people who play a role in the food system of Newfoundland & Labrador. According to Statistics Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador has the fewest number of farms across any other province with 407 farms.
Emke hopes to see more strides in the province’s distribution side of food-growing efforts. He is interested in new models of sales and marketing, highlighting progress such as the Western N.L. Food Hub pilot project in Corner Brook or communal cold storage initiatives for produce in rural areas.
Creating arable land out of the Newfoundland and Labrador's rocky terrain is hard work, however Emke hopes Fit to Eat helps build momentum as he sees this sector as key to the future of so many communities across Newfoundland and Labrador.