Who are you?

I’m Phil Solman, publisher of Edible Vancouver magazine. I’m a Brit by birth, but Vancouver and Greece are my spiritual homes; the places that I feel most ‘me’.

Am I allowed two favourites? East Van; in particular The Drive, which is a ‘real’ community with tons of owner-operated stores and cafes. Whenever I have free time I gravitate towards The Drive to visit bookstores, coffee shops and to pick up great produce, cheese, meats, etc. The whole area is created for human interaction whereas most shopping streets are designed to shift maximum product in minimum time and have no soul (strip malls!!! Ugh!)
My other favourite community is Edible Communities. It’s not a place; it’s a family of independent magazines from all across North America that are dedicated to rebuilding local food systems in their region. When we get together once a year it’s a great buzz. Imagine publishers and editors from 60 Edible magazines sharing stories, successes and challenges. We are on a mission to change the way North America eats.

Spend time with the Editor of Edible Vancouver. No, really! We’re a couple and even though we live and work together, we still love to just hang out with each other, talk and laugh.

Optimism in the face of seriously negative news.

Pessimism may seem to make sense, but none of us actually ‘know’ the future and pessimism creates a ‘What’s the point’ kind of attitude, so it’s ultimately defeating. I get angry when I see all that’s wrong in our world, but I choose to be optimistic and talk about what’s possible in the future, rather than dwell too much on what’s wrong today. This way I inspire myself (and hopefully others) to work towards making things better.

My three favourite things about Phil are…

1. He is a helper. I met Phil because of his generous offer to use the power of the internet to spread the word about the East End Food Co-op. The EEFC is fortunate to have a champion like Phil, who weaves our modest little grocery store into the story of local food in Vancouver. Clearly, Phil approaches life, the universe and everything with humility, passion and a true sense of connecting communities to improve the world.

2. He likes pirates. First thing we talked about during our meetings were pirates and the role they play on The Potentiality. He knew his stuff about the democratic nature of a pirate crew, shared some interesting ideas on modern piracy, and even taught me a thing or two!

3. Entrepreneurship defines him. Edible Vancouver is beautiful in a myriad of ways. And Phil helps make it so. The way he is using Twitter and other social media to raise Edible’s online presence and leverage their position as the story on local food in the city is truly impressive. He is creative, visionary and, with our help, can take the his publication to spectacular new heights. After all, the world is turning more and more to local products, eh?