Portland Farmers Market.

Portland Planners Threaten Local Resiliency, Local Food and Local Economy

By Vince
The Daily Attack
Aug. 13, 2011

Excerpt:

In an attempt to increase “gardening opportunities to support Portlanders’ access to healthy, locally grown food” and encourage “small entrepreneurial food ventures and urban farmers that contribute to the city’s economy,” the City of Portland, Oregon, is considering regulatory and zoning code changes that will accomplish precisely the opposite. Under consideration are measures such as:

Limiting the size of urban market gardens.

Limiting the sale of produce on-site at market gardens; presumably to limit the sale of produce in residential neighborhoods.

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“For the first time, citizens are taking power away from the politicians”

By Linda Gyulai
The Gazette
Aug 16, 2011

Excerpt:

MONTREAL – A group of Montrealers is about to test the public’s newly bestowed right to initiate public consultations in the city.

The threshold is high, though.

The Work Group on Urban Agriculture, composed of university and community groups, will have to collect 15,000 signatures on a paper petition by Nov. 8 to oblige the city to hold a public consultation on the state of urban agriculture in Montreal.

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