Chairman of Burlington Vermont’s Urban Agricultural Task Force: Make the question of how we feed ourselves a central issue

Will Robb of Burlington, head of the city’s urban agriculture task force, is photographed Thursday beside a garden on South Winooski Avenue. Photo by Joel Banner Baird, Free Press

Our recommendations will reach the City Council and the new mayor’s desk in March 2012.

By Will Robb
Burlington Free Press
Nov. 4, 2011

Excerpt:

Farmers, small-scale food enterprise and backyard growers of all kinds are putting together programs, cultivating land and growing and serving food in a number of innovative ways. The city should be prepared to listen, to step in with support, help practitioners negotiate a maze of state, federal and local regulation, and to facilitate connections to resources and land.

The city needs to step up and share the vision of a community-based food system that is emerging among Burlington residents. Development of a robust community-based food system — of a local food economy — is critical to the future of Burlington.

The city needs to prioritize a safe, affordable, healthy, sustainably produced local food supply through policies that support local food production.

More specifically, the city needs to stand behind residents’ inherent rights to grow, process, produce, eat and exchange locally grown food and food products.

Read the complete article here.