Category — Canada

The string bikini tops worked best at the Vancouver Compost Garden

Sean and Maria built a small greenhouse this past spring at the Vancouver Compost Garden. The raised beds inside were filled with a soil blend that included leaves, various composts we had around the garden, and layers of ‘White Dragon’ compost made from our mid-scale electric composter that was fed food scraps from a local restaurant.

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Four videos about urban agriculture in Vancouver by Anja Schuchardt

By Anja Schuchardt
DieBioKuche
Aug 19, 2011

Mehr Gärtner in Großstädten? Der Demonstrationsgarten von “City Farmer” in Vancouver

Pflügen, Pflanzen, Pflücken – was bringt Städter dazu? Michael Levenston über seinen Demonstrationsgarten und die Probleme für Stadtgärtner in Vancouver.

Plowing, growing, picking – what makes townspeople to do this? Michael Levenston tells us about his demonstration garden and the problems which city farmers have in Vancouver.

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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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Photo by Nicole Dextras. Nicole Dextras is an environmental artist whose artworks follow the seasons, working with ice in the winter and plant materials in the summer.

Weedrobes: The Mobile Garden Dress

By Nicole Dextras
Soiled and Seeded
August 2011, Issue 4

Excerpt:

On her head Madame Jardin wears a coif of edible plants made from roses, carnations, alums, rosemary, thyme, lime leaves, pea, eggplants and chrysanthemums. The bustier is decorated with orange dried aji amarillo peppers, red hot chili peppers, corn husks, sprigs of thyme and fresh parsley. The hoop skirt is constructed from raw flax canvas, willow branches, seagrass rope, basketry reed and wood. The plants include vegetables such as lettuce, beans and brussels sprouts and the herbs range from sweet basil to rue and sage.

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Peter Ladner, in his yard that he converted into a food garden, has written a book that details the changes people and policymakers in Canada are making to regain control of our food. Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, PNG, Vancouver Sun.

Former Vancouver councillor offers ideas on how cities can gain control over what they eat

By Randy Shore
Vancouver Sun
July 28, 2011

Excerpt:

What would a city approaching food self-sufficiency look like?

Peter Ladner’s soon-to-be released book The Urban Food Revolution offers tantalizing glimpses of urban environments that successfully integrate commercial enterprise, low-impact living spaces and agricultural productivity. Balcony gardens, urban market gardens, rooftop beehives, vertical greenhouses and aquaponics, and acres of lawn converted to high-value herb and vegetable production are all being employed with success somewhere. Why not everywhere?

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Chris Wong. Photo by Jonathan Zettel.

Wong points out some shiitake mushroom logs that are nearly at the end of their cycle

By Jonathan Zettel
Toronto Standard
July 18, 2011

Excerpt:

Young Urban Farmers was founded over three years ago by Wong and his partners, Jing Loh and Nancy Huynh. Having just graduated business school at Queen’s University, Wong says it was the perfect time to create a green business. The environment was in the public consciousness and people were already spending millions of dollars a year on landscaping. Why not translate some of that cash into an investment with a tangible return?

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Reg Noble, academic co-ordinator for the certificate program in food security at Ryerson University.

“As the interest in urban agriculture increases worldwide, our graduates can find work not only with community agencies and non-governmental organizations developing initiatives in this area, but also with municipal government departments interested in exploring the potential of UA.” Cecilia Rocha, research associate, Centre for Studies in Food Security, Ryerson University

By Marisa Baratta
Talent Egg
February 18, 2011

Excerpt:

When you hear “agriculture,” you probably picture a sturdy barn surrounded by fields of green with a horse grazing nearby, its mane caressed by a warm breeze that assaults your nose with the pungent aroma of…well, farm.
But the truth is, more Canadians are moving to and living in large urban centres than ever before.

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Most city dwellers who raise chickens, like Babineau, do so for their eggs — not for slaughter

By Benjamin Shingler
Canadian Press
July 16, 2011

Excerpt:

MONTREAL – Each morning, Marci Babineau steps out the backdoor of her Montreal townhouse to fetch a half-dozen eggs from the chicken coop in her yard.

“It still amazes me everyday,” says Babineau, a yoga teacher who had chickens growing up in suburban California. “I always thank them, because I feel like saying, ‘I’m glad it’s you, not me (laying eggs).’”

While backyard chickens are permitted in Babineau’s area, an upscale municipality on Montreal island, they remain an underground movement in most North American cities amid concerns about smell, sanitation and noise.

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Stirling Agricultural Village National Historic Site of Canada.

Finding affordable farm space amid sprawling urban hubs is a nightmare.

By Jessica Leeder
Globe and Mail
Jul. 15, 2011

Excerpt:

National and provincial parks bordering Canada’s most populous cities are making an innovative addition to the list of activities allowed on protected land: farming.

Once elbowed off the land by ecologists bent on locking up massive tracts for the restoration of waterways, woodlands and wildlife habitats, farmers are now being invited back by conservation agencies that have come to view growing food as key to their sustainability. Momentum is particularly strong among parks near urban regions with strong local-food economies.

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Deb Heighway in a greenhouse in one of the eight Gorge area home gardens that she has under cultivation. Photograph by: Arnold Lim, timescolonist.com

Urban farmer does the work; neighbours provide land, water

By Pedro Arrais
timescolonist.com
July 13, 2011

Excerpt:

Deb Heighway’s journey into SPIN farming began with the germ of an idea. Today, three years later, her urban farm in the Gorge area of Saanich has taken root in eight of her neighbours’ yards.

SPIN stands for Small Plot INtensive, an inexpensive-to-implement farming system for plots under half a hectare. The concept was created by two Saskatoon farmers, who have popularized the idea in North America.

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Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn. Photo by Liu Xin.

Rooftop agriculture (RA) is the production of fresh vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers on rooftops for local consumption.

By Aaron Quesnel, Joshua Foss, Nina Danielsson
School of Engineering Blekinge Institute of Technology Karlskrona, Sweden 2011
125 pages

Abstract:

Cities present many opportunities to improve socio-ecological sustainability through efficiencies of scale and access to resources and services. These benefits are often compromised by rapidly increasing urban populations demanding energy, water, resources and food that are sourced, produced and transported from rural areas in unsustainable ways. A systems level approach to understanding the complex challenges cities face is required to strategically plan for the future. Rooftop agriculture is one measure that can help address many sustainability problems cities are currently faced with.

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Vancouver deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston (in front), pictured with Mayor Gregor Robertson (behind), presented the city’s environmental action plan to city council on Tuesday.

Goal 10: Vancouver will become a leader in urban food systems.

2020 Target: Increase city and neighbourhood food assets2 by a minimum of 50%.

Accountability: Director of Social Policy, Community Services Group

Highest Priority Actions (3 year):

1. Support urban agriculture by:
a. Creating 5-6 community gardens/yr;
b. Enabling 3 new urban farms;
c. Encouraging 2 new farmers markets;
d. Adding public fruit trees;
e. Investing in 3 neighbourhood food networks and
f. Support the development of a Vancouver Food Hub

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Mike Levenston of the City Farmer Society puts meat and fish scraps, dairy and waste food paper such as pizza boxes in Vancouver’s yard waste bin. Photograph by: Ian Smith, PNG, Vancouver Sun

If it is successful, there are plans to expand it to all neighbourhoods next year

By Jeff Lee
Vancouver Sun
July 12, 2011

Excerpt:

It can take years for recycling programs to catch on. It took 15 years for Vancouver’s blue-box recycling program to achieve a 77-per-cent participation rate. San Francisco, which brought in its food-scraps program in 2000, has a 30-per-cent participation rate. Seattle, which began diverting food scraps in 2005, has a success rate of 50 per cent.

But the incentive is there, says Chris Underwood, Vancouver’s manager of solid-waste management. Fully 35 per cent of the city’s garbage – or about 129,000 tonnes – is made up of kitchen and compostable wastes, he said. Of the more than three million tonnes of garbage produced in the region, 55 per cent is already diverted to recycling and composting.

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The connection between compost and food, and the education of children

Young people come to volunteer at Vancouver’s Compost Demonstration Garden as soon as summer holidays begin. Claire and Blair visited this week and helped us harvest our weekly donation basket of produce. They then delivered it to West Side Family Place.

Head Gardener Sharon Slack supervised the collection of vegetables and herbs, and provided the kids with a huge lesson in what lies beyond our supermarket shelves.

Jean Snow sells her vegetables on her deck.

Municipal staff will present their recommendations to the Harbour East community council this fall.

CBC News
June 28, 2011

Excerpt:

A Dartmouth gardener is hoping the municipality will make it easier for people who want to run urban farms.

Jean Snow grows fruits and vegetables on her downtown Dartmouth property and her neighbours’ land. She sells her produce on her deck.

Technically, Lake City Farm is in violation of municipal rules. As a home business, Snow should be operating strictly out of her house and on her own land.

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Andrea Bellamy tends to her wheat crop in Vancouver. Photo by John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail.

Mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton calls the lawns-to-wheat-field project “goofy” and cites it as evidence of a council that pays more attention to chicken coops and wheat fields than city basics.

By Wendy Stueck
Globe and Mail
Jun. 25, 2011

Excerpt:

In terms of land use, turning lawns to wheat fields is a poor way to boost local food production and reduce land, fuel and other resources required to feed a city, says William Rees, the University of British Columbia professor who coined the “ecological footprint” term to describe how much productive land it takes to support a given population.

“The last thing you want to use what precious little land we have in the city for is grain production,” he said.

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Quebec’s Animal Health Protection Act allows urban beekeeping under certain conditions.

By Stephanie O Hanley
Open File
June 15, 2011

Excerpt:

Beekeepers say people don’t understand bees and confuse docile honeybees with aggressive wasps and hornets.

“When you say ‘bee’ it equals stinging, anaphylactic shock and death” says Branislav Babic, who founded the McGill Apiculture Association in 2007.

“They [honeybees] don’t sting just for nothing,” says Babic. “You have to step on it or poke around a hive entrance for a bee to sting you.”

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Maria and I met up with Holly Schmidt on the waterfront in False Creek, Vancouver, where we were shown the beginnings of a wonderful garden art project.

Exploring urban art and agriculture

Located in Vancouver’s “greenest development”, the Olympic Village, Grow explores sustainability issues through a series of walks, workshops and creative experiments in urban agriculture. Walks led by artist, Holly Schmidt and invited guests from architecture; design and the humanities focus on the challenges faced by rapidly growing and changing cities. Workshops invite people to imagine new possibilities for agriculture in the city through inventive prototype building to support the production of food in the urban environment.

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Created by artist Jodie Mayne

Local artist Jodie Mayne created this sandwich board for our Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden.

Jodi Mayne is a Vancouver based artist who grew up in the beautiful Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. At the age of twenty she moved to Vancouver to study visual art at The Emily Carr University of Art and Design. During her schooling Jodi was mainly focused on Printmaking techniques and developed a real love for line and shape, which is now evident in her painting and drawing. Living and growing up on the West Coast of British Columbia has given Jodi an appreciation for the rich surroundings she is so fortunate to be a part of everyday.

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New book on Urban School Gardens

By Veronica Gaylie
Peter Lang Publishing
June 15, 2011

Veronica Gaylie, Ph.D., is a writer, teacher and author of The Learning Garden: Ecology, Teaching and Transformation.

This book explores the urban school garden as a bridge between environmental action and thought. As a small-scale response to global issues around access to food and land, urban school gardens promote practical knowledge of farming as well as help renew cultural ideals of shared space and mutual support for the organic, built environment. Through a comprehensive history of school garden practice rooted in Eastern industrial cities, to case studies from four Pacific Rim regions, this book examines the practice and culture of the urban school garden as a central symbol for environmental learning.

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