Landshare UK has a community of more than 59,000 growers

Landshare Canada brings together people who have a passion for home-grown food, connecting those who have land to share with those who need land for cultivating food. The concept of Landshare began in the UK, launched through the River Cottage television program in 2009, and has since grown into a thriving community of more than 59,000 growers, sharers and helpers across the country. Now that Landshare is here in Canada, we welcome you to come and take part in this fantastic initiative.

It’s for people who:

Want to grow veg but don’t have anywhere to do it.
Have a spare bit of land they’re prepared to share.
Can help in some way – from sharing knowledge and lending tools to helping out on the plot itself.
Support the idea of freeing up more land for growing.
Are already growing and want to join in the community.

See the website here.

Estimated cost $1 million

By Maxwell Strachan
The Huffington Post
March 24, 2011

Excerpts:

Bank of America, the country’s largest bank by assets, has announced an initiative to demolish one hundred abandoned Detroit homes currently under the bank’s ownership, a task that CEO Brian T. Moynihan says will “help ‘right-size’ the city,” according to the Detroit Free Press.

The bank, which estimates the costs at $1 million, says the land plots will be donated to the city “for green space, urban farming or redevelopment.”

Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that then newly-elected Mayor Dave Bing planned to tear down 10,000 abandoned homes. But even that ambitious goal would only take care of one-ninth of the city’s 90,000 abandoned properties, according to Data Driven Detroit.

Read the complete article here.

See website 100 Abandoned Houses. here.

Avid gardeners work their neighbours’ lifeless yards and make them thrive

By Randy Shore
Vancouver Sun
March 25, 2011

Excerpt:

Sharing Backyards was founded four years ago in Victoria by the LifeCycles Project Society and has proliferated around the globe since then, with 41 websites covering 400 municipalities from Vancouver Island to New Zealand.

LifeCycles partners with local organizations such as Vancouver’s City Farmer to help build, host and maintain the websites.

A “Craigslist for urban agriculture” is a natural extension of the work they have been doing in Vancouver for 33 years, said City Farmer executive director Mike Levenston.

“It’s another way to access private land,” said Levenston. “Land is the biggest issue in urban agriculture in Vancouver, where to get it, how to find it.”

“The more we build up and the more we densify, the harder it is to find land to garden, that’s why there’s a waiting list at every community garden,” he said.

Read the complete article here.

The 1 1/2-acre parcel close to the clubhouse is fully planted

By Cathy Thomas
The Orange County Register
August 18, 2010

Excerpt:

Golf greens and vegetable gardens might seem incongruous, but not at VR Green Farms in San Clemente. Nestled on a slope of the Bella Collina Towne & Golf Club, just east of the clubhouse, urban farming flourishes.

There’s rainbow chard, celery and assorted herbs. Cabbage, summer squash and shallots thrive, along with 180 red flame grapevines. And glorious tomatoes. There are enough tomatoes to harvest more than 400 pounds a week in the summertime.

Nic Romano is the founder and owner of the farm, and he says the public’s reaction has been very positive. He says every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., people are invited to buy $25 baskets of produce. The number of families who show up increases every week.

“John Fornaro, one of the two owners of the golf course, and I are of Italian descent; he wanted to make the course more family oriented, like courses are in Italy,” Romano said, explaining that loads of volunteers from local churches and schools help in the garden. “Our slogan? When you find your roots, you find your center.”

Romano said that Fornaro made 50 acres available for the farm and that much of the land is available because housing development was voted down.

The 1 1/2-acre parcel close to the clubhouse is fully planted. But Romano has big plans. Pointing to the hills to the west, he said 15 acres will be planted with grape vines and fruit trees including olive trees. There will be a greenhouse to grow winter tomatoes. And within the course, he plans to create “gathering pockets,” areas with a few fruit trees and a small seating area. Places where people can sample some fruit, take in the view and escape for a little while.

See the complete article and more photos here.

Cities and suburbs now supply young recruits to agriculture

By Carlos Alcalá
The Sacramento Bee
Apr. 20, 2010

Excerpt:

The refrain about young people and agriculture used to be, “How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm?”

City attractions were deemed too strong for the simple life to compete for the attention of young rural adults.

That longtime story is reversing.

Cities and suburbs now supply young recruits to agriculture, primarily to small and organic farms, and the trend is playing out in El Dorado County. Melinda Lundgren, 29, first came to agriculture as a college student at Northeastern University in Boston.

After stints at a farm there and in Santa Cruz, Lundgren and partner David Apple, also 29, now work as interns at Willow Pond Organic Farm at Apple Hill, trying to pick up enough knowledge to someday start their own farm.

“Dave and I decided the only way we’re going to get the full experience was to work on a farm a full season,” she said. “We didn’t want to jump in and just lease some land.”

That practical learn-first bent seems to distinguish the current movement from earlier “back to the land” advocates.

“My impression is that the current group of students is much more pragmatic and less romantic,” said Tom Tomich, director of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at the University of California, Davis, and member of a Sacramento farming family.

There are now academic programs to support that practical education before ruralization.

“Mainly, all the programs have been created in the last six or seven years,” said Damian Parr, a post-doctoral student who is working with Tomich on creating a proposed major in sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Sherrie Zirkle, co-owner of Willow Pond farm, witnessed the change in another way.

She was “blown away” by the deluge of applicants – more than 100 – when she sought interns and picked Lundgren and Apple, she said.

See the rest of the story here.

How do you grow your own food in the big city if you ain’t got land?

Truck Farm, a film by Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney. Episodes 1 and 2 are now complete and on the web.

“We’ve combined green roof technology, organic compost, and heirloom seeds to create a living, mobile garden on the streets of Brooklyn, NY. A solar-powered timelapse camera will monitor the crop’s progress throughout the summer, and every month we’ll release a short excerpt from the film – and with any luck a bunch of very local produce.”

Truck Farm – Episode 1

Truck Farm – Episode 2

Visit the filmmakers web site, Wicked Delicate, here. Click on Truck Farm at the bottom of the list on the left.

By Elizabeh Lazarowitz
DAILY NEWS
July 29th 2009

Brooklyn Rescue Mission could lose half of it’s Bed-Stuy Farm property to developmment plans

They turned a vacant lot into an edible Eden that provides freshly grown food to thousands of needy Brooklynites.

But the Brooklyn Rescue Mission, an emergency food pantry in Bedford-Stuyvesant, could lose half of Bed-Stuy Farm – its 5,000-square-foot facility on a long-neglected lot – if plans go through to build on it.

“We have this really thriving, amazing farm that’s feeding people,” said the Rev. DeVanie Jackson, who runs the mission with her husband, the Rev. Robert Jackson. “They’re trying to get us to move it, but the other places they wanted to move it to, it wasn’t the same.”

The Jacksons began farming around the mission on Bainbridge St. in 2004, after seeing that much of the emergency food doled out to poor families was filling, but not healthy – canned and packed with sugar and salt.

Two years later, the couple adopted the lot on Decatur St., which had become a weed-clogged garbage dump and neighborhood eyesore. They turned it into a garden that produces 7,000 pounds of food a year, including zucchini, collard greens, tomatoes and broccoli.

A nonprofit housing developer, Neighborhood Partnership HDFC, had earlier bought the land from the city to renovate an old house into affordable units, but structural problems forced the developer to raze the building. The lot sat empty until the Jacksons started the farm.

Neighborhood Partnership now wants to sell the land, city officials said.

“The intent was always to do affordable housing on this site,” said Housing Preservation and Development Department official Margaret Sheffer. “The garden had essentially come in as a squatter.”

HPD has been working to broker a deal for the mission to buy the property, she said, but the Jacksons said they can’t afford to purchase it.

Alternative sites offered by the city have either been too small or too shady, they said.

HPD spokeswoman Catie Marshall said Neighborhood Partnership needs to recoup around $275,000 in costs.

“Ideally, we would like the see the Brooklyn Rescue Mission garden remain,” she said, adding that HPD was unable to find donors to buy the property for the mission, but is still trying to find a way to transfer the land to them.

The story with comments in the Daily News here.

Bed-Stuy Farm

Bed-Stuy Farm may lose half its land. A New York City wants to sell the lot to pay off a debt. Although there are many vacant lots in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, this one is appealing because it’s been cleaned up and the farm has helped the neighborhood revive.

About Bed-Stud Farm

It’s located on two sunny vacant lots on a residential block in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. It’s been there five years. It produces 7000+ lbs of produce a year. It feeds 3000 people a month. Produce is also sold to local restaurants and at a farmers market nearby. This is very important in Bed-Stuy, where residents have to travel to buy fresh produce (lots of fast food places and the few markets tend not to sell much produce). It’s also an educational center with courses in farming and nutrition. Kids who had never seen a fresh fig in their lives are reconnecting with the land and loving it. Not just kids either. The place is a magnet for filmmakers, food activists, and even a busload of delegates to a UN conference.

It was started five years ago by the two Reverends (Robert and his wife DeVanie) Jackson. They realized their emergency food program wasn’t helping the people who needed food if it didn’t nourish them. The donated food was mostly canned and over processed. The people were appreciative, but the processed food didn’t promote health. So the Jacksons started growing their own in the lot behind the Brooklyn Rescue Mission. They eyed the trash-strewn lot next door and started asking questions. No one could tell them who owned it. They contacted Green Thumb and got status as an urban farm, cleaned up the lot and started farming there too. They even got fined twice for illegal dumping when twice contractors popped the locks and dumped their trucks of debris into the lot. Each time the Jacksons had to start all over again – cleaning up the mess.

But there’s hope. The farmers have started an online petition and want to appeal to their elected officials to keep this land producing for the community. The other vacant lots are much better candidates for gentrification.

How People Can Help

Help the Jacksons bring attention to their farm. Show New York officials that people all over the country care about urban farms.
Can you post something to get people to sign the petition:

Petition: Save Bed-Stuy Farm here.

Rev. DeVanie Jackson’s speech at the Brooklyn Food Conference here.

The local authority wants some of its 9,000 residents to use sites awaiting development to grow food in giant grow bags.

By John Vidal
The Guardian UK
16 June 2009

The Square Mile, capital of commerce and the site of Britain’s most expensive real estate, could soon host some of its first temporary allotments with giant “grow bags” set up on building sites.

The City of London, one of the few authorities not to have formal allotments, wants some of its 9,000 residents to use the spaces to grow fruit and vegetables. The authority has only 22 acres of open space, mostly in old burial grounds and small squares, but the recession has left many building sites vacant.

“There are plenty of temporary sites awaiting development and there is no reason why, if carefully done, they could not be turned to other uses,” said Sue Ireland, head of open spaces in the City.

“We are trying to identify a site on the edge of the Square Mile that would be vacant for between 18 months and two years. Grow bags are one possibility. They could be butted up together and moved as and when the developers need to start work.”

The grow bags idea came from a music festival where she saw huge sandbags being moved around by fork-lift trucks. “I was thinking how flexible they could be. Grow bags would allow people to grow carrots and peas. You would have to secure the site and give developers the confidence that the bags could be moved. But if the right site came up, I am sure money would be available.”

The idea of using temporary sites to grow food is not new. In New York, community gardeners have moved from one site to another for more than 30 years.

The Commission on Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) calculates that Britain has nearly 74,100 acres of vacant or derelict brownfield land and other unused public space that could enhance cities or help communities.

“Other cities have guerrilla gardens, why not guerrilla allotments?” says Sarah Gaventa, director of the Cabe Space, the government’s official adviser on public space, who is a resident of the City of London. “There is lots of dead space in the Square Mile. It’s ridiculous not to use it for local food production.

“I know of three potential spaces within five minutes walk of where I live. Some sites have been cleared, others are in places like redundant schools. Most people know of space near them that could be appropriated. The beauty of this is that it should not inhibit the developers. The allotments could be easily moved.”

Chris Baines, an ecologist and author, added: “Land ‘in limbo’ is an incredibly valuable resource. Its temporariness is its strength. It allows you to be more innovative because you know it is not going to be permanent.”

The City of London initiative follows dozens of other grassroots projects to grow food in cities where allotment space is at a premium and there is growing demand for local food. Yesterday it was revealed that the Queen had turned over an allotment-sized plot for growing vegetables and fruit in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

Many inner-London boroughs have waiting lists for allotments that can be decades long and there is a reported shortage of more than 200,000 allotments across Britain.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people in Middlesbrough have been growing vegetables in window boxes, balconies, roundabouts and even skips.

Boris Johnson, mayor of London, and Rosie Boycott, chair of London Food, have recently launched a scheme to turn over 2,000 pieces of land in London into space for food growing by 2012. Thirteen organisations, including British Waterways, councils, schools, hospitals, housing estates, and companies have pledged to make land available for community gardening schemes. Both the National Trust and the Royal Parks have agreed to provide allotment space.

But the City is way behind the competition. The UN estimates that 15-20% of the food produced in the world now comes from 800 million urban and peri-urban farmers and gardeners in cities from Havana to Kampala.

See article here.

What is Landshare?

With allotment waiting lists massively over-subscribed and people right across the country keener than ever to grow their own fruit and veg, the aim for Landshare is to become a UK wide initiative to make British land more productive and fresh local produce more accessible to all. But all of this depends on people like you registering their interest now.

How you could get involved in Landshare

You can register for Landshare in a variety of roles:

Grower
You are keen to grow fruit and vegetables either on your own or with other people.

Landowner
The land you own might be the back garden of your house or a piece of land separate from where you live. It could even be a roof top or car parking space.

Land-spotter
You are someone who has seen some land in your local area that may be suitable to be used for growing fruit and vegetables. This might be land that appears to be derelict, or land on a property that is being used by people or an organisation who might consider allowing people to access it to grow fruit and vegetables (e.g. space around a local community hall or church).

Facilitator
You are interested in helping out in your local area by supporting elderly participants and anyone else who might need help to get involved in Landshare. This might be offering to be present at meetings, assist with paperwork, help people who don’t have a computer or computer skills, or even simply be a local contact to give some advice to someone who has never grown fruit and vegetables before.

We will provide more information to everyone as to how Landshare would work in practice, including giving you the ability to further specify how you would like to be involved, before any launch of Landshare.

See the Landshare website here.

Sharing Backyards Program in North America

This UK project looks like it is modeled after a Canadian project named SharingBackyards.

City Farmer initiated the City of Vancouver SharingBackyards site.

Surrey may be home to region’s first vertical greenhouse

By Kelly Sinoski, The Vancouver Sun
21 Oct 2008

Rooftop gardens and vertical greenhouses could be a sign of the times in Metro Vancouver as the region wrestles with ways to tackle a global food crisis and the effects of climate change.

And Surrey could lead the trend, with at least one developer considering building a so-called vertical farm in Whalley, which is slated to become the region’s second downtown.

Vertical farms could potentially be as high as 30 storeys, with glass walls, solar panels and an irrigation system to grow beds of produce inside.

“We’re trying to look at the future and the future is going to be some form of urban agriculture,” Surrey Coun. Marvin Hunt said. “I’d like to see it right in the city centre.”

See complete article in the ‘Vancouver Sun’ here.

See ‘Scientific American’ – Earth 3.0 Special Issue – October 2008 here.
“Growing Vertical’ – Cultivating crops in downtown skyscrapers might save bushels of energy and provide city dwellers with distinctively fresh food.

See ‘The Future of Food – How Science Will Solve the Next Global Crises.
Wired Magazine: November 2008 here.

See the Vertical Farms web site here.

Urban Wheat Field Sprouts Busting Through Concrete and Myths in New York City

On Monday, October 6th, a live wheat field, approximately one quarter of an acre in size, sprouted at New York City’s South Street Seaport. The Wheat Foods Council’s “Urban Wheat Field Experience,” which ran October 6th through 8th, brings the farm-to-fork journey of America’s most-consumed grain to life with a wheat field, full-size combine, functioning mill, bread-baking station, nutrition lab and more.

The Urban Wheat Field surprises its visitors providing them with a new way to think about wheat by busting myths sprouting from factors such as wheat’s description as “amber waves of grain” in “America the Beautiful” and the nutrition-related misconceptions surrounding enriched white flour. For instance, wheat spends 90 percent of its life cycle green as opposed to golden, which is the color of nearly every wheat field pictured in the mind of Americans from New York to Los Angeles. The Urban Wheat Field proudly showcases lush green wheat.

“This grain is grown on 63 million acres of American land and we each consume nearly 138 pounds of it annually, but very few of us understand how wheat gets from the farm to our table,” said Marcia Scheideman, MS, RD, president of the Wheat Foods Council. “With the Urban Wheat Field we’re offering a unique experience that has the ability to educate people everywhere about the importance of wheat to our diets, economy and the world.”

To create the field, nearly one half million wheat kernels were planted in 300 4-foot by 4-foot pallets. The interlocking pallets create the wheat field with a pedestrian path running through it. The exhibit, opened from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. EST daily, and was located at the intersection of Water Street and Fulton Street. Established experts in the areas of wheat agriculture, milling, baking and nutrition guided visitors through each phase of the grain’s life cycle, engaging them in hands-on activities and demonstrations along the way:

Growers lead wheat field tours highlighting how, where and when wheat is grown, facts about annual production and consumption, and wheat’s impact on food prices and the U.S. economy.

Milling experts speak to the process that turns the kernel into flour, operate a mill and invite people to hand-grind their own wheat flour.

Chefs conduct bread-and cookie-baking demonstrations and explain flour’s transformation into the wheat foods eaten by millions of Americans
each day.

Registered dietitians explain the nutritional properties of wheat foods, the differences between whole-wheat and enriched wheat flour and the art of reading nutrition labels.

“This unprecedented event required the convergence of the entire industry, from farm to fork, and the Wheat Foods Council was able to orchestrate this unified front to make it happen,” said David Cleavinger, president, National Association of Wheat Growers. “Through the Urban Wheat Field we are educating and exciting America about wheat like never before.”

The Urban Wheat Field Experience is also available online at the Wheat Foods Council’s Web site, http://www.wheatfoods.org. Link here. The site provides educational materials outlining wheat’s journey from farm to fork as well as images, video and Scheideman’s daily blogs from the event.

About the Wheat Foods Council

The Wheat Foods Council is a nonprofit organization formed in 1972 to help increase public awareness of grains, complex carbohydrates, and fiber as essential components of a healthful diet. The Council is supported voluntarily by wheat producers, millers, bakers, and related industries.

Julian Cribb, author of ‘The Coming Famine’, said:

“This intensive urban vegie culture is an entirely new industry and will need a new professional – the urban farmer who can grow food on the roofs and sides of buildings, in intensive biocultures and by other novel methods to feed the megacities of 30 million-plus inhabitants.

“If we don’t, by 2050 we will have more than three-quarters of the human population – almost 8 billion people – living in places where they are totally without the means or the knowledge of how to feed themselves. Our giant cities will be gigantic death traps, at the mercy of even quite minor glitches in regional or global food supplies.”

Excerpts are from this article:

Future farms over our heads

By Heath Gilmore, Brisbane Times
October 11, 2008|

AUSTRALIAN cities must join a global network in which urban farmers grow produce on rooftops, a leading science commentator says.

Professor Julian Cribb, author of ‘The Coming Famine’, said the global food crisis was a forewarning of what could be expected as civilisation ran low on water, arable land and nutrients, and experienced soaring energy costs.

Professor Cribb said the urban farmers of the future – who would primarily grow vegetables – would play a much larger role in the global diet.

“We need new skills in designing this diet and developing the intensive vegetable culture needed to support it,” he said.

“This intensive urban vegie culture is an entirely new industry and will need a new professional – the urban farmer who can grow food on the roofs and sides of buildings, in intensive biocultures and by other novel methods to feed the megacities of 30 million-plus inhabitants.

“If we don’t, by 2050 we will have more than three-quarters of the human population – almost 8 billion people – living in places where they are totally without the means or the knowledge of how to feed themselves. Our giant cities will be gigantic death traps, at the mercy of even quite minor glitches in regional or global food supplies.”

The City of Sydney council has commissioned a report to look at ways to encourage the greening of rooftops. Deputy Lord Mayor Marcelle Hoff said a group of environmental experts was working on a report – due before Christmas – on retrofitting green roofs to multi-storey apartment buildings.

The council was adding six community gardens and employing a dedicated staff member to co-ordinate them. The council owns two community gardens and supports another eight.

“Green roofs would create more open space and enhance bio-diversity,” Ms Hoff said. “They will also reduce energy consumption by insulating buildings, reduce stormwater run-off, reduce greenhouse gases and could be practical, too, by growing fruit and vegetables.”

Green Roofs Australia executive Jim Osborne, a landscape architect, said councils and governments needed to provide incentives such as greater planning and monetary support for rooftop gardens.

The benefits of these gardens had been established overseas but more scientific research examining Australian conditions was needed.

Brisbane Times article here.

The Coming Famine
By Dr. Julian Cribb
Read full text here at this link.

Julian Cribb & Associates at Science Alert here.

Aboriginal Community Kitchen Gardens at UBC Farm, Vancouver, BC

Since 2002, members of the Musqueam First Nation have grown vegetables on the farm site for their community kitchen project. With an interest in expanding the potential benefits of this community nutrition project, the farm initiated a new pilot program in 2005. In collaboration with 17 different agencies working on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), a plot of land on the farm is dedicated towards the DTES Aboriginal Community Kitchen Garden Project.

Clients at community kitchen and food bank projects not only have the opportunity to get fresh produce, but also come out to the farm to grow it. Students, in turn, have a great opportunity for on-campus community service learning. With promising initial results, we hope to develop and formalize this project in years to come.

UBC Farm web site here.

UBC Farm Blog here.

By Kayita Dan Davis Lule
Third Year Paper, BSc. Agricultural Land Use and Management
Makerere University (11,000 words)

5.1 Conclusions

Women are more actively involved in urban farming activities more so in food production oriented activities than their male counterparts. Women endeavored to supplement on the market purchased food stuffs, where as their male counterparts did show more involvement in market oriented production activities i.e. rearing activities (mainly in instances of poultry and zero-grazing units).

Urban agriculture significantly contributes to additional income generation activities of many town dwellers either directly or indirectly. For example those involved do, save on food costs, others from sales made more so of animals and their related products such as poultry, eggs, milk from zero-grazing units etc, food stuffs like greens, yams, potatoes and many others; fruits like jack fruit, mangoes and oranges.

Urban farming reduced on a number of costs for urban dwellers individually, for example in purchasing food preparations materials like banana leaves, fibers for those with stools, costs of cooling houses in hot weather (seasons) for those with reasonable trees around their houses, a few periodically can get fuel wood and many others.

A significant portion of many town dwellers’ incomes greatly went to food and yet according to Kigutha (1998), the greater the shares of household resources devoted to food acquisition, the higher the vulnerability of households to food insecurity, and more so if you consider the fear that many of the urban dwellers lack sustainable income generating opportunities or are under employed.

According to the findings, despite the fact that the real contribution of urban agriculture to food security is not quite clear to many stakeholders, especially metropolitan authorities who in most cases control land acquisition, urban agriculture does significantly contribute to food security to a number of urban dwellers, not only in the perspective of food quantity but also with reference to quality, if only relevant production innovation are embraced. Its contribution may be either directly through access to some desired food stuff or indirectly through cutting down of their costs in the perspective of transportation from distant areas, thus even low income earner being in position to meet their feeding needs.

The lack of full appreciations of the numerous benefits of urban agriculture by the various deemed stakeholder, has hindered the element of adoption of modern farming innovations and practices in the on going production activities, which seriously affects optimal production on the limited available land for such production activities.

Urban agriculture is yet to receive full pledged formal recognition for its enormous potential contribution to socio-economic aspects, as well as ascertaining a healthy environment for the urban dwellers, as evidenced by the lack of its full inclusion in the comprehensive cosmopolitan authorities’ development plans.

Tree growing or urban forestry still lacks full appreciation from many municipality dwellers as an important integral or component of urban agriculture, inspite of its numerous contributions to a healthy environment and viable opportunities for income generation.

The study also revealed that young people more so in the age range of 18-35 years and below, in most cases lack access to land and thus are loosing out on the benefits of urban agriculture more so even that it’s increasingly becoming hard to access any land for production. Thus young people lack the purchasing power of land as even many are urban migrants, either lacking reasonable income generating opportunities especially permanent jobs, while those who are employed are even under employed. Therefore urban agriculture would offer reasonable opportunities to them to generate some income or supplement on the little, if only they do have an opportunity to have access to land.

Lastly, the study established that all urban open spaces (land in general), within the municipality either agricultural, woodland natural or recreational, are under enormous pressure from potential developers, more so from residential, business and other physical infrastructure developers.

Link to 11,000 word paper
‘Assessing The Potential Of Urban Agriculture In Entebbe Municipality (Uganda)’
By Kayita Dan Davis Lule

Email: jesusjudahlion@yahoo.co.uk
Makerere University
Faculty Of Agriculture
Department Of Soil Science

A Special Project Report Submitted In Partial Fulfilment Of The Requirement For The Award Of The Degree Of Bachelor Of Science In Agricutural Land Use And Management

Tasha talks to Mike about natural lawn care at City Farmer. A push mower makes no noise, uses no gasoline and does not pollute the atmosphere. See what else you can do to become a green ‘Lawnranger’.

Visitors learn about alternatives to lawns at the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden. How about a waterwise native plant garden or replacing your lawn with a variety of classy ground covers?

Rain Barrels and Soaker Hoses on Breakfast TV

Sharon tells Tasha how we use our rain barrel and also how we irrigate the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden — with soaker hoses. It rains a lot in Vancouver through much of the year, but sometimes we have drought conditions during the summer months and residents are eager to conserve water during those times.

Interview with Jennifer Bailey, City of Vancouver, Water Conservation Program Manager.

Report Published by the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands
July, 2008

“Currently, land being farmed in British Columbia produces just over half of our food requirements. There is, therefore, tremendous potential to expand agricultural production so that it plays a greater role in feeding our growing population. However, a major challenge we face is to effectively manage urban growth in a manner that protects existing farm operations and provides opportunities for the agriculture industry to continue to grow. Part of this challenge in ensuring urban and agricultural land uses can successfully co-exist will require that the interface between these land uses is effectively planned.

“The Guide to Edge Planning offers tools and techniques that can be applied to the urban-agricultural interface to promote compatibility. By increasing public awareness, employing landscaping and spatial buffers and encouraging neighbourhood-friendly land management practices on both sides of the ‘fence’, concerns and complaints that may arise between farmers and their neighbours can be minimized and at the same time allow farming to operate in a viable manner.”

Download the complete report here. (3.2 MB) 79 pages.

Alethea Marie Harper, May 2007
Award-Winning Master’s Thesis, 160 pages
Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
University of California, Berkeley

“West Oakland is a community with limited access to healthy food. My work for People’s Grocery, a local nonprofit, will help the neighborhood and the nearby agricultural community work together to repair the local food system. Local production, self-sufficiency, and restoration of knowledge and local bonds are emphasized throughout. This project exemplifies how analysis and planning can combine pragmatism with idealism, creating a realizable vision for a thriving neighborhood and a robust local food system.

“Like many inner-city neighborhoods in the post-industrial United States, West Oakland is a neighborhood in need of an economic anchor. Once a thriving industrial center with plentiful blue-collar jobs, West Oakland now finds itself with high unemployment, deteriorating housing stock, disheartening crime statistics, high rates of heart disease and diabetes, and a lack of fresh, healthy food. While access to high-quality food may seem like a small problem in comparison to pervasive crime and major health disorders, it is in fact a quiet crisis on par with these other problems. Repairing the local food system is one step in the process to reinvigorate West Oakland’s food culture and local economy.”

Detailed case studies of many urban agriculture organizations include:

Your Backyard Farmer
City Farmer
Urban Nutrition Initiative (UNI)
Edible Schoolyard, Martin Luther King Middle School
People’s Grocery
City Slicker Farms
Oakland Butterfly and Urban Gardens

The complete thesis can be read here. (Best to download the thesis and read it with Adobe Reader.)

By Robin Kortright, Master of Arts 2007, Department of Geography, University of Toronto (139 pages)

“Of the 125 people who were originally contacted, just over half (54%) grew food, meaning vegetables, fruit, nuts, or herbs. Of the people who grew food, almost three quarters grew herbs, nearly two thirds grew vegetables, and just over a quarter grew fruit. Almost everyone grew food only in their backyards, with just three people growing food in their front yard and two in a community garden.

“65 percent of Toronto households have a lawn or garden. Owning your home, gardening skills, and a sunny garden are important parts of being able to grow food in a back garden. There is far more land in home gardens than will likely be available for community gardens in the near future. Home food gardens are an important part of urban food systems. They would benefit from more support, such as information about and access to compost, mulch, rain gauges and soil testing resources.”

Edible Backyards:
Residential land use for food production in Toronto
Summary – November 2007

Introduction

What we eat, where we get our food and who we share it with are questions that people build their lives around. Food can be good for our bodies, but it also means more than that. Special foods are part of our culture, and eating together can bring people closer to each other.

Food security is therefore a basic element of community health. Food security means that everyone can get the foods they need, like, and want in ways that don’t shame or embarrass them. Food security means that people are able to eat nutritious, safe and culturally appropriate foods that are grown in an environmentally friendly way.

We know that community gardens are an important support for community food security because they allow people to access many different kinds of affordable and healthy fresh foods. There are a lot of home gardens in Toronto that are used the same way, but we know very little about them. This study was designed to learn more about home food gardens, the gardeners that take care of them, and what they add to community food security in Toronto.

The Study

The research for this study was done in two Toronto neighbourhoods, Weston-Mt. Dennis and North Riverdale. About 60 households in each neighbourhood were randomly chosen and asked a few questions about what they grow in their gardens. People who grew vegetables or fruit in their home gardens were asked to participate in interviews, which included mapping their gardens, in-depth interviews, and a pilot survey.

What We Found

Of the 125 people who were originally contacted, just over half (54%) grew food, meaning vegetables, fruit, nuts, or herbs. Of the people who grew food, almost three quarters grew herbs, nearly two thirds grew vegetables, and just over a quarter grew fruit. Almost everyone grew food only in their backyards, with just three people growing food in their front yard and two in a community garden.

Of the people who grew food, 23 participated in interviews. Some grew quite a bit of food and others only a little. Almost all did not grow food for financial reasons. They had a number of different reasons to grow food, which shaped their gardens and the role the gardens played in their lives.

The gardens could be divided into five basic types:

1. Cook’s gardens: This was the most common type of garden, grown to be able to eat a variety of pesticide-free, flavourful vegetables, fruits and herbs fresh from the garden.

2. Teaching gardens: These were small gardens with many different food plants, grown by parents so their children could learn where food comes from and to respect the natural world. They also wanted them to enjoy growing and eating fresh foods like peas, carrots and herbs.

3. Environmental gardens: These gardeners grew food to be environmentally friendly. Eating local, using organic methods and conserving water was important to them. These gardens were fairly large so the gardeners could supply as much of their own food as possible.

4. Hobby gardens: For these gardeners, growing food plants was a hobby. Caring for the plants and watching them grow to harvest gave the gardeners pleasure and satisfaction.

5. Aesthetic gardens: These gardens included only a small amount of food, grown as much or more for the beauty of the food plants as for the food itself.

Each type of garden was different, but in a number of ways all of them had an impact on food security. The gardens improved the gardeners’ access to healthy food and their diets. Growing food at home made eating fruits and vegetables convenient and delicious. The gardeners looked forward to food from the garden, and so they ate more fresh foods than they might have otherwise (especially tender vegetables like tomatoes and greens). Taking care of their garden every day also made the gardeners more aware of the seasons and more likely to look for fresh foods from the store as well as the garden. Also, growing food at home allowed the gardeners to control how their food was grown. Most of the gardeners tried to garden in an environmentally-friendly way, and none used pesticides on the food they grew.

Family and sharing of food was also part of the reason the gardeners interviewed grew food, though it was less important than other studies have found. All of the gardeners interviewed had a family history of gardening. Many grew foods in their gardens that had meaning for them in terms of their personal and community history. Still, most of the foods that they grew were easy to buy in stores. Access to culturally important foods was not the main reason that any of these gardeners grew food. Many of the gardeners shared small amounts of food with friends and family, but this was also not an important reason to grow food for most. Still, almost all the gardeners strongly disliked wasting food, and would go out of their way to be sure everything was used even if there was only a little left over. Few of the gardeners interviewed shared food through organizations or programs. Most didn’t know that it was possible and the ones who did weren’t sure how to do it. Several people said that they would think about growing more food if they could share it.

Beyond community food security, the gardeners talked about the difference that caring for food plants had on their health and well being. Being outside, breathing fresh air, and being active were important benefits of gardening for them. They also felt a strong satisfaction in harvesting what they grew. Most importantly, the gardeners saw their gardens as a relaxing place where they could let go of stress from their daily lives.

Conclusion

65 percent of Toronto households have a lawn or garden. Owning your home, gardening skills, and a sunny garden are important parts of being able to grow food in a back garden. There is far more land in home gardens than will likely be available for community gardens in the near future. Home food gardens are an important part of urban food systems. They would benefit from more support, such as information about and access to compost, mulch, rain gauges and soil testing resources. However, community gardens are also important. There is a need for more community garden space and learning opportunities for all gardeners to increase the environmental sustainability and accessibility of food gardening in the city.

Residential food gardening has the potential to change both what we see and how we act in our relationship with food and our environment. Food gardening is immediate and personal, forcing us to deal not only with what and how much we eat but also where it comes from and what it means to us. Home food growing supports urban food security not only in terms of nutrition and access but also sustainability, health and well-being. It is hoped that this study will benefit both academic research and community development by providing a better understanding of the relationship between urban home food growing and food security.

Robin Kortright, Master of Arts 2007, Department of Geography, University of Toronto
Email: robin.kortright@utoronto.ca