VANCOUVER – A short trip just two blocks down Maple Street, off Kitsilano’s trendy West Fourth Avenue, through a cleverly constructed gate, takes you out of the city – sort of.
It’s so quiet here that visitors might forget they’re in the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada.
Beyond the rake, spade and pitchfork that form the gate lie lettuce and roses, tomatoes and cosmos, peppers and fuchsia.
The vegetables, flowers and fruit trees planted in seemingly random clumps, in rows and in pots, comprise City Farmer’s garden.
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Beyond its borders, along an old rail line, are blocks and blocks of the same, carefully tended by local residents who enjoy the beauty and bounty of the plots.
When City Farmer began in 1978 as a non-profit urban agriculture society, it caused a little controversy, recalls executive director Michael Levenston.
“People said, ‘it’s just gardening.’ “
But the idea was to encourage people to grow food instead of lawn. It was good for the environment and for people’s health.
In the 28 years since, other cities have looked at the Vancouver model as a way to get people back to their roots and involved in producing at least some of their own food.
It has become part of the food security movement around the world.
Martin Bailkey of Madison, Wisconsin, chairs the urban agriculture committee of the California-based Community Food Security Coalition. He said North America is behind other jurisdictions in establishing urban agriculture networks.
“Urban agriculture is a critical element of food security,” he said.
It provides greater access to quality, nutritious food for the increasingly urban population. It creates economic development, revitalizes communities and keeps transportation costs down.
In the late 1990s, the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University studied how far 30 different fresh produce items travelled on their way to the Chicago Terminal Market.
Table grapes, broccoli, cauliflower, romaine lettuce, green peas and spinach all were trucked more than 3,200 kilometres. Only mushrooms and pumpkins travelled less than 640 km.
“Vegetables shouldn’t have air miles,” said Food Secure Canada chair Cathleen Kneen.
Today in Vancouver, people grow vegetables in yards, on balconies and rooftops, and in spaces provided by communities and institutions, such as schools and hospitals. Edible landscaping involves planting shrubs and trees that produce berries and fruits. Beekeeping was recently allowed.
One real estate developer uses garden space as a sales tool for a new condominium development. The city has announced an ambitious target of 2,010 new garden plots in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
“From no one talking about the term urban agriculture to having the World Urban Forum here in June, a massive shift has taken place,” said Levenston, referring to an international conference on sustainable cities.
Cities are integrating urban agriculture into land-use planning and governance. Toronto, Montreal, Regina and others have established food policies and increasing urban agriculture is key among many of them.
Devorah Kahn, Vancouver Food Policy co-ordinator, said she’s surprised at what people will do to grow their own food. She tells of a sign offering garden spaces that appeared on an empty city lot, complete with a map and e-mail contact.
“Gardens just started appearing,” she said.
When a city councillor showed up to investigate, the gardeners handed him a shovel. It turns out they were graduate students in landscape architecture who had taken over the lot.
“We are now trying to legitimize this garden,” said Kahn. “We’re not having a lot of luck.”
She said guerilla gardening illustrates the desire of urban people to have a hand in food production.
Still, proponents of urban agriculture are clear: this is not farming as prairie people would describe it.
Levenston said it is not about commercial farms operating within city limits and it’s not going to replace large-scale operations.
“Let’s be realistic about how much we can actually grow,” he said. Using every tiny space in the city still wouldn’t produce enough food to feed its population.
If anything, he added, using “taster” gardens to get people to try things should be positive for larger, rural farmers who make their living from their land. People would be more likely to seek out farm food as opposed to processed food, he said.
“It makes them appreciate the land, understand farmers,” he said.
