Community Gardens Taking Root
A growing interest in growing food has lead to several new food security projects in Richmond, BC. Read Vancouver Sun article here.
Most of its farmland was paved over decades ago, but the City of Richmond has found new ground to support a growing resurgence of the community gardener.
The city this week finalized a three-year agreement with the Richmond Food Security Society, giving the group a one-time $15,000 grant to run the city's four community gardens as well as the $8,000 it collects annually from the gardens.
"By getting the food security society to run it we're putting it in the hands of the community, which is really keen to make it work, rather than a city staff person," said Richmond Coun. Harold Steves.
The Richmond Food Security Society, which is aiming to raise food awareness in the city, has long pushed residents to become more self-reliant rather than depending on produce from the U.S. and overseas.
It is also involved in running a new "farm school" in the community with Kwantlen University's Institute for Sustainable Horticulture, which offers budding farmers a chance to learn the trade from the ground up.
Once they've learned the basics of farming, processing, marketing, and sales, the students will have access to "incubator" farm land -- up to one acre for three years -- to start farming. The city has about 186 acres that could be leased for the project. "There's a huge wave of everyone wanting to grow food," said Richmond resident Mary Gazetas, who sits on the board of the Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Program at Terra Nova rural park where the farming classes are held. "It's very exciting ... [this] is a very good experience for people who want to start growing food commercially."
Richmond's latest decision to support community gardening comes at a time when Metro Vancouver is about to debate a regional food network strategy.
The aim is to ensure the region has enough agricultural land and "green zones" to provide food security and safety in the face of a global food shortage, rising costs of oil and water, and a doubling of the region's population by 2050.
At a meeting on the "Future of the Region" Tuesday, panel members said Metro has a fair amount of control over its agricultural land but there's a need to encourage citizens to buy or grow local food.
Erik Assadourian, a senior researcher and project director for the State of the World Report compiled by the Worldwatch Institute, said the shift could be done partly through education, by creating healthier menus in schools, marketing through social networking sites and by something as simple as having a church garden. Even a veggie cart -- similar to an ice cream truck -- travelling through neighbourhoods would make a difference.
He said he's horrified the average person spends just eight minutes preparing a meal compared with an average 2.5 hours in 1934.
But it appears things are starting to change.
Vancouver has dozens of community gardens, on strips of land along railway corridors or vacant lots. Other communities from Mission to West Vancouver also offer plots for community gardens. And a group of schools in the B.C. Interior have also started offering salad bars to students, using produce from local farms.
Steves said the community's push for gardens has resulted in change in Richmond. But he added it's important to ensure people with knowledge -- such as seniors who grew up working the land -- pass it on.
One of the biggest issues, he said, is finding someone to lead the change. "A lot of the things we're talking about today have been happening by different groups. Now we have to coordinate them," he said.
"The biggest question here is going to set up an over-arching food policy and I don't think there's any provincial or federal government capable of it. [Metro Vancouver] can work in an advocacy role to local government.
"The public is way ahead of the politicians, if we can just make it easier for them."
Wendy Holm, an agrologist with the University of B.C. Faculty of Land and Food Systems, agreed food safety, security and democracy only started to be a priority in the past five years but "has to become a pillar of public policy."
But she noted the food supply can only be protected if houses are built on hillsides to protect agricultural land for the future.
Brent Warner, coordinator of the Canadian Agritourism Workshop, noted a recent study on farmers' markets found $1 billion in cash sales was spent at the markets, which could be developed to run year round.
Gazetas said the fruit-tree sharing project, which provides food for food banks, has grown exponentially in the past 10 years and now runs all year with the help of greenhouses. The group recently planted 140 apple trees and she expects to have 22,000 pounds of apples within two years.
"There's a huge renaissance of people wanting to connect with the land again," she said.
By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun April 14th, 2010
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