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How can we reach our 2020
Greenest City Targets?

GC 2020

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42 results found

  1. Create local food distribution system

    We have a back/front yard garden that grows primarily produce. Some years, like this one, the yield is pretty meager. But other years, like last summer, we have WAY more produce than we can possibly use, even with constant canning.

    I typically start giving away the extra to unsuspecting friends and neighbours, but I would love to have a way to sell it.

    Most back-yard gardeners don't produce enough produce to go to the trouble of selling it, but if there was an easy way to sell the excess into a system that could then combine it with the produce…

    24 votes
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  2. Encourage urban food production

    Urban vegetable gardens and container planting can go a long way towards reducing our food miles and our dependence on imports.

    Successful projects in Mexico and Cuba show us that we can produce a lot of food in the city proper, so why don't we?

    669 votes
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  3. food...food...and food... how do we know it's actually good?

    When I go to the grocery store, how do I know that the food I'm buying is hormone and/or pesticide and/or pesticide free? Even if it says it's organic...is it really? My idea is to 1. put more of a REAL control on the food we're selling to the general public and 2. why not start growing real organic food...from real soil ourselves...urban agriculture?

    4 votes
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  4. Local Food Guide or Cookbook

    The City should publish a guide to local foods. To be truly sustainable it must only include foods grown in sufficient quantity to feed everyone in the region (otherwise it's just elitism) and should exclude anything grown in greenhouses.

    5 votes
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  5. Redistribute food that is still edible

    A large amount of fine produce is thrown out or composted, especially from "gourmet" grocers who only sell produce of highest quality.

    Restaurants often throw out food, because they are unable to sell it the following day.

    There are many people in this city who cannot afford, or who do not have the skills to prepare good food.

    Divert this waste from the food industry towards feeding people who could use the food.

    32 votes
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  6. Develop a local food hub and expand the availability of local food at a neighbourhood level

    A local food hub would support the distribution, processing and storage of local food, a current gap in the local food system. This hub would then be connected to avenues to access locally produced food distributed throughout the neighbourhoods, making more available food produced locally by farmers outside Vancouver as well as urban farmers.

    506 votes
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  7. A Call to Town Hall - Plant Veggies, not Flowers

    A Call to Town Hall - Plant Veggies, not Flowers
    Poverty Reduction, Environment Protection and Community Building

    Goal
    Reduce poverty, involve community, promote healthy lifestyles, reduce personal and city spending, create a well connected and safer community, add natural nutrients back to top soil, and educate about healthy living and healthy food.

    Most cities and towns have multiple flower gardens that are taken care of by city workers. Call your local city hall, ask them to plant hardy vegetables in garden spots instead of the usual flowers. Vegetable plants produce very beautiful flowers that turn into edible veggies like Squash,…

    41 votes
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  8. Local Food

    Encourage developers to provide commercial space, throughout residential neighborhods, for outlets for locally grown food. Residential development are often required to provide community oriented commercial uses, such as day care.

    Local food markets, distributred throughout the residential neighborhoods, would help support local food growth, and reduce impact on infrastructure by reducing the need to get in the car.

    11 votes
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    Urban agriculture components are now part of the public benefit negotiations for major developments, however the use of these benefits for a neighbourhood hub like this has not yet been contemplated. Options for neighbourhood based distribution of local food are being considered in the draft Greenest City Action Plan.

  9. label local food

    Encourage food retailers to label local food. This would make it easier for people to choose local and support a sustainable, secure food system in the Lower Mainland.

    14 votes
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  10. Serve only nitrate free hotdogs/ cooked meats

    All the food served in City should be free of chemicals & nitrates. Support organic/ natural -local if possible.

    6 votes
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  11. Incubator kitchens

    Have certified kitchens available for rent for individuals that would like to create a food business- provide business and marketing support.

    13 votes
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  12. local food production, vertically!

    verticle farming can feed a whole neighbor hood in one city block!!
    http://www.verticalfarm.com/designs.html

    a glass skyscraper that is designed as a climate controlled environment that can grow food of all different varieties,
    vertically.
    weather hydroponic or soil medium, plants are hung vertically against the windows.
    check this link!
    makes so much sense!
    less space used in this multi-leveled complex, and not subject to bad weather!
    check this link above for designs !

    49 votes
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  13. Increase the number of facilities available for community kitchens/ food processing

    Are people still interested in joining community kitchens? These were popular a couple of years ago but excitment seems to have died off due to a lack of available facilities.
    Have community kitchen with themes- such as urban singles, local food etc...
    Have these spaces double as urban food processing centres- have commercial kitchens set up to allow groups to come in and process large amounts of local food at harvest time so that it will be available for later us. Host workshops on various low energy food preservation techniques, nutrition, cooking, low energy cooking etc...
    Install large size community…

    7 votes
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  14. More street food more places

    The City's recent allocation of 17 new street-food licenses is a good start. Let's take it to the next level with street food hubs on city-owned parking lots or under-utilized alleyways. These centres could be modelled after those in Portland and feature a wide variety of local, healthy options. A bonus idea: a plate refund system like at the Folk Fest -- so that packaging and wrap can be minimized or done away with!

    16 votes
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  15. Develop a Vancouver Food Action Plan

    An Action Plan would provide an overall strategy to guide the City’s response to urban agriculture and food system issues.

    177 votes
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  16. 21 votes
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  17. Create more community gardens

    Provide more opportunities for the creation of community gardens. Existing community gardens should be preserved and enhanced. Encourage community gardens on school grounds for educational and aesthetic purposes.

    227 votes
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    City has already moved beyond the 2,010 (garden plots) by 2010 challenge. Three new gardens were created in the summer of 2010 and others are currently in the planning stage. This is an idea included in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan.

  18. Make one floor of every condo a "farm floor" with vegetable garden. Feed the city from the city

    Local food production in your own apartment building. A designated "farm floor" could be in the basement of the building where the underground parking is/was. Powered by solar panels on the roof.

    10 votes
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  19. Gardens on apartment property

    Most 3-storey walk-up apartment buildings have boring empty front lawns. These lawns could be replaced either with garden plots for the inhabitants, or with landscaping of native plantings to provide habitat for birds and insects. Create a system so that if the people in that specific building weren't interested in gardening, their plot would be assigned to other neighbourhood gardeners. (Since you wouldn't want to replace boring lawns with even more boring empty plots of earth/weeds.)

    81 votes
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  20. Provide a one-stop clearing house for information relating to local food in Vancouver.

    A local food directory could support residents in participating in the local food economy, advising them of all the various initiatives that are going on relating to food production, processing and retail in Vancouver.

    6 votes
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