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How can we reach our 2020
Greenest City Targets?

GC 2020

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42 results found

  1. Municipal tax break for property owners that allow urban farmers to farm their yards

    There already exist entrepreneurs producing significant amounts of food in yards in Vancouver, often through a CSA distribution model (Inner City Farms, Fresh Roots, City Farm Boy, My Urban Farm, and others). The landowners that partner with these farmers should receive tax breaks based on the amount of food being produced on their property. With such inflated property taxes in Vancouver, this would provide a delicious incentive for landowners to allow urban farmers to access their land.

    256 votes
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  2. Support Urban Farming Entrepeneurship

    Urban farming from an entrepreneurial approach holds one of the most exciting possibilities for urban food production. Urban farming is a great way for Vancouver to achieve “worldwide entrepreneurial recognition” and create sustainable urban jobs.

    Other successful urban farming systems (i.e., Havana, Cuba; Detroit, Michigan) have developed out of necessity and urgency. Such conditions do not yet exist in Vancouver. Yet urban farming, which is now a multi-million dollar “industry” in North America, holds the potential to create economic opportunities for those wanting to engage in urban food production; provide the most local food possible to Vancouver residents (and visitors);…

    215 votes
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  3. Bring community gardeners together with those who have extra yard space

    Create a program for homeowners & community gardeners to work together. For example, elderly people who want to stay in their homes but can no longer maintain their yards, would have their yards maintained by gardeners, in exchange for garden space in the home owner's yard to grow food.

    69 votes
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  4. create an urban farm network

    Create an urban farm network, a hub that links farms, farmers, local food distribution and storage in the city and provides resources to everyone (including organized farms, non-profits, individuals, schools, community groups, city, etc) and provide business advice, links to funding, assistance in creating and sustaining local jobs, training farmers, and develop partnerships and connection to other urban farm resources throughout the city

    121 votes
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  5. Reduce residential encroachment on agricultural land

    In order for us to have more local food in our supply chain we need to protect the agricultural land we have in the Lower Mainland including the Fraser Valley. Right now residential and commercial land zoning is encroaching too much on our prime agricultural land. Soil is a resource that must be protected!

    71 votes
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  6. Start window farms in Vancouver

    http://www.windowfarms.org/
    This could be great for Vancouver with all of our donwtown condos. Unfortunately this is only available in the US. City could start this in Vancouver and make it available like the water saver kit.

    38 votes
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  7. mobile community gardens in empty lots

    Community gardens could be setup in the gated empty lots around the city. The lot owner could put up a sponsorship sign so they get the free advertising of supporting something helpful to the community. The garden could be setup in a way that it could be moved to another lot when the original lot was eventually put to another use.

    32 votes
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  8. make food not lawns

    Stop planting grass and instead plant food that people can eat. The big living roof on the convention centre has grass right now but it, and other roofs and lawns could have edible plants living on them.

    74 votes
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  9. 24 votes
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  10. Buying of Local Foods

    Encourage the buying of local foods so products can be bought and sold without harmful chemicals, and are sold and grown with natural products

    36 votes
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  11. Include rentable, inspected kitchens in the mandate of Parks Board's community/rec centres

    Growing food is just part of the local food solution. We also need affordable, inspected kitchen spaces for canning workshops, hands-on cooking classes, community kitchens and small scale food processing.

    As part of the move towards food precincts or neighbourhood food centres Vancouver needs kitchens.

    The Kits and Mount Pleasant Community Centres do have kitchens, but they are not available for the public to rent. Trout Lake's new facility will have a rent-able kitchen but it is a rare case.

    11 votes
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  12. farmBay

    It is difficult for local farmers to actively and regularly connect with consumers (i.e., eaters) around specific food items.

    Let's say a local farmer has a few dozen extra eggs or a few pounds of extra tomatoes. What does the farmer do? He usual composts the extra.

    Across town a restaurant or person at home would like to get some fresh eggs or tomatoes for tonight. But, the farmers market isn't for several days.

    How do they connect up? farmBay - eBay for farmers and eaters. Farmers post food for sale and eaters buy it in an eBay like format.

    11 votes
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  13. improve solar access for food growing

    Access to sufficient solar exposure is often the most challenging impediment to food production on an urban site. Trees and buildings can create shade in spots that would otherwise be ideal for growing food - the ones just outside the kitchen or front door.

    As counter-intuitive as this may seem, the city's plan to plant massive amounts of trees for carbon sequestration will probably interfere with many existing food gardens, and many more trees that are nearing the end their life-span could be removed to create room for food production. An exemption favouring food gardens could be made within the…

    9 votes
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  14. Indoor farmer's markets and community garden spaces for winter months.

    Create indoor farmer's markets and community garden spaces for winter months in order to support healthy eco-living and eating.

    94 votes
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  15. Green Urban Cook book

    Develop tasty recipes for urban nuisances such as crow a l'orange, pigeons au vin, raccoons en sauce, and coyote a la brouche.

    5 votes
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  16. Urban Orchards

    Create urban orchards in every neighbourhood ( cherry, apple, fig, berries, plums, apricots and peaches). Employ staff to maintain these and to teach people how to preserve and use the harvest. Graft producing branches to existing cherry, plum, apple root stock.

    48 votes
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  17. Protect Urban Farming by changing the laws that get used to shut it down

    Five years ago I moved to Vancouver and started turning the house I rented with friends into an urban farm. But a neighbour (one, out of dozens) thinks food gardens belong in the back yard and used the city's vague and undemocratic "Untidy Premises Bylaw" to have us ordered to remove it.

    If Vancouver really wants to be green, it should start by looking around at the amazing things that ordinary people are already doing to make it that way and stop putting up barriers to their work. This bylaw needs a specific exemption for food gardens, or it needs…

    56 votes
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  18. Urban Farm Coop

    Mandate urban farm coops in backyards. City Hall would then collect taxes in the form of fruits and vegetables. This could be as successful as it was under Stalin. It resulted in an unexpected benefit -- the reduction of the population by 15 million people. Vive La Revolution Vert!

    5 votes
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  19. Develop a city-supported urban farming program

    Community gardens and farmers markets are on the rise in Vancouver, but there remains a need for more productive farms (market gardens) to produce significant amounts of local food.

    There are more and more people interested in getting into farming as a livelihood, but barriers such as high land values and low profit margins in traditional farming make entry difficult.

    The City could develop a municipally-supported urban farming program where city-owned land would be affodably leased to prospective farmers for a season to gain experience, earn an income, and produce food for local residents. This could be coupled with a…

    240 votes
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  20. Develop incentives to restore the bee populations

    [Submitted via email by Patrice Allen]

    Develop incentives to restore the bee populations, not only for their products but for cross-pollination in ALL green spaces.

    18 votes
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