This is the key to sustainable living, and a sustainable economy.

I believe this would be an important aspect of living sustainably in cities and would foster continued dialogue and respect between people who live in the city, farmers and those who try to protect land based agriculture close to the city.

The key to this idea is that is has to be YEAR 'ROUND. Make local food accessible to more people more often!

Now is the time to be proactive in our approach to sustainable agriculture and urban food supplies. This measure would go a long way to providing a foundation from which to work toward other urban agricultural goals.

This would be so cool! I love the farmers market. It is one place I can go where I feel hope for humanity. Would love to see a year round farmers market.

It would be wonderful to have access all year round to farmers and their produce, I am always so sad when the Trout Lake market comes to an end every year.

Outlets for local food production should be encouraged by offering density bonuses to developers, in exchange for providing space for local food grocers. Currently, there are bonuses offered to developers for providing neighborhood-oriented commercial, such as chile care. While the child care is commendable, that is all that is provided through each development approval. Imagine the numner of car trips that would be eliminated every day, if every resident could walk a block or two to pick up fresh produce, fresh flowers, and fresh local meats and fish!

Everyone in Vancouver should be in walking distance of locally grown food.That would be a huge step froward and it can be encouraged through zoning. It might also support a related goal of hacing more locally-owned businesses so that capital can pool and be reinvested locally.

In addition, we need 'distributed' food hubs, much like we're moving from large scale energy to 'distributed' energy.

The idea is that you don't go to a hyper or supermarket centrally located, but you can get what you need at the corner store or at the bottom of your street.

For this reason we need pocket market licensing. We need to work with owners and operators of buildings with large atriums or galleries to utilize these as public spaces.

Imagine being able to pick up local produce in the hallway of your office building at lunch time! We'd all feel like we had a little bit of Granville Island at our doorstep.

This is the sort of thing that could/should really define the heart of a vibrant city center/square/etc. Too bad most of the space down there is at a premium, where there's even space for this type of thing at all. Still, here hoping.

Done! http://www.cityfood.com/daily_news/feature_articles/june_2009/farmers_market_launches_plan_for_new_city_market

http://www.straight.com/article-299294/vancouver/community-food-activist-comes-vancouver-amid-plans-central-food-hub-and-market

Yes! Let's allow REAL farmer's markets. Not regulated over-priced 'shows' like we occasionally have in Vancouver. ie: Granville Island, summer markets in Vancouver