Local Food Working Group
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7 results found
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11 votes
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.
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commented
@ An interesting idea. We haven't yet used development contributions for markets per se, though we have negotiated the creation of urban agriculture amenities in various developments - planting areas, garden plots, etc.
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48 votes
Small orchards are being planted by the Park Board in golf courses and at Sunset. Plans are in the works for more community orchards. This is a strategy in the draft Greenest City Action Plan.
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commented
@Clelie - Definitely something that we want to try and do more of. There are a few community orchards that are in place (Burrard and 6th being one), but we want to try and increase the number of these where possible.
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240 votes
City has supported SOLE food project (in the DTES) and is investigating other urban farming opportunities as part of the draft Greenest City Action Plan.
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commented
@ PK ~ A couple of interesting initiatives come to mind. First, a few years ago City Farmer created a "Backyard Sharing Project" that allowed people who had land the were interested in gardening link up with people who wanted to do the gardening work. Expanding this could help to put more of the unused city back yards into a food growing cycle.
Second, is the use of combined backyards for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives. There's a number of these going on in Vancouver - City Farm Boy is one, but I know of a few taking place in Kits. Urban farmers have approached houses to use their lawn space for food growing. Depending on the arrangement, property owners then get a food box or other incentive out of the program.
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commented
@ Kristi Tatebe
Good news on this front: we've started to make some investments in this area, including the SOLE food project at Hastings and Hawks (funded, in part, through one of our Greenest City Grants).
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18 votes
Hobby bee keeping guidelines under review and there are beehives on top of City Hall. For details on the City of Vancouver bee keeping initiatives, please visit: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/projects/beekeeping.htm
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commented
@PA and SF - re allowing urban beekeeping. Good idea! A few years ago we created a series of Guidelines for Hobby Beekeeping which you can find on our Food Policy webpages:
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/projects/beekeeping.htm
they're at the point where we'll need to update them in the next little while - so stay tuned for that.
We also put a series of beehives on the roof of City Hall a few months ago and would love to see more folks get involved with bee-keeping. Are there any resources that you think would be helpful here?
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60 votes
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commented
@ T.J. and S.S., The City actually published some edible landscaping materials a few years back to try and encourage a greater use of harvestable berries and fruit trees. It's something that we're looking at again in the context of the Greenest City work - particularly as the Bright Green Future recommendations point to increasing the proportion of edible landscaping on City facilities.
The Parks Board has started planting more fruit trees (even on the City golf courses!) but there's more that can be done here. One of the things that we need to account for is ensuring that any fruit that gets planted gets harvested - not so much a problem with cherries (as birds will eat them if people don't); however untended apple trees can make a mess of sidewalks if not properly tended to. Not an insurmountable problem, of course, but something that needs to be factored into decision-making.
Out of curiosity, what type of edibles would you like to see?
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32 votes
The City supports various community food recovery initiatives currently being planed or already in place. Food recovery is included within the draft Greenest City Action Plan
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commented
Sorry, forgot to include these as well:
Web: www.sharedharvest.ca/metrovancouver
Shared Harvest blog: http://sharedharvestbc.blogspot.com/
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commented
@Silvi Wool
There's a new initiative that is looking at enabling this sort of activity - called Shared Harvest. The creators describe it as a food-related "craigslist."
("The concept is very simple. You place a free Wanted, Available or Donation ad for a food item on the website and when there is a match you’ll be contacted. Farmers, backyard gardeners, charities, grocers, farm to school programs, neighbourhood food networks, restaurants, community kitchens, distributors can all be part of this local food networking site. If you have a bumper crop of zucchinis, donate it to a worthy food security organization. Looking for BC tomatoes for your canning collective?")
Perhaps if health concerns can be attended to, this might be the sort of thing that could foster the sort of food redistribution that you're talking about.
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669 votes
The draft Greenest City Action Plan will discuss this in a variety of ways.
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commented
@Steven Forth:
Good ideas all around… we’ve been looking at a number of options to encourage local food production, processing and distribution and doubtless there’s more to be done here. For e.g. Council just passed a motion in July that allows Farmers Markets in every zone on a two year pilot basis. We’re also working to increase the number of gardens on City-owned land as well.The idea of measuring the amount of food grown in the city has been something that we’ve contemplated. Currently if feels a ways off, and we’re just at the point where we’ve been able to ascertain the amount of land ‘in production’ on city-owned property. We haven’t yet ventured into developing a measure of private backyards, etc. or the quantity of food produced. That being said, there are some fantastic local initiatives that have ‘pooled’ front and backyards into very productive small-scale agriculture projects, capable of providing multiple households with local food and surplus for CSA-style distribution.
Being a net exporter suggests that we’ll be able to feed the residents of the City and have surplus left to export. Whether we’ll be able to achieve this in a comprehensive fashion is unclear. As a start it would require some pretty radical shifts in land-use, not to mention some other innovations (vertical farms, perhaps?)
But perhaps we can think about being a net exporter of certain types of food or food products. Any thoughts on the best options here?
