Vancouver's Leader in Transition toward Strong, Resilient, Complete Communities
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Regarding what is not happening around food in Vancouver is production, it's hard to know where to start. Considering the diligent and tireless dedication to food production by such people, projects, and organizations as SOLEFood, CityFarmer, CityFarmBoy, CityFarmGirl, Dog Gone Farm, Village Vancouver, Kitsilano Farms, Yummy Yards, Fresh Roots, InnerCityFarms, the Urban Farm Network, every chicken and honey bee keeper, and many more I will be pilloried for forgetting, what they all lack is more land. We have the human dedication to food security, but we need land (and water).
Guess what? We have lots of both. The City has hundreds of hectares of open and unused land, some of which needs remediation for which permaculture can help hugely and almost all of which can be turned into productive farmland.
Urban farmers need not necessarily have more than a few years rolling land tenure, so the city retains future use of the real estate for development if that is the ultimate "highest and best use." There is thus NO LOSS to the city, except lower land management costs (stop the lawn mowing!), more local capital staying local, more jobs, and more civic engagement. The bottom line is that hundreds of hectares are going to waste and are a blight and eyesore in our city. The City is in the driver's seat here. They just need to loosen the reins.
Thus far The Village has made two significant and detailed proposals to the city, the Main Street Commons project for a long-time empty lot of 5,000 square feet and PTwin Harvest, an underused hectare lawn that cost the taxpayer tens of thousands every year to mow and maintain (see the VV link page here or go directly to www.twinharvest.ca). Both were turned down with no full explanation given.
We need to be able to grow at least a quarter of our food calories within the city to make any headway on food security. London once did, and during a full-on war with daily air raids. Many cities around the world, from Havana to Montreal are way ahead of us.
Randy and everyone else: please send a copy of your response to Zsuzsi Fodor at zsuzsi.fodor@vancouver.ca
Thank you. cylia
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