Farming the city
Published February 14, 2007
Edible fences, plant swaps, community gardens, green roofs, it's only your imagination that limits what form urban agriculture can take. It's not only the rural farmer who is responsible for what we eat and the greening of our community. A recent agriculture census in the USA found that the average yield on an acre of corn grown in Iowa was $400. In San Francisco the yield was $10,000 an acre. Certainly one of the factors is the proximity of the market; another, the desire for consumers to know where their food is grown, remember the recent spinach ban; and the third is the fact that urban farming methods have been found to be five to 15 times more productive per acre than rural agriculture methods. More information can be found at http://www.cityfarmer.org/deskSmit.html
The recent Municipal Development Plan comments have spurred me to do some research into this area. It can work to our benefit to have an urban density and still 'farm the land'. It's a matter of municipal planning; buy in by the public and opportunity. This year Communities in Bloom will be featuring gardens both private and communal. Land has been obtained just North of Sherwood Park for community gardening but why can't we convert some of our pocket parks, spaces in our church yards or land along our miles of fences into productive food producing areas? How many times have we heard, how what is now Sherwood Park, was some of the best farm land, it can still be productive and be home to 50,000 residents. There are numerous examples of urban agriculture all over the world: school yards in Berlin, Floating Islands in Mexico City, goats in the Central Park in Calcutta and honey bees in San Francisco. My favourite is The Edible Fence Initiative which will have school yard fences laden with vines of zucchini, cucumber and tomato.
As the community will be competing in the International Communities in Bloom category there is no time to waste, how will you be contributing?
Jacquie Fenske
Councillor, Ward 5
464-8147
fenske@strathcona.ab.ca
Last updated: Thursday, March 25, 2010
Page ID: 2012