Food in the City

A recent Globe and Mail article captured my attention with the title: "As meat plants shut down, Covid-19 reveals the extreme concentration of our food supply".

The authors of the article, Ian Mosby and Sarah Rotz, detail some sobering statistics:

• Nearly all of Canada's meat production is controlled by just four multi-billion dollar corporations (Cargill, JBS, Maple Leaf and Olymel) 
• 80 per cent of the retail grocery market is owned by only five companies (Loblaws, Sobeys/Safeway, Costco, Metro and Walmart)
• More than 60 per cent of global seed and pesticide sales are controlled by a small handful of companies (Bayer, ChemChina, Corteva and BASF)

This kind of extreme concentration equals extreme vulnerability of our food supply. We need to diversify food production.

I posted this information on Facebook, and one of my friends who produces garlic and heirloom tomato plants, amongst many other growing activities, commented that he has been arguing for small farms with greater diversity of land use, for years. He said, "multiple small farms still do better over time to supply the general population with food, less pesticide, less herbicide, less chemical than mega farms."

What can we do as urban dwellers?

Buy Local and Organic 

Support local producers, especially organic ones! Find them in your area, and purchase their products. They will be at Farmers Markets; they may have subscriptions where you can purchase a share of their crops, and receive deliveries of bins of seasonal produce every week or two weeks; and most do farmgate sales.

Here is a sample of three organic growers - one in the Victoria area, one in Alberta, and one in the Shuswap - with a bit of information for each about their approach:

• From North Star Organics, Saanich Peninsula: "We sustain the soil using techniques such as composting, cover cropping and crop rotation. Pest control is achieved through preventative measures such as screening and covering crops against pests, as well as introducing beneficial insects and micro-organisms that either attack pests or colonize plant and soil to keep pests out."





Tomatoes, North Star Organics, Saanich Peninsula

I encountered these growers at a market in Edmonton. Located between Edmonton and Calgary, they are a family owned business, with a commitment to sustainability principles. Their website mentions their use of LED lighting which enables them to grow year-round, and use of energy curtains in winter to conserve energy.

• Growers are increasingly finding ways of producing food during winter months. We do not need to depend on California! Wild Flight Farms, in Mara near Salmon Arm, grow several hardy greens throughout the winter in their unheated greenhouses. One of these is corn salad, which they describe as follows: Despite being called corn salad, it isn't related to corn at all. It gets its name from its weed-like tendency to grow throughout fields of grain, such as corn. Corn salad has a nutty, somewhat herbal flavour. Its oh-so-tender leaves pair well with a light dressing in salad, or can be very lightly wilted and added to many meals.

Harvesting Corn Salad in this unheated greenhouse, Wild Flight Farms, Mara, BC

Grow our Own

It is relatively easy to grow our own vegetables or fruits when we have a yard, or an acreage. It's a little more difficult in a city where we may live in an apartment. But it's not impossible!

Use a Community Garden

So far I have encountered several community gardens within a short distance of the James Bay area. Allotments are made available to residents of the area.

Montreal Street Allotment Garden

Montreal Street Allotment Garden

Despite the sign, this allotment garden is on Niagara, not Michigan, Street. This photo was taken last fall.  The garden's objectives include food for area residents, aesthetics, and community health.

Grow in the Kitchen

It is very satisfying to grow sprouts and herbs right in our own kitchens. Sprouts can be grown year-round, and especially make sense in winter when vegetables are more scarce. Various seed mixes can be found in health food stores, sometimes in bulk.

This seed mix contains alfalfa, radish and various beans. They will sprout quickly, need rinsing a few times a day, and will green up in a couple of days. 

Consider an "Urban" Greenhouse  

Europe has long explored solutions for limited space. Here is an approach to small space "urban farming" that works with balconies or other restricted areas.

This Belgian greenhouse is designed for narrow spaces like balconies. This one is 2.7 feet wide. Source: https://acd.eu/en/greenhouses-garden-pavillions/urban-greenhouses/.

Encourage Municipal Growing Efforts

I am discovering various creative ideas in Victoria to encourage more local food. Some of these are transferable to other communities.

Vegetables Instead of Flowers

The COVID-19 pandemic has led the City of Victoria to change its priorities for what it grows in its greenhouses to include food plants, to be shared over this year's growing season. As many as 75,000 edible "plant starts" will be grown, and distributed by community non profit partners. Plants being grown include cucumbers, zucchini, squash, broccoli, cabbage, mustard greens, chard, kale, basil, tomatoes, parsley and lettuce. As the City says on its website, they are plants that "novice" gardeners can easily grow.

The seeds are local seeds from farms on Southern Vancouver Island, and through the BC Eco Seed Co-op. 

For more information, go to
https://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/parks/growing-in-the-city.html:

This is a wonderful initiative. Why limit it to just this time of pandemic?

Edible Landscapes

Even before COVID-19, Victoria was doing some innovative things with planting edibles in various public places around the city. Many planters on streets may contain surprises of chard, parsley, kale or rosemary. Even downtown has an "edible streetscape". 

"Edible Landscape Design" is now a new term in urban development.

Chives and other herbs growing at Fisherman's Wharf park

Signage on a blueberry shrub, Fisherman's Wharf park. The signs are helpful for users to know that the plant is definitely an edible one!

A glimpse of the edible landscape

The very useful local paper James Bay Beacon carried an article last year with a guide to edible gardens in the area, and helping readers learn which gardens were available for them to harvest from.

https://www.jamesbaybeacon.com/home/2019/3/7/to-pick-or-not-to-pick

The James Bay Neighbourhood Association also supports community garden initiatives - https://jbna.org/our-activities/parks-and-gardens/gardens/

Further beyond James Bay, downtown Victoria is developing a Food Eco District, through the efforts of the group FED. Here is an excerpt from the website https://www.get-fed.ca/

The Food Eco District is a local non-profit that is working to create a vibrant and distinct neighbourhood in Victoria's downtown core. The District is fast becoming a destination for sustainable food, full of amazing eateries and a growing number of edible gardens.

By partnering with the finest restaurants in the district and beyond, FED is planting food, eating local, and growing a movement.

An edible streetscape planter from last fall.

The group FED is one of the partners distributing City-grown plants to families in the City.

Other Food Policies

As a resident of a multi-family building, I was interested in the City's document summarizing its research into ways that such buildings can be used to grow food.  "Growing Food and Gardening in Mixed Use, Multi-Unit Residential Developments" includes ideas such as roof-top gardens and greenhouses, pollinator gardens, and the use of vacant lots.

The City already actively encourages the use of boulevards for food growing. Its website https://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/parks/growing-in-the-city.html outlines some of the other ways it encourages food production in the city - through allowing urban chickens and bees, encouraging people to grow food for resale in markets, and encouraging groups to maintain community fruit and nut trees.

An example of this is in Fernwood, where I discovered Spring Ridge Commons. and the Fernwood Neighbourhood Orchard.

I visited in the fall so some food plants were not obvious

An attractive path through Spring Ridge Commons

Neighbourhood orchard in Fernwood

A useful sign that helps users plan their harvest in the community orchard

Spring Ridge Commons is located on land owned by the School District, and leased to a neighbourhood group for managing. There is now much uncertainty about its future as the land is being considered for a complicated land swap project involving the School District, the City, and Capital Region Housing. It likely will not be a community "food forest garden" for much longer; hopefully there will be lessons learned from the experience that will be transferable to other projects in the area.

Many of us live in strata developments. Here is a resource for growing food in a strata: Starting a Food Garden - A Resource Guide for Strata Corporations http://www.ediblegardenproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/strata_garden_guide_Sep13_issuu.pdf . Here is a quote which shows what happens when we grow our food in community: "It turns out that growing and sharing food also grows our neighbourhoods".

As our communities navigate through the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthening our local food sources makes so much sense.