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Food Security and Politics


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#1 Lana Popham

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Posted 22 August 2008 - 08:30 AM

I attended an Agricultural Land Reserve 35th birthday celebration a couple weeks ago. It was amazing to hear from the people, like Dave Barrett, who had the foresight back then to put a safety net in place for viable agricultural land. These days there is a lot of pressure to remove land from this bank. It makes the headlines almost every day.
I hear people say that the ALR was put in place to protect farmland but the ALR does not protect the farmer. This is probably true. But, without the vision of the ALR, we would be in a completely different situation these days. We would be constantly dealing with development smack dab in the middle of prime growing areas instead of chipping away at the borders. We have a place holder with the ALR.
35 years ago we protected the land and now maybe we have the understanding that we also need to protect the farmer. Food security is beginning to become a common term. Especially as elections draw near. People are making a connection between what we eat and where it comes from. Maybe we needed to wait until now to fully understand the role of the farmer, and to realize what was needed to protect this important and vital profession in our culture.
I think this is an amazing time for agriculture. If we can enable the appropriate political strength, we have a chance to secure a safe, local, food system.
The next 12 months could bring us 3 elections. Municipal, Provincial, and Federal. The solutions to a successful agricultural system will come from all three levels of government. Locally we need to pressure our leaders to not just talk about food security but to change the way we support our local food systems.
When you are deciding who to vote for in your municipality, make our food system a priority. Ask the politicians what food security means to them. Make them define it for you, demand a commitment, and hold them to it. We can't eat political rhetoric.....

#2 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 22 August 2008 - 07:19 PM

Hi Lana, I realize you're running in a more rural and suburban municipality -- and that you're talking mainly about the ALR -- but what do you think of urban-context "vertical farming," as I posted a couple of days ago in one of the food threads here?

To save clicking around, here's that post in its entirety. FWIW, I think it's something we could be looking at in more urban contexts.

Green Living Walls Provide Local Produce

Green Living Technologies is an innovative landscaping company that is taking advantage of an oft forgotten space to grow plants - walls. Their Green Living™ Wall system uses specially designed recycled aluminum panels to grow herbs, vegetables, fruits and even perennials. These beautiful creations not only enliven a space, but can also provide locally grown food.

Green Living Technologies recently teamed up with Urban Farming for a project called the “Urban Farming Food Chain”, which installed a Green Living Wall system in a low-income are in Los Angeles.



After the training and installation, the living wall is now taken care of by local residents that are part of a green club, and provides tomatoes, leeks, cucumbers, strawberries and much more. The wall looks amazing, adds so much character to the neighborhood, gives a sense of pride to the residents, and provides healthy, organic produce. Living wall systems could be an excellent way to provide fresh produce in an urban setting and like green roof systems, help to reduce urban heat island effect.


Installations by Green Living Technologies may be large or very small and can even be connected to a live fish aquarium. One of the most beautiful installations they completed was for the façade of a yoga and fitness studio in NYC. Their Pure Yoga Green Wall looks so soft and inviting and is also incredibly artistic. Truly living art.
Check out their blog for before and after pics of their other installations and to see how it all works.
+ Green Living Technologies

Here's another photo:



When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.

#3 thant pix

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Posted 19 October 2008 - 01:03 AM

I think that Harald Wolf would do a better job as mayor of Saanich for local food security than the current Frank Leonard. His website is www.wolfweb.ca. As for green walls, the Gateway Green one should be even better, if it ever gets built.

#4 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 16 November 2008 - 05:29 PM

Check out this great little Japanese video animation, Ensuring the Future of Food, on YouTube.

It has subtitles (if you don't understand Japanese), so you can follow along.
When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.

#5 Chris J

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 12:26 PM

I think the fact that food security is not being taken seriously enough as a major issue is somewhat disturbing,
Giventhe trajectory we're on now, we face a serious crisis when oil prices make it impossible to import food at the volume and price we do it at now.
And growing it all in Saanich doesn't make sense either.
Personally, and I'm not just blowing hot air because it is something I am working on as opposed to just suggesting it, but we need to look at growing more food and less lawns and maybe we'll need some of these fancy vertical garden towers, but we'll need less of them if we grow our food more decentralized. Once again, there is too much of a push to come up with ideas that require plenty of materials and employs armies or architects, engineers and scientists, when in reality growing food is the oldest and most basic skill in our civilization.

#6 Caramia

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 06:35 PM

A new bylaw was passed by the old council allowing "urban farms" - which was a big step forward. As usual though, not a single food security activist stepped out of the woodwork to salute the move or to admit that perhaps a politician did something good. I had to practically harass people to get out and support the Island Chef's Collaborative picnic at Fort Rodd Hill this summer - $50 for food security was too much for people who are quite happy to spend the same amount at the bar in a night.

To me this is one of the perennial problems with our activist scene - the inability to produce a carrot as well as a stick. I wonder when someone will clue in that politicians need approval the way that most of us need air. I'm pretty much surrounded by activist culture in my tribe of old friends, and I am continually reminding them to notice the positives and celebrate them, rather than dwelling in a perpetually reinforced negative head-space.
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

#7 Jacques Cadé

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 08:03 PM

Something I was wondering: some of the biggest holders of lawn-growing public land in the capital region are the school districts. Have any of them converted bits of that land to vegetable gardens? They could offer courses in organic agriculture too. If I could get credit in high school for driver's ed (ok, that was Alberta in the 1970s), then surely it's possible to free up some land and credits to grow a few future farmers.

#8 Chris J

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 08:15 PM

Most of my activist friends are poor, and we don't spend $50 at the bar either. I worked for Food Roots until last week when slow sales forced us to shut down ALL the markets for the winter. Now I'm out of a job, but even worse, those farmers are back to finding ways to increase their sales so that they may keep us fed when the **** hits the fan.
Politicians don't need me to kiss their ass because they get things right now and then. But you're right. I f we speak up when something good happens, perhaps they'll get a hint and do more of it.
Jacques has a very important point. Why don't we teach agriculture in schools? I once read, and correct me if you know the exact figures, but at the turn of the 20th century, over 80% of the people in North America had a hand in growing their food. Now it's down to something like 2%.
I was 15 before I saw a garden, and I was 10 before I knew there was somewhere besides a factory that food came from. (With the exception of milk, eggs and meat, which I knew came from the farms we went on field trips to.)

#9 mat

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 08:18 PM

Jaques - that is a fantastic idea, especially in urban areas where many kids never set foot on a farm.

What I do notice around town, especially in Gordon Head, are street 'honour' stalls set up by homeowners for flowers (most of the year) and in the spring veggie, perennial and annual bedding plant cuttings. Some are quite elaborate - others fairly simple - but all interesting. We have picked up a number of great plants from them.

So Caramia - could our backyard qualify as an 'urban farm'? We will be converting the area that used to be occupied by our son's swimming pool, to a deer proof enclosure for veggies. VV member North Shore had tomato plants in his flower borders this summer - they were great - and the combining flowers and veggies was fantastic.

There are so many opportunities to advance not only growing some of our own food, but from that learning about, and appreciating, where dinner comes from.

#10 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 08:20 PM

AFAIK, pupils can still get external credits (like drivers ed) applied to graduation credits.

Meanwhile, home economics (which gave kids an inkling about real vs processed food) on most curricula becomes as rare as a sasquatch sighting.

But then, cars are so much more important than food. After all, we have supermarkets, right? <sarcasm alert>

On the subject of gardening/ schools/ kids, check out this wonderful article in the Toronto Star

T.O.Star: A floral approach to justice
– Tracey Tyler
Can tending flowers prevent criminals from reoffending? Some advocates say yes


It's about young offenders using horticultural therapy (because, as one of them, Max, puts it, "Jail just pisses you off," meaning it doesn't work that well).

The underlying creative impetus would be the same, whether you're planting flowers (as they are) or food, provided you really get an opportunity to create something.

Not sure that school kids should have it forced on them via curricula, but, like the old home ec of yore, it could have its merits.

I really like Max's story; he went from being an uncommunicative, sullen kid to being a creator. That's progress, isn't it?

"I remember (he) came home one day and said, `You know what? I made a flower today. I made my own species. I can't wait till it grows.'"

Chisling had shown the youths how to cross-breed lilies and they registered their new varieties with the American Hemerocallis Society.

"It's as easy as running around and grabbing the pollen thingy out of one and brushing it against the other," said Max.

"The plants were grabbing at me, you know? Before, I was kind of unmotivated. I didn't see the point of things. (I thought) it's all going to end up s--- anyway. Then I started working here and seeing the finished product and how to make working fun."


When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.

#11 Jacques Cadé

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 08:34 PM

Chris J, I'm sorry to read that Food Roots had to shut down for the winter. No demand: really? If I'd known where the winter markets were, I would've patronized them! (After the one in my Jubilee neighbourhood wrapped up in September, I assumed they'd all closed for the season.) Lee could've contacted Monday Magazine and/or the News Group papers beforehand to do a little story reminding people, and that might've helped.

FoodRoots is a fantastic idea. Now I'm wondering about the next step: incorporating some of those honour-stand gardeners that Mat's talking about into the system. If they saw that they had a regular buyer for their produce, they just might start growing more of it.

This would be not much different from what existed 50 years ago, when we had a central public market. A lot of the food sold there was grown by backyard gardeners who lived in North Park, Fernwood and other nearby neighbourhoods. So the same idea, but taking advantage of FoodRoots' smart plan to distribute around the city where non-farmers actually live, instead of selling out of one market building downtown.

Feasible, or am I dreaming in Technicolor?

#12 Caramia

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 08:48 PM

But you're right. If we speak up when something good happens, perhaps they'll get a hint and do more of it.


Yep, catch more flies with honey. :)

Mat, if you are in Victoria municipal limits, you can have a farm instead of a front lawn now. I don't remember the specifics but I believe 2 people in your family can be employed farming it and you can sell it. It doesn't grant your house agricultural land tax or anything, but it is no longer necessary to try to get it rezoned in order to grow veggies for sale.
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

#13 mat

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 08:54 PM

Yep, catch more flies with honey. :)

Mat, if you are in Victoria municipal limits, you can have a farm instead of a front lawn now. I don't remember the specifics but I believe 2 people in your family can be employed farming it and you can sell it. It doesn't grant your house agricultural land tax or anything, but it is no longer necessary to try to get it rezoned in order to grow veggies for sale.


Yippie - heirloom tomatoes next summer. Organic of course - special discount for VV members! :)

#14 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 08:57 PM

...if you are in Victoria municipal limits, you can have a farm instead of a front lawn now. I don't remember the specifics but I believe 2 people in your family can be employed farming it and you can sell it. It doesn't grant your house agricultural land tax or anything, but it is no longer necessary to try to get it rezoned in order to grow veggies for sale.


I vaguely recall an article in the T-C quite a few months ago about a couple who will actually come and farm your property -- the article described Fairfield, maybe OB? Can't recall the details, but the idea was that the property owner would get some of the food, and the rest would be sold at markets.

It's possible I posted the article here, but who knows which thread? Is anyone really good at searching the T-C archives?
When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.

#15 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 09:04 PM

PS: found it!

I didn't post it, obscurantist did, way back in August 07 on our Urban Agriculture thread.

The article was

Urban farm unwelcome in Oak Bay
'Acres and acres' of land offered but bylaw prohibits growing plants for sale

Kim Westad, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, August 04, 2007

Not sure what OB ended up doing (and according to the article they were farming in OB, Fernwood, & Fairfield), but the idea was this

They [Paula Sobie and Martin Scaia] started City Harvest in February, advertising on the Internet for people who wanted to use all or part of their city property for an urban garden. In return, the homeowner receives a portion of the organic vegetables, while the couple sells the rest at markets, to restaurants and through the Small Potatoes Urban Delivery (SPUD) program.


And this bit:

"Our diet and the choices we make about it are excellent opportunities to express our ecological values three times a day," Sobie said. "Instead of bringing up lettuce from California, we can literally have it in our backyard."

The couple also want to deal with food security, and let people know how easy it is to grow their own food. There's nothing like gardens and sharing their bounty to create a sense of community, Sobie said.

Not many people walk by a house and comment on how much the grass has grown in a week. But plant a garden in a corner of that lot, and some people make it part of their walking ritual to check out how high the beans have shot up in the hot weather. And it can be an amazing sight when the 10-year-old next door who thought all carrots came out of a cellophane bag pulls one from the dirt.

Sobie thought finding land to plant would be the challenge. Not so. They had "acres and acres" of land offered up, but focused in on 12 homes in Fernwood, Fairfield and Oak Bay.

The gardens vary from 46 square metres to 279 square metres, and grow dozens of types of vegetables. They plan on planting year-round using an intensive organic-based growing method.


When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.

#16 mat

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 09:17 PM

Thanks Ms B - it shows that not only can our urban gardens be used to grow food, but there are business opportunities in servicing those plots. I'd imagine many professional couples not having the time to tend a garden (it is allot of work), or condo strata councils unwilling to allow common ground to be used without help, or oversight.

Wonder if some landscaping companies are considering this?

#17 Bernard

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 09:17 PM

if you can sell more than $10 000 in agricultural production from your land, you can apply to get farm status assessment - this is for land under 2 acres. Zoning and location do not matter to BC Assessment. If your land is between 2 and 10 acres you need to produce $2800

#18 Bernard

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 09:21 PM

by the way, the value of my personal food production was about $500 this year, most of that from eggs

#19 mat

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Posted 17 November 2008 - 09:36 PM

if you can sell more than $10 000 in agricultural production from your land, you can apply to get farm status assessment - this is for land under 2 acres. Zoning and location do not matter to BC Assessment. If your land is between 2 and 10 acres you need to produce $2800


I need to research Saanich - this is getting intriguing.

#20 Bernard

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Posted 18 November 2008 - 07:50 AM

To get farm status is the same everywhere in BC. In Oak Bay the municipality just set the mill rate much higher for farms to deal with one property that got farm status. I assume the same would happen in Victoria or Esquimalt. In Saanich, because there are famrs there already, anyone on a city lot that could figure out how to sell $10 000 worth of agricultural production would qualify as a farm and would be assessed as a farm for property tax purposes.

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