Urban Agriculture Poster Text
From Common Energy UVic
Contents |
[edit] Urban Agriculture
[edit] The Question:
Presently our food is transported long distances from the farm to our plate. This transportation causes the emission of large amounts of greenhouse gases. This problem is enhanced by the lack of local food production. Our land suitable for food production is presently under-utilized and often threatened for development for non-food production uses. The threat to our farmland is only one issue surrounding the consumption of foods from distant locations. It is a biological reality that the longer food is transported, the less nutritious it becomes. This means that while global agricultural trade makes it possible for us to pay less for apples from New Zealand than from our own region, we get what we pay for. Our food is less nutritious and less healthy for our bodies. To help overcome these challenges we need to increase both the amount of local food we consume and the amount that is produced locally. Our university community has many options available to tackle the latter of those challenges as will be outlined here.
The questions our project is trying to answer include:
- How can we create new spaces for urban agriculture?
- How can we support present initiatives for local food production?
- How can we increase interest and community involvement in urban agriculture?
- How can we optimize the allocation of land for food production?
[edit] What We Have Learned:
The Urban Agriculture project aims to increase campus and community spaces for food production and food self-sufficiency. On-campus food production will create experiential learning opportunities and enhanced community connections. Locally grown food will decrease the amount of food that is transported long distance with the associated reductions in greenhouse gases. Creating spaces and community action for local food production will contribute to the local and sustainable food supply. While we are aware that urban agriculture and community gardens can not wholly supply our food needs they will act to increase local food supply, and perhaps more importantly, increase awareness and demand for local food.
Actions
1. Partner to build the capacity of the Campus Community Gardens. To ensure the long-term success of the garden, we need to fully integrate the garden into the university community. By doing so, the community gardens will have more institutional and community support and will be more able to secure grants and funding for its long term viability.
- Build awareness of volunteer and gardening opportunities available through the Garden.
- Link the Garden with the Pocket Market, and promote it on campus to the student population.
- Link the Garden with faculty and departments.
- Find funding through grants and co-op students.
- Collaboratively work with the university to expand and enhance the role of the garden in our university campus and community.
2. Education around gardening and promoting food-self sufficiency
- Work with campus community garden on their proposed workshops.
- Work to integrate gardening awareness and education with residence life
- Written material about gardening and resources, as well as edible landscaping in the community.
Proposals
- Support edible landscaping as part of the campus naturescape program - both in existing and new building programs.
- Increase edible landscaping on under-utilized land and new buildings {including the First Peoples House, Science building, Mearns Centre for Learning, and the Support Services building}.
- Promote rooftop gardens in areas where this would be beneficial and possible. If a rooftop garden is not appropriate, CE will support the creation of green roofs. Rooftop gardens help promote local food production and increase involvement in urban agriculture.
- Support a master plan for the University Cedar Hill Corner that emphasizes urban agriculture
[edit] What We Still Need Know:
Local Domestic Food Production
- How can we train and equip more gardeners in our campus population?
- What resources are available to train the interested people?
Campus Agricultural Land
- How can we help ensure the CCG has a permanent home?
- How can we increase the CCG profile on campus ?
- How can we get the University Cedar Hill Corner land into agricultural use?
- What educational opportunities can we create/augment to increase food production?
Edible Landscaping
- What areas of campus can be converted to edible landscaping?
- What are the pitfalls of their conversion?
- Who controls the landscaping?
- How can we convert areas that are not presently landscaped to edible landscaping?
