urban agriculture

The VFPC's own Janine de la Salle is featured along with former VFPC liaison Peter Ladner in an interesting round table discussion about Urban Agriculture in the current issue of BC Business magazine. You can read the full article online at http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/bcb/top-stories/2010/03/03/vancouver039s-....

An excerpt:

Whether it’s fish farms or growing food that adds value to our food system, what do we need to do to make this happen in Vancouver?
DE LA SALLE: At a policy level there can be some land-use changes to allow for more agriculture activities to be permitted in the city. There has to be a more sensitive interpretation of the existing health and safety regulations. In the rural context, the provincial meat regulations have basically shut down small-scale meat processing in B.C.

Frances Bula of the Globe & Mail wrote an interesting article about an urban gardener and the growing phenomenon of urban agriculture. She also quoted Vancouver Food Policy Council members Herb Barbolet and Janine de la Salle.

Read the article here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/growing-an....

"In February, Mayor Gregor Robertson launched the Greenest City Action Team (GCAT), composed of 14 experts on environment and economy, with a mission to gather best ideas and practices and make recommendations to City Council." A couple of months later the GCAT Team released some quick start recommendations. (pdf 5.6 MB)

Mid-way through September, City Manager Penny Ballem and other city staff presented an update on these quick start initiatives to Mayor Robertson and City Council.

The GCAT is working on greening all sectors in the city, but there are some very exciting food related initiatives included in the plan. Dr.

Vancouver Backyard Hens by Jenn Pentland

City staff has been working hard to write guidelines for backyard chicken keeping in Vancouver. The first draft of those guidelines have been released and staff is now looking for public feedback.

Here's the direct link to a pdf of the guidelines.

For a bit of commentary on the guidelines check out urban chicken aficionado Heather Havens' comments at the chickensinvancouver blog. (Includes a link to the guidelines.)

And if you're looking for more information and updates about the current state of backyard chickens in Vancouver you can visit the City's Backyard Chicken web page.

The city of Parksville on Vancouver Island's East Coast sent out this news release on June 29, 2009:

New Bylaw Encourages Urban Food Gardens in the City of Parksville

PARKSVILLE, BC: The Council of the City of Parksville at a special Council meeting on June 22, passed an amendment to the zoning bylaw to permit urban food gardens in the City of Parksville. This is a progressive move by the City of Parksville to encourage growth in the number of urban gardens in the City.