Growing the Urban Agriculture

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Growing the Urban Agriculture Capacity in the
CRD Group 3 Christa Brown Matt Gordon Heather
Polowyk Christine Sharuga Roberta Waddell
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Introduction
Urban agriculture is an industry that produces,
processes and markets food and fuel, largely in
response to the daily demand of consumers within
a town, city, or metropolis, on land and water
dispersed throughout the urban and peri-urban
area, applying intensive production methods,
using and reusing natural resources and urban
wastes, to yield a diversity of crops and
livestock.
-United Nations Development Programme
The City of Victoria recognizes community
gardening as a valuable community recreational
activity that contributes to health and
well-being, positive social interaction,
community development, environmental education,
connection to nature, protection and use of open
space and economical, nutritious food production
and food security
-City of Victoria community gardens policy
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Four Case Studies
India India has a high density of its population
living in cities. A National food security
mission is taking place where expand agricultural
systems. England England has been using urban
agriculture in mass contexts for almost a century
despite the large population and small land area.
Urban agriculture is not just a hobby it is a
right by law. Portland, Oregon In Portland,
Oregon, the Diggable City Project produced an
urban agriculture land inventory and made
recommendations to improve urban agricultural
production within the city. Vancouver,
BC Vancouver has done well in fusing its
sustainable food system goals and visions with
governmental policy. The Action Plan for Creating
a Just and Sustainable Food System for City of
Vancouver provided the initiative to use land
inventory methods to build a database of
potential, and create a foundation to base
further expansion of urban agriculture within the
city
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Potential Problems with Urban Agriculture in the
CRD

• Collaboration between the 13 municipalities can
  create issues surrounding by-laws.

• There has been no previous land inventory created
  in the CRD which correlates to land not being
  protected for agricultural use.

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Case Study India
Background info

• Approximately 30 percent living in India can be
  found in cities
• City dwellers in low-income countries, such as
  India, spend 50-80 percent of their incomes on
  food

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Methods for Measuring agriculture productivity

• Use 3 indexes
• Labour productivity
• Land productivity
• Joint land and labour productivity

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Policies

• National Food Security Mission (NFSM)
• Goal to increase production of staple crops such
  as rice and wheat by 10 and 8 million tonnes
  respectively

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Case Study England and Wales

• Background Info
• WWII created a need for urban agriculture
• Dense urban population make planning a
  necessity

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• Policies
• Small Holdings Allotments Act
• The Green Belt Act
• Measuring Land Use
• Aerial Photography and GIS

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• Case Study Portland, Oregon, USA
• In 2004 Resolution introduced to Portlands
  City Council directing city bureaus to conduct an
  inventory of city-owned land that may be suitable
  for community gardens or other urban agricultural
  uses
• Inventoried properties included those under the
  management of the Bureaus of Environmental
  Services, Parks and Recreation, Transportation,
  and Water, generally without immediate management
  plans

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• Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) formed to
  assist with developing criteria to classify the
  parcels of land
• Criteria
• tenure of land
• water access
• level grade
• transit access
• proximity to other agricultural activity
• but NOT soil quality, as it was not tested
• 4 types of potential agricultural uses
• community gardens
• small-scale agriculture
• large-scale agriculture
• agriculture on impervious surfaces or poor soil
• All sites identified were maintained in the
  inventory in order to maintain the maximum number
  of potential sites

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• Of the 289 potential sites, 24 were selected for
  site visits based on their geographic
  distribution, proximity to existing community
  gardens, and implementation potential
• The 24 sites visited were of various sizes and
  had differing potential uses 11 of these were
  selected as potential highlights
• Meetings with the bureau owners of the 11 sites
  were conducted to discuss future plans and
  feasibility for use for urban agriculture
• 5 were selected for the Diggable City Project as
  snapshots to highlight the range of lands
  existing within the inventory and their potential
  uses

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• Policies
• Urban agriculture is sanctioned by Oregon state
  statutes as follows
• 197.752. Urban lands available for development
• (1) Lands within urban growth boundaries shall
  be available for urban development concurrent
  with the provision of key urban facilities and
  services in accordance with locally adopted
  development standards.
• (2) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this
  section, lands not needed for urban uses during
  the planning period may be designated for
  agricultural, forest or other non-urban uses.
• Urban agriculture land inventory is supportive of
  a number of statewide land use planning goals
• Many regional policies and zoning regulations
  also present challenges to the development of
  agricultural activities within the Urban Growth
  Boundary
• Diggable City Project team recommended that the
  City of Portland conduct a comprehensive review
  of policy and zoning obstacles

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Case Study Vancouver
Urban Agriculture Land Inventory Methods and
Policy
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Vancouver's Policy The Road to an Urban
Agricultural Inventory

• The inventory which took place in Vancouver is
  especially notable, because its formation was
  instigated and supported within the local
  politics of the City
• Worked off of Portland Diggable Cities

• July 8th 2003 Motion Approved to begin the
  development of a,
• Just and sustainable food system
• Food Policy Task Force (2003)
• -Food Action
  Plan (2004)
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  -Food Policy Council (2004)
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  -Internship Project (2005)

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Results

• 77 Potential Urban Agricultural, 30 were selected
  for site visits, and this project initiated 5 for
  pilot projects
• The criteria from the working group was applied
  including physical, social, and land use
  characteristics and the sites were scaled from
  1-5 on their suitability for urban agriculture
• The data collected from the Growing Space project
  is only a first step to a completely
  comprehensive urban agricultural inventory of the
  city, but it is an excellent tool for city staff
  to base future policy, and an excellent model to
  enable more extensive inventories

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Recommendations

• 1 Identify Key Stakeholders and Create a
  Regional Urban Agriculture Organization
• Key stakeholders identified and community
  partners engaged
• CRD create a regional urban agriculture
  organization

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• 2 Implement a Policy to Protect a Sustainable
  Ratio of Urban Agricultural Land to Built Land
• Cities such as Victoria have regulations on their
  city boundaries, and space for agriculture within
  those limits is rapidly decreasing
• A possible recommendation would be determining
  the amount of urban agriculture space required
  within an urban infrastructure to successfully
  create a sustainable and healthy environment for
  its inhabitants.
• This ratio of Urban Agriculture to build
  environment could be deemed mandatory by the
  planning department, and regulated by the city.

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• 3 Conduct a Comprehensive Review of Policy and
  Zoning Within the CRD
• Create awareness to the community of the bylaws
  surrounding urban agriculture and promote this
  activity throughout the CRD
• Create flexible zoning regulates for individuals
  that choose urban agriculture as a secondary home
  occupation
• Create a committee of representatives for all
  thirteen municipalities to create common bylaws
  throughout the CRD
• Review different policies implemented by other
  cities and identify obstacles that could be
  mitigated to improve the opportunities to realize
  urban agriculture

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• 4 Future Recommendations to Support Urban
  Agriculture in the CRD
• Rooftop Gardens
• Under utilized space
• Benefits food security, healthy eating, energy
  savings
• Education Programs
• Help create demand for local food compete
  economically
• Learn and share latest technologies
• Mandatory Use of Local Food in Large Public and
  Community Institutions
• Currently places like schools and hospitals are
  an untapped resource for
• Supporting local food
• Health benefits, and Healthy eating education