• “Starting around May, hungry Canadians

emerge from their long, winter culinary

Environment and Food
and Urban Space
hibernation suffering from root-vegetable
fatigue and sticker shock contracted by
shopping for expensive, freakishly big,
blemish-free fruits and veggies dispatched
from far away at great expense to the planet.

• Sick of strawberries with more air miles than a

Watch videos on second
slide.
Think about food deserts
and other land uses as
discussed in the chapter
politician on an all-expenses-paid foreign
junket, we gather our eco-friendly shopping
bags—unbleached hemp, if you please!—and
hit the farmers’ markets. We descend, locus-
like, on the markets, voracious for whatever is
local, seasonal, artisanal and above all, fresh.
With a take-no-prisoners attitude, we gleefully
slap down a fiver for a dozen eggs laid by
happy hens, or a crisp $20 for a juicy,
chemical-free, elk ribeye—a little something
for the BBQ!”
Urban Farming & Agrihoods:
Watch this video about “farm” on top of building
at Ryerson University (students from many programs are involved)
in Toronto
With change to ‘green roof’ by-law in Toronto,
this is part of next phase of urban development.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SzTSepQuMU Growing Food in
the City – Urban Rooftop Farm in Downtown Toronto (9 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWYcsfnHfIU This Detroit Agrihood is

Transforming its Community: see how food desert, adaptive reuse of old
spaces into community and administrative uses; also ‘shipping container’ tiny
house; and sustainable water sources; community support – food for poor (12
min)
 Toronto & New York City

• Not Far from the Tree (look at this project and think about how it could be
beneficial in Niagara or other parts of the world!)
– “When a homeowner can’t keep up with the abundant
harvest produced by their tree, they let us know and we
mobilize our volunteers to pick the bounty. The harvest is
split three ways: 1/3 is offered to the tree owner, 1/3 is
shared among the volunteers, and 1/3 is delivered by
bicycle to be donated to food banks, shelters, and
community kitchens”
• Guerilla Gardening – find a “blighted space and
beautify it” ( watch:
photos: http://www.guerrillagardening.org/ )
 Red Pocket Farm - Toronto
• 2012
• Sustainable, organic, local
• Connection of agriculture with education, and
“culture”

LUFA – Montreal Since

2011 rooftop farming and
greenhouses – healthy
food delivery services
https://montreal.lufa.com
/en/about
 Vancouver’s illegal urban Farms

• Follows Calgary example of 10 yrs ago

– Eg 1 Traditional farmer reduced expenses from $200,000 to
$2000 and used city transit
– Eg 2 ¼ acre (10-20 backyards) = $50,000/yr (Spin Farming)
(article )

• Wheat in yard – 8x12 ft plot should produce 15 cups of

wheat (4 loaves of bread)
• Bike delivery service has developed for produce sales
• City has “green” budget of $100,000 - $350,000 for
these initiatives
• Yummy Yards - no longer in business (used Community
Supported Agriculture)
 Vancouver: example of changing ideas
– 0.5 hectares: amount of land required to feed a single person based on the typical North American’s
high-protein, meat-rich diet, with most of that representing grain, roughly equivalent to six city lots

– 600,000: Vancouver (CBD of the GVA) population

– 300,000 hectares: land required to feed Vancouver

– 11,400 hectares: actual land in Vancouver

– 1.8 hectares: amount of land each person on the planet would be entitled to, if land capable of
growing food were divided equally among the world’s residents

– 7 hectares: amount of land currently required to feed each resident of Vancouver (globe and mail)

• Local crops - best suited to ecology will take less land and
be more environmentally sustainable
 Detroit – Urban Farms
• Grown in Detroit Use of open space (information page: how to be a
grower or access fresh farm products in Detroit)

• Michigan State University – $1.5 million to support

initiatives to make Detroit a “world hub for food system
innovation” - MetroFoodPlus Innovation Cluster
– Business, jobs, return idle land to productivity,
environmentally stable and economically vital city
– Take advantage of recent US Farm Bill changes
• Decrease in large farm payments
• Increase in support for “supporting agriculture research,
conserving natural resources, strengthening local food systems and
promoting jobs”
 Chickens in the city
(FYI youtube: City Chickens https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Ma9caUHRbVg )

• Vancouver – residents must register hens, keep clean and

spacious coops, no rooster
• L.A. – as many as you want but 35 feet (10 m) from
neighbours and rooster 100 feet away
• New York – as many as you want but a permit required, no
rooster
• No commercial production, no home slaughtering
• Summer 2011 – 60 people in St. Catharines, but not being
charged – unless complaint is made by neighbours
– 300 people signed petition to continue ban (appears to still be
in effect – just like ban on crocodiles and gorillas)
– https://www.niagararegion.ca/living/health_wellness/food-safe
ty/backyard-chickens.aspx
 The Right To Food
• March 2011 saw a trial in Calgary over this issue, verdict
came down in Sept 2012
• Paul Hughes lost – no backyard chickens
– The trial involved:

• 1. Challenging two Municipal Government Act items

• 2. Challenging six Charter Challenge items (Sections 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 7 15, 27)
• 3. One United Nations Human Rights Declaration Assertion (UNHRD, Article 25)
• The UN Right to Food declaration remains unchallenged or cited in Canadian Law.
• 22 countries now have a Right to Food enshrined in their constitution as a result
of each nation embracing their international obligations, as set forth in the
UNHRD.
• A charter challenge decision will impact all 35 Million Canadians.

https://www.wellandtribune.ca/news/council/welland-councillors-cry-fowl-on-m
otion-asking-that-backyard-chickens-be-allowed/article_079600fd-eb00-51ed-a7 https://www.facebook.com/Gro
56-a96816b4a2e0.html wCalgary
March 2021 Welland ON - challenge to by-law against
chickens
October 2023 Grow Calgary
FYI: Canadian Urban Liberated Chicken Klub online closing
 Case Study Evaluation Assignment:
Sustainable/Alternative Food Production in the 21st Century –
could it work in your town?

With over 8 billion people now inhabiting the planet, the use of resources and the
concentration of people in limited amounts of living space means that issues of climate
change, pollution, resource depletion, and inequality continue to impact the human and
physical world. Since these impacts will continue to impact the world for the foreseeable
future and we have not reached ‘peak population’, many solutions have begun.
Like the industrial/ technological and social/cultural revolutions that came with the
widespread use of petroleum after 1900, alternative systems will also impact the world
in the 21st century. However, like petroleum, these systems will also have significant
impacts both positive and negative.
This case study assignment will allow you to begin looking one issue/alternative system
and after finding positive and negative aspects then you will try to think about how it
might impact an area & community
that you are familiar with.
Talk in your Group about what you have found in the last week – positive, negative,
examples