Canada: Embracing ‘citified’ agriculture means rethinking land use priorities, says U of A researcher

Michael Granzow says projects like community gardens in cities are beneficial, but they need to be part of longer-term planning that also looks at issues like land use, housing and income inequality. (Photo: Supplied)

“Urban agriculture isn’t going to be the answer to all of our problems, but it’s a space of hope—a small but crucial part of a larger move towards ecologically and socially inspired models of urbanism.”

By Bev Betkowski
Folio
May 18, 2018

Excerpt:

“It’s important we think about how urban agriculture projects are working in a larger context and how they’re actually addressing social, environmental and food-related concerns, as opposed to how we assume they’re doing this.

“There’s a need to specifically define what urban agriculture is and how it might differ from one urban context to another.”

That means governments need to decide whether and how they’ll make room for related issues like entrepreneurial food ventures and how that will be reflected in land-use policy, Granzow said.

“It’s easy to support the idea of using vacant lots for community gardens, but that ultimately is a temporary use until the lot is developed. We also need to think about these projects on a long-term basis.”

Read the complete article here.