Canada: Mayor has concerns about city expanding farm gate sales

Urban agriculture moves forward, but Mayor Ed Holder is concerned about fairness and food safety

By Andrew Lupton
CBC News
Nov 19, 2019

Excerpt:

At the meeting, Holder expressed a number of concerns, including worries about food safety and what he said could be an unfair playing field for the city’s established food retailers.

“If someone chooses to sell produce at the end of their driveway, we do not necessarily know when those happen unless by inspection and I’m not confident that we have or want that kind of reinforcement of inspections,” he said. “I think there are issues of liability, there are issues of fairness.”

John Fleming, the city’s head of planning, said the bylaw amendment follows the direction of the urban agriculture strategy, which was widely studied by staff and debated by council. It was passed in 2017, a year before Holder became mayor.

“What people expressed is that they wanted to grow food in their neighbourhoods,” said Fleming. “And they wanted the opportunity to sell it in their neighbourhoods as well.”

Coun. Stephen Turner said produce grown in backyards doesn’t come with high food safety risks. He pointed out that animal husbandry isn’t included as part of the city’s urban agriculture strategy.

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