The Urban Farming Guidebook is a free pdf resource for helping local governments to plan the growing of food in their cities. Given that we’re all about bottom-up action, we feel that it’s best placed in the hands of potential growers, so they can get on with creating local food systems!
And that means you. This guide was written for Canadian councils in BC, but that doesn’t make it any less interesting, or useful, for the rest of us. There’s 4 case studies of successful urban farms in BC, and plenty of inspiration and workable ideas for more…
“Verticrop (above) is a technology that utilizes suspended hydroponic tray systems on a conveyer system to grow leafy greens. This system is being built on the top of a parking garage roof in downtown Vancouver under the name of Local Garden“
(above) “Nuisances: Given that most nuisances from urban farming will be identified through complaints, education about the role and value of urban farms and growing spaces is essential.
Also, developing good neighbor policies and guidelines that lay out the behaviors and practices both farmers and their neighbors need to adopt will help to mitigate problems and build overall awareness.”
“Urban farming has emerged at the frontier of a burgeoning trend in local food and community resiliency. Local food retailers, restaurants, and consumers are responding as partnerships with chefs and even mainstream grocers are being established. Vegetables farmed in the city are finding their way onto menus, food carts, and produce stands.
As a result, linkages in the local food chain are becoming stronger in concert with a growing consumer demand for local and sustainably grown food.
Although it is not expected that these farms will ever feed a whole city, they have great potential for increasing community health through providing secure access to fresh food in the face of rising food prices, as well as stimulating community wealth with new sources of jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities…”
There’s some great stuff in this guide – apart for the case-studies of existing urban farms and a good overview of other workable models for sustainably growing food in cities, there’s many suggestions about the brass tacks aspects of farming…
Yields, zoning, how to get soil, and all the seemingly small details that are so often make or break for an urban farming enterprise…
You see statues everywhere to politicians, poets, bishops, but none to cooks or bacon-curers or market gardeners” – George Orwell
** Also, thanks to Kate Gillett of Food Skil, a local food focussed social enterprise in Geelong, here’s a link to a complimentary guide put out by Vic Health in Australia – Food-sensitive planning and urban design…
Lastly, we’re running a fantastic Urban Permaculture Design Certificate in Hobart this April with a super team of Australia’s best urban permaculture designers and doers, if anyone is interested in skilling up for urban abundance.
Reblogged this on latebloomershow and commented:
Before I even read this myself, I’m reblogging for you! Milkwood Permaculture is a great resource (even if it is down under!). 🙂 – Kaye
Reblogged this on Eremophila's Musings and commented:
Spreading the word; just like spreading compost to make the ground more fertile.
An excellent resource providing plenty of ideas for my large provincial city in Victoria!
A similar document was produced by VicHealth around planning and growing food using examples from around the world and Australia. Would be good to highlight some of the great stuff being done here i.e. the city farm in Brisbane, Ceres, Food_Skil etc.
Do you have a link for that guide, Katie? Would love to see it and share it on… The more of these sorts of guides out there in the public sphere the better.
Wait, got it, have added it to the post above, with thanks 🙂
Developed in my own back yard and I heard about it from the other side of the world. Thanks for posting. As brand new permies and growers it will be most useful.
Up north in Minnesota the city destroys gardens in peoples
front yards, so tell people to check first with the city before
they plant gardens in the front, unless they have a fence that
completely hides the garden.
Thanks, great resource. Will be taking this further in our own regional area in order to hopefully get across that we need these issues taken into consideration before we lose all our primo peri-urban growing ground. In small towns like ours there is no reason at all why we cant feed the population of 7000 people from land within bicycling distance. Cheers.
Awesome resource, thanks for the link Kirsten!
Reblogged this on Green Momma Adventures.
The local garden link doesn’t work 🙁
does now! sorry don’t know what happened there…
Thank you for the link. I think this book is a great step for the Canadian urban farmers. It´s great to know that the government cares. I hope this guide can make the councils more interested and open to the idea. I also wondered, are you familiar with the Maurice J. Hladik theories about Urban farming? My friend introduced me to his books and I found them very useful and his theories are quite inspiring. I´ve especially got interested in his section dedicated to the myths in urban farming. And I think that not only councils, but also ordinary people… Read more »
The ACT government issued a discussion paper last year on Community Gardens, pdf at http://www.actpla.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/29653/2012_-Community_garden_-_web.pdf
Thanks for posting this! Reblogged at urbanfoodwarrior.com
It’s a pity, but the Link to your “Urban Farming Guidebook” free pdf seems broken 🙁
Thanks for the heads up Pedro! Just switched to Scribd for the hosting so it should work fine now – try again?