The thought:  making a new livelihood or niche in the urban  
"jungle".  Alas, the reporter didn't get it all down...  Wonder what  
it might look like elsewhere...  Opportunities for new immigrants...   
Hmm...  Organic perhaps?

****
The urban gardener
Kingston Whig-Standard (ON)
Mon 05 Nov 2007
Page: 1
Section: Front
Byline: Jennifer Pritchett - Environment Reporter
Source: Whig-Standard

A Queen's researcher has found that if Kingston residents grew some  
of their own fruit and vegetables, they could reduce greenhouse gas  
emissions annually by up to 14,000 tonnes - or the equivalent of  
taking 4,700 compact cars off the road.

Sunny Lam, who recently completed his Master's thesis on local food  
production, spoke about urban agriculture at Kingston's first Local  
Food Summit, held over the weekend at St. Lawrence College.

"There just aren't enough farmers out there to meet the demand for  
food," he said, in an interview.

Lam's answer to the shortage is growing fruit and vegetables in  
backyards, parks, green spaces, community gardens and even vacant  
lots instead of trucking it in from other places. Not only would this  
help meet the demand for local produce and reduce air emissions from  
transportation, but would create up to 800 jobs, he said.

He also said Kingston has a total of 2,000 acres of accessible land  
on which to grow food.

Kingston citizens spend around $325 million each year on food and  
most of that is spent on items that are brought into the city from  
somewhere else, states his research.

Local residents consume about 11 million kilograms of 39 common fresh  
fruits and vegetables that could be produced locally, according to Lam.

Those items that are currently trucked in but could be grown here  
include apples, beans, blueberries, broccoli, cabbage, cheese, corn,  
garlic, tomatoes and peas, to name a few.

He said only about seven per cent of those items are currently  
produced locally.

He proposes that the number could be much higher if local residents  
grew more of their own food and if an emerging brand of farmer called  
the "urban farmer" would grow such produce on donated or leased land  
and then sell it locally in farmer's markets and in grocery stores.

"They wouldn't be like your typical farmer - they wouldn't need a big  
tractor [because they work on such a small scale]," said Lam.

The urban farmer, said Lam, is the answer for many working families  
who want locally grown produce but are simply too busy to grow their  
own.

"Urban agriculture will contribute to Kingston's ability to adapt and  
thrive in a changing world where expensive energy and dwindling  
natural resources are becoming pronounced," states a summary of his  
research he presented to Kingston's city council earlier this year.

About 28 per cent of Kingston residents currently have some kind of  
edible garden, according to Lam's research.

If more people had a fruit and vegetable patch on their property, he  
said, the city's environment, health and quality of life would improve.

Lam, who is also a volunteer with the Food Down Road project, which  
organized the food summit, used Statistics Canada data to determine  
how much food is trucked into Kingston on an annual basis and how  
many kilometres it has to travel to get here.

Based on those figures, he calculated that cutting the amount of food  
transported in could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 14,000  
tonnes, or the equivalent to 4700 compact cars driving over 18,000  
kilometres per year.

Peter Dowling, an organic dairy farmer on Howe Island and a local  
representative for the National Farmers Union, which was also  
involved in the summit, said the event was a big success with all 18  
workshops selling out on Saturday and more than 300 people - mostly  
local farmers - attending.

"As we look forward, we'd like to see a community council on a more  
permanent basis developed for guiding the process [to develop a local  
food system] and become a sounding board," he said, in an interview.

Plans to develop such a community council will take place in the  
coming months.

Dowling said the whole idea of promoting community gardens was a  
common theme during the weekend conference.

"People can connect with their food by actually growing it - you  
can't get any more local than that," he said. "If you have a  
community garden, people can learn from each other. It's all  
possible. We're all quite optimistic about what we can accompish as a  
community."

[log in to unmask]

© 2007 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved.

-------------------
Problems/Questions? Send it to Listserv owner: [log in to unmask]


To unsubscribe, send the following message in the text section -- NOT the subject header --  to [log in to unmask]

SIGNOFF SDOH

DO NOT SEND IT BY HITTING THE REPLY BUTTON. THIS SENDS THE MESSAGE TO THE ENTIRE LISTSERV AND STILL DOES NOT REMOVE YOU.

To subscribe to the SDOH list, send the following message to [log in to unmask] in the text section, NOT in the subject header.

SUBSCRIBE SDOH yourfirstname yourlastname

To post a message to all 1200+ subscribers, send it to [log in to unmask]
Include in the Subject, its content, and location and date, if relevant.

For a list of SDOH members, send a request to [log in to unmask]

To receive messages only once a day, send the following message to [log in to unmask]
SET SDOH DIGEST

To view the SDOH archives, go to: https://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/sdoh.html