How can agriculture be tied to the vitality of our cities?

The more people become sequestered in cities and insulated from ecological engagement, the greater the danger is that they will lose sight of the mounting economic, social and ecological burden that we are imposing on the earth’s resources and systems.

Response

We believe the answer lies in part in building sustainable bio-regional, agri-food systems, as a necessary pre-condition for creating food sovereignty.

In Canada, municipalities have a pivotal role to play in laying the foundations for a sustainable 21st century urban-centred society. Resilience and adaptability are examples of the type of potentials that we believe to be essential for creating sustainable futures for our cities and their associated agricultural lands. Urban agriculture, defined to include farming in and around cities for and by residents of those cities, can provide the comprehensive social, environmental and economic integration needed to create a sustainable agrifood system at the municipal scale.

We are promoting a dialogue across Metro Vancouver through which citizens, NGOs, governments and institutions of higher education can build partnerships and explore ways to create
urban-focused, bio-regional agri-food systems that can, in tangible and substantive ways, connect urbanites to agriculture and contribute to regional food self-sufficiency.