Canada: Free summer tours whetting Montrealers’ appetites for urban agriculture
In the city’s urban agricultural plan for 2021-2026, the plan notes that the popularity of urban agriculture was consolidated by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
By Gloria Henriquez
Global News
August 12, 2022
Excerpt:
“The goal is to show people what has been done in urban agriculture and to show the growing interest,” said Pascale Nycz, an urban agriculture consultant and Cultiver Montreal board member. “It’s also a way to make the city prettier and to give food to people and also teach people how to cultivate fruits and veggies and make it accessible to everyone.”
Friday’s tour started at Jardin Nourriciers in the Plateau-Mont-Royal. Participants arrived by bike or on foot and got a chance to check the garden out.
“I’m hoping to learn more about how to grow certain vegetables,” said Mickey Labrèche, a tour participant. “I want to be surprised today. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Labrèche and the 19 other participants learned tips and tricks to cultivate their own crops at home.
The tour made two other stops: the Jardin Pour Tous in the Milton Parc area and finished at the rooftop gardens of Santropol Roulant.
“The initiative is about learning more about urban agriculture and the different initiatives that we have in Montreal around all the boroughs,” Nycz said. “We wanted to see a different type of urban agriculture — it could be community gardens, collective gardens, just little projects in people’s neighbourhoods.”
Nycz says that in the past 10 years, they’ve seen Montrealers’ interest in urban agriculture grow exponentially.
