Canada: Edmonton urban farmers see need for more productive regulatory environment
“To have a strong, vibrant food system, you need to have people that can grow (at) scale, even on a microscale”
By Brett McKay
Taproot Edmonton
Nov 1, 2022
Excerpt:
Edmonton changed its zoning bylaws in 2016 to enable more urban agriculture within the city. But Mason said many of the roadblocks and challenges he experienced came after those changes were introduced. He cited difficulties getting permits to sell food grown on city land and a 2018 dispute in which the city inspector wanted him to get an engineering review for the hoop house he had erected over his produce.
The inspector would have been enforcing provincial legislation, said Karen Zypchyn, communications adviser in urban planning and economy, though Mason believes an exemption could have been made. At any rate, the city did allow Mason to keep the structure up until the end of the season. The hassle remained, however, and he faces a lot less of it where he is now near Pigeon Lake.
The legislative frameworks that guide urban agriculture are “very piecemeal across the country,” said Ron Berezan, founder of The Urban Farmer and farm manager at Blueberry Commons Farm in Powell River, B.C. The success or failure of an urban farm often rides on the municipality’s approach to zoning and land use regulations, he said.
Berezan finds himself in a municipality that does it right, in his estimation.
“We have basically about three and a half acres in production right now, right within the city. We sell at our property. We sell in farmers’ markets. We do home delivery. And this year, we sold over $100,000 worth of produce,” he said. “Thankfully, our municipality encourages it. I mean, there are still some bylaws on the books that if they were applied might be problematic, but they haven’t cleaned those up, and they’re just generally kind of let be.”
