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Korea Conference Keynote: A National Strategy for Urban Agriculture

Keynote prepared by Michael Levenston of City Farmer for the Seoul International Conference on Urban Agriculture, November 26, – November, 27, 2020

Script:

Thank you so much for inviting me to speak all the way from Canada. I am standing in City Farmer’s Demonstration Garden in Vancouver British Columbia where, for over 40 years, we have promoted urban agriculture. We have enjoyed meeting many Korean visitors here at the garden and talking with them about city farming.

In Canada, like in the rest of the world, we are in Covid times. In this garden, we maintain a 2-meter distance. Everyone must wear a mask. And we only allow family at a time to visit Unfortunately, at this time, large tours and classes of students are not allowed.

Over the years, our tiny non-profit society has watched many different urban agriculture.

stories become headlines. For example, we have been questioned about growing food locally, garden pesticides, energy use in the food system, nutrition, school gardens, agriculture of roof tops, and composting as a solid waste strategy.

This year, Covid and urban agriculture are linked in the news.

Here in Vancouver, we have experienced lock downs, unemployment, closed music festivals and sporting events. People are at home and many are discovering the joys of food gardening. They produce food in their gardens, on their balconies or in community gardens.

51 per cent of Canadians grow at least one type of fruit or vegetable. Almost 70% per cent of new gardeners this year said the pandemic influenced their decision to grow their own food.

These new gardeners visit us here to ask us question on how to grow food. Residents also come to buy a city-subsidized compost bins. The City of Vancouver funds us to teach composting.

At the beginning of the pandemic people rushed to buy toilet paper. I don’t know why. Then another headline appeared: “Seeds are the new toilet paper”. People were rushing to start a garden this Spring.

Our local seed company had seen a three times increase in business over last year. And now in November they are seeing people buying seeds for next year because gardeners are afraid that there won’t be any seeds for them to plant next spring.

City Farmer has published news about urban agriculture since we began work in 1978, 42 years ago. We moved away from paper publications in 1994 to start ‘City Farmer News’ on the Internet. Today, we link to stories from around the world 7-days a week.

This year, Covid is moving urban agriculture into the spotlight.

Politicians are looking at city farming and creating policy both at a national and municipal level. Some support urban gardening to help unemployed families meet their daily nutrition needs. Some say they want to address the country’s food security concerns and others speak of the potential risk of disruption to their food supply.

One of the most exciting stories comes from Korea, your country. Last month this headline came out in English on the Yonhop News Agency.

“Seoul city aims to nurture 1 million urban farmers by 2024”

The city plans to invest 216 US dollars until 2024 to expand patches of land for farming, teach farming skills and build communities of urban farmers.

This is historic and shows that your city is leading the world.

The Philippines has also been extremely active.

A government minister just filed a bill seeking to promote urban agriculture in all metropolitan areas nationwide to address the country’s food security concerns.

The Philippines Agriculture Secretary also discussed the establishment of a National Urban Agriculture Research and Learning Center.

They even chose a beauty contest winner, ‘Miss Philippines Earth 2020’. She has her own vegetable garden and said, “I chose urban agriculture as an advocacy because it helps in achieving food production and gives a sense of security to a person who is able to feed his or her family especially in these trying times.

In Malaysia the Agriculture and Food Minister is allocating RM10 million to an urban farming programme which is expected to benefit 800 communities and 12,000 participants.

In Singapore, nine large commercial urban farms have been offered a total of $40 million by the Singapore Food Agency. Singapore has also started a project called ‘Gardening with Edibles’ which involves distributing free packets of vegetable seeds to encourage people to grow produce at home.

In my country, Canada, two cities, Victoria and Vancouver, at the beginning of the pandemic, used their municipal greenhouses to help urban farmers. One city grew and distributed 75,000 vegetable seedlings, the other grew vegetables and herbs which they harvested and gave to needy residents.

These new policies, which appear in the news, are unlike anything we’ve seen since WW2 when Western countries initiated ‘Victory Gardens’ to supplement rations but also to boost morale.

Covid and concern for people’s food needs and morale are driving this change today. Governments are looking at unemployment, business failures, debt and food supply concerns. They see that people are suffering.

We know that urban farming raises people’s spirits. Working with the soil is a tonic for us all.

So, it is time for all countries in the world to create national strategies to help urban agriculture grow. City Farmers like us, must guide our politicians so they can put the right policies in place. We should not exaggerate the amount of food that can be grown but emphasize the true worth of many people growing some of their own food.

Our goal as good citizens is to improve the lives of all our people. We want everyone to have medical coverage and financial support when we are unemployed. Urban farming should also be on this list of essential strategies.

Your ideas are valuable as we build national strategies. Our governments can help.

Covid is changing the world and will into the future. Urban agriculture is one of the solutions and we must all contribute to changing the future for everyone.

Link to conference website.