Canada: Topsoil Aims To Make Local Urban Farming The Future Of Food Production
Commercial Urban Agriculture Might Soon Arrive In Your City, If Chris Hildreth Has His Way
Business Examiner
December 1, 2020
Excerpt:
“When we started, it was tough because I had no farming or gardening background,” Chris explains. “I was coming at this with some seed money, a business plan and blind ambition. The second hurdle, Victoria wasn’t even zoned for commercial urban agriculture to operate in city limits. I had to prove my business plan was even viable.”
Chris did this by starting a small, 400 square foot rooftop garden on a commercial building in 2015, and presenting it to Victoria’s city council members as a proof of concept. Four days after their visit, the city gave the greenlight to move forward, rezoning the entire city in the process to allow urban agriculture.
In 2016, the TOPSOIL at Dockside Green GrowSpace at 395 Harbour Road in Downtown Victoria was born, the first business of its kind to grace the city, starting with 10,000 square feet to grow their fresh produce. The completely modular setup was created to allow for simple movement and use on any surface, in any city, from rooftops to developed and undeveloped land.
