Canada: Urban Farmers Have Been Leaving Vancouver for Greener Pastures
The city aimed to host 35 urban farms by 2020, but its policies have resulted in more farm closures than openings.
By Lindsay Campbell
Tyee
Feb 22, 2021
Excerpt:
Less than four years ago, inside an industrial warehouse on East Vancouver’s streets of Powell and Victoria, Aaron Quesnel was living his microgreen dreams. Under stacks and stacks of towering shelves, amid the hums and florescent hues of grow lights, Quesnel and his farm staff spent their days tending to the seeds and sprouts of baby vegetables before hopping on their bicycles to deliver fresh harvests in recycled packaging. His operation, Sky Harvest, had gained a reputation amongst a loyal base of 60 restaurants and local retailers as a choice producer of nearly 20 different microgreen varieties.
But Quesnel, who started Sky Harvest in 2011, eventually found himself tangled in a paradox: the very same city that had been his launch pad into local food fame became the catalyst for his departure six years later.
“We were very much the type of green business the city wanted to promote, trying to do everything sustainably,” Quesnel said, adding that Sky Harvest was close to achieving zero waste standards. “But trying to stay without success, keep my livelihood and my only source of income, took a year of my life and a lot of time and energy and emotion.”
Quesnel’s crisis emerged after the city of Vancouver implemented urban farming bylaws in 2016. The change defined urban farming as an acceptable land-use activity in the city’s zoning and development bylaw and created a business licence for farmers. Prior to the adoption of the bylaws, there were no land-use policies or regulations around urban farming and there were no farming specific business licences available from, or required in, the city.
