Canada: More garden plots could take root under City of Winnipeg proposal
The proposed new rules would let outdoor urban agriculture take place without special city clearances in all zones, except heavy industrial areas, which would require a public hearing, while indoor agriculture would be allowed in industrial zones, most commercial zones and some parks.
By Joyanne Pursaga
Winnipeg Free Press
Mar. 11, 2021
IF you make it easier to grow, will local food pop up in more places?
City council will consider options to amend its bylaws to allow indoor and outdoor urban agriculture in more parts of Winnipeg. If the changes are approved, food growing will be allowed in more areas without residents needing to apply for a change-of-land use.
The proposed changes are a welcome step that should help increase access to local food, said Colin Rémillard, co-owner of Jardins St-Léon Gardens.
“There’s this whole avenue that would be opened up that before was… not easy to achieve,” said Rémillard. “You’ll start seeing younger entrepreneurs either borrowing or renting land and making something of what would otherwise be vacant land.”
The business owner said his father bought a residential lot in St. Boniface that now grows food sold at St-Léon, at 419 St. Mary’s Rd. Under the current bylaws, he had to obtain city zoning approvals, which took added time and effort.
Rémillard said easing the process should help more gardens emerge, which could beautify vacant lots.
“In other provinces, people have made whole businesses in using vacant lots that would otherwise not be aesthetically pleasing,” he said.
Under current city rules, agriculture is only allowed without special approvals in agricultural and larger rural residential zones. Community gardens are an allowed use in residential, parks and commercial districts. The changes would allow new gardens to be run by individuals and not just groups, which they are limited to now.
The proposed new rules would let outdoor urban agriculture take place without special city clearances in all zones, except heavy industrial areas, which would require a public hearing, while indoor agriculture would be allowed in industrial zones, most commercial zones and some parks.
(Indoor agriculture is defined as food production within enclosed buildings, such as hydroponics and vertical gardening.)
The city also hopes to clarify produce can be sold in commercial, industrial or institutional areas, as well as some parks, without special city approval.
Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital), who chairs the Winnipeg Food Council, said the changes should make it easier to produce food and sell it in the city.
“I think there’s an environmental movement there and we need to be part of it… It’s part of (fighting) climate change that we need to do more local food production,” said Mayes.
Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface) said he agrees the city should encourage more options for growing food. For example, he said landowners could rent out access to their properties to allow more gardens and the city could consider letting people grow food instead of grass at their homes.
“Policies like this are good for food security in the city and they make our lands potentially more productive,” said Allard.
Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West) also supports expanding food-growth options. She recently raised a motion to see if the city could require new developments to set aside space for community gardens.
“As the city becomes denser, (there are) smaller house lots and many, many apartments and condominiums, so there’s nowhere to garden,” said Lukes.
The councillor said she recently worked out a lease with a private developer to set up a community garden at the end of Northridge Road in South Pointe, where 50 people have signed up to rent lots this year.
Canada: Winnipeg Council should let garden plan take root
It would remove red tape so entrepreneurs could borrow or rent land — likely vacant lots and backyards — to grow produce to sell.
Editorial
Winnipeg Free Pree
Mar. 18, 2021
Excerpt:
Quick question: would you rather buy a tomato picked earlier today from an urban farm near your home, or would you rather buy a tomato that was picked in Mexico while unripe and driven 3,400 kilometres to Winnipeg in a truck spewing fossil-fuel exhaust into the air?
It’s a leading question, certainly, but it underscores why Winnipeg city council should amend its bylaws to allow urban farms in more areas of the city. As the tomato question suggests, people prefer locally grown produce because it tastes better and because long-distance food transportation harms the environment.
As it now stands, farming within Winnipeg needs special approval unless it’s in agricultural and larger rural residential zones. A proposal that went to council last week would let more food be grown in more areas without residents needing to apply for a change-of-use land designation.
It would remove red tape so entrepreneurs could borrow or rent land — likely vacant lots and backyards — to grow produce to sell. Where would they sell? The proposal also asks that growers be allowed to connect with customers in commercial, industrial or institutional areas, and in some parks. In some cities where urban agriculture already flourishes, grocery stores and markets buy wholesale from local producers because customers like fresh produce.
Importantly, in a city where soil is covered with snow for several months a year, the city is also being asked to make it easier for urban farmers to grow their crops indoors, using methods such as hydroponics and vertical gardening.
Clearing the way for profit-aimed urban farming is different from the 60 or so community gardens that already exist in Winnipeg and are managed by various groups that distribute the bounty of the harvest, usually for free and especially to people who contribute sweat equity.
In the larger context, the request before Winnipeg council is part of a boom in urban farming in recent years. Perhaps spurred on by Michelle Obama’s 2012 book American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, cities throughout North America have changed zoning regulations and started programs that encourage people to grow vegetables in vacant lots or even on rooftops.
Promoters of urban farming understandably have a healthy enthusiasm for the movement, although some of their claims are based more on passion and less on research. Perhaps it’s putting too much responsibility on a scattering of urban vegetable patches to say they can revitalize rundown neighbourhoods, significantly filter air pollution, fix food insecurity and remedy a city’s unhealthy eating habits.
Realistically, however, studies have shown a prevalence of urban farms increases property values, heightens social bonds among neighbours, reduces crime and is appreciated by wild creatures, including bees.
The effects of the pandemic during the past year have made it a particularly apt time for Winnipeg to make it easier to jump on the urban-farm bandwagon.
Winnipeggers who have lost their jobs, or had their hours reduced, might appreciate council making it easier for them to start their own vegetable micro-business, where the only seed money required is enough to buy seeds. They might find a grateful market among Winnipeg consumers who, during the pandemic, have seen food prices rise.
If councillors approve the proposal — and they should — they will be voting in favour of a buy-local economy that will let entrepreneurs turn unused land into lush greenery, and will give consumers of Winnipeg more alternatives to buy produce fresh off the vine. As writer Lewis Grizzard once said, “It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.”
