May 20, 2011
Greenery all the better when it's edible
The concept of a public food garden is amazingly simple. Why hasn’t anyone thought of it before?
And now that the idea has cropped up, it’s being embraced as a common sense solution here in Kamloops. It started with American author and city planner Darrin Nordahl speaking at the Kamloops Food Policy conference. And already volunteers led by Kendra Besanger have seeds in the ground in the 100 block of Victoria.
As it turns out, Nordahl has a website where you learn more about his book, Public Produce, where he elaborates on his contention that public spaces — of which there are many — can be put to good use by growing food for public consumption. He’d like to see communities changing their whole attitude toward agriculture into something more positive.
Meanwhile, David Tracey, a journalist and environmental designer based in Vancouver, also has a book — Urban Agriculture. He’d like to see food growing not only in public areas, but on suburban lawns and uptown condominiums. He spoke recently to The Vancouver Sun about his vision of a city of the future with mini-farms everywhere.
We’ve definitely got the germ of a good idea here.