Municipal Support for urban ag, food policies and food strategy grows in Canada

[Paul Hughes]

The effort in Edmonton on Food Policy below. 

Paul Hughes

In keeping with the growing municipal support I am seeing in Canada for food security programs, urban agriculture, food policies and food strategies, The City of Edmonton (Alberta) has just announced that it is developing a comprehensive strategy around food policy, food systems and urban agriculture.

The "Food and Urban Agriculture Project" is a huge leap forward to include food and agriculture part of city's planning processes. 

From the Website http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/planning_development/food-urban-agriculture-project.aspx: 

"The Way We Grow, Edmonton’s Municipal Development Plan, says the City of Edmonton will:

• support the establishment of a food policy council
• work with the community to create a local food charter
• work with the region to develop a regional food policy council and food charter
• collaborate with communities, landowners and other organizations to identify potential areas and lands for urban agricultural activities
• establish guidelines for integrating urban agriculture into public and private spaces and developments..."

I thought this would be of interest to those working in the trenches in food policy and municipal food security...Thanks to two years of dedicated work by a number of grassroots groups in Edmonton, but it looks like the city will now include food and urban agriculture in its infrastructure and city planning departments. Two years ago, these groups were merely explaining terms like urban agriculture, food security and food strategies to the city council.

Jennifer

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Jennifer Cockrall-King, author of Food and The City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution
jenn...@foodgirl.ca

www.foodgirl.ca

twitter.com/jennifer_ck