May 4 VUAN minutes

[Cylia Wong]

Vancouver Urban Agriculture Network
4 May 2009 Meeting

Present: Peter Finch, Rachel Simpson, David Tracey, Bryan Waddell,
Cylia Wong

Agenda review and approval – approved.
April minutes review and approval – approved.

OLD BUSINESS:

Guidelines on city-owned land: we have not heard anything from City
Council on this issue.

Proposed use of funding saved by developers when they designate
property for agricultural use: Sharon was absent so no update was
provided. David will be interviewed by Tyee on-line newspaper and
will mention our idea to set aside a portion of funds for urban
agriculture.

Logo: Peter still needs to work further on this. Once Rachel
receives a scanned version she can manipulate further.

NEW BUSINESS:

Wilderness society wants us to support BC endangered species law:
David received an email from a group wanting support to adopt an
endangered species law in B.C. Although we think it’s a good
initiative, this is outside of our mandate, so we declined.

Policy re GMO application to community gardens and agriculture in
Vancouver: we agreed that we should invite a member from the Society
for a Genetic Engineering Free BC to speak to us further on the topic.

Partnership with City Hall community garden: we received a generic
email asking if we would partner with City Hall and help them with
startup with their community garden. As this is outside of our
mandate, no action was taken.

Other business:

Website Accessiblity: Rachel mentioned that she had found it
difficult to find info about our group on the web. With our approval
she will explore some ideas on making it easier for people to find
us.

Next meeting: Monday, June 1 - 6–7 p.m. at Strathcona Community
Gardens eco-pavilion.