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Growing your own in the city

Published: 18 May 2005

Making the Edible Landscape — Helping urban dwellers grow their own


McGill University hosts African, Asian and South American partners at conference from May 18-25 to promote urban agriculture

Spring is in the air, the mosquitoes are here and it's time to decide what to plant in the garden. What will you be sowing this year? Beans, carrots, lettuce? How about a few pumpkins for the fall harvest? It is indeed time to put shovel to earth and get dirt under the fingernails.

In Canada, plump, juicy tomatoes picked from a carefully tended and well-loved vine are a summertime treat. Yet for many people throughout the world gardening is a key component of day-to-day survival. In Cuba, for example, where trade embargos imposed in the 1990s have seriously limited the country's imports, growing food for sustenance has become an essential activity. In the city of Havana alone, some 300,000 tons of food are grown annually, representing an important means of nourishment for its 2.5 million residents. It is difficult for those of us whose majority of fresh produce is imported from rural areas or the United States to comprehend that this intense harvest does not come from outlying rural areas. Indeed, any open land in the urban core, be it a park, a street planter or a front yard, is prime real estate for small-scale agricultural activity.

This worldwide phenomenon, known as urban agriculture, is a hot topic at McGill University, particularly for the School of Architecture's Minimum Cost Housing Group and the School of Urban Planning researchers and graduate students who are investigating the hows and whys of growing in the context of the city. This three-year collaborative project, appropriately named Making the Edible Landscape, is supported by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). It is an endeavour to demonstrate ways of integrating food production in the city, to rehabilitate slums and squatter settlements, and to plan new garden neighbourhoods.

The task of McGill's team and its partners has been to find innovative ways to demonstrate the value of including urban agriculture as a permanent feature in city planning and housing design. Coordinated research is underway in three cities: Colombo, Sri Lanka; Kampala, Uganda; and Rosario, Argentina. Since September 2004, McGill students have been creating designs for each of these communities that include a variety of unconventional growing techniques. Some of the most popular interventions include growing on rooftops, reducing local traffic by adding plantings in the street, and experimenting with aquaculture, just to name a few.

Student designs have been sent to the city partners for feedback and soon the first spades will hit the ground and the green transformation will begin. This week, for the first time, researchers will have the opportunity to meet their clients, as McGill hosts the project's first international workshop. Team members from all three of the participating cities will converge on Montreal, beginning on May 18, for a week-long session to finalize the urban agriculture proposals. Local experts from Montreal's vast gardening, horticultural and academic circles will lead sessions on land tenure, growing techniques, water and sanitation, community participation and efficient use of municipal resources. In addition, the talent of Montreal's residents and the city's rich growing history will be showcased through a series of outings to local community gardens.

The event will have its official kick-off, along with the launch of the Making the Edible Landscape EL1: A Study of Urban Agriculture in Montreal student publication, at a wine and cheese reception on Wednesday, May 18, from 4:30 to 6 pm. Special guest will be Helene Fotopulos, mayor of the Borough of Plateau Montreal and Executive Committee member of the City of Montreal responsible for Mount Royal, green and blue spaces, parks, the Montreal Nature Museum and women's issues. This event, open to the public, will be hosted by McGill's School of Architecture, located on the downtown campus at 815 Sherbrooke Street West. In fact, this rare opportunity to meet with gardeners from around the world, as well as with a number of local horticultural experts, might just give you the urge to plant carrots rather than calendulas, or potatoes instead of peonies! We hope to see you there!

PHOTO OPS

Wednesday, May 18, 4:30-6:00 pm, at McGill's School of Architecture, Macdonald-Harrington Building, downtown campus, 815 Sherbrooke Street W.
Helene Fotopulos, mayor of the Borough of Plateau Montreal and Executive Committee member of the City of Montreal, will be the special guest at the conference kick-off and launch of the student publication Making the Edible Landscape EL1: A Study of Urban Agriculture in Montreal.

Friday, May 20, 2:00-5:00 pm
Éco-Quartier/Équiterre/Santropol Roulant field visits (check with Mr. Rune Kongshaug for details)

Sunday, May 22, 1:00-5:00 pm
Community gardens field visits (check with Mr. Rune Kongshaug for details)

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