Farming in the City

norwaybcheader
norwaybcheaderMany forms of urban agriculture have existed for thousands of years. As practical and environmentally responsible as growing food within a city can be, the art of gardening has seemingly disappeared in many urban settings. As current farming practices are proving to be unsustainable in the long-term, urban agriculture is looked upon by many as being a critical shift that needs to take place if we are to ensure food security for now and into the future.

Vancouver’s Backyard Chickens II / Bucky Buckaw

The second of a two-part feature on the City of Vancouver’s multi-year process to approve backyard chickens. Because of the many similar debates underway within city councils across the country, this focus on Vancouver’s efforts looks back over the past few years to track just how this process first began and how it evolved from…

Margaret Atwood Joins Prison Farms Campaign / Vancouver’s Backyard Chickens I

Margaret Atwood Joins Prison Farms Campaign As part of our ongoing coverage on the future of Canada’s prison farms, we check in on the campaign where well-known Canadian author Margaret Atwood has now joined the fight. We’ll listen in on the June 6 rally in Kingston, Ontario and the subsequent rally in Ottawa one week…

‘Crack’ Down on Backyard and Farm-Fresh Eggs

Over the past month, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (the CFIA) has embarked on a concentrated effort in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, threatening area businesses with fines unless they remove their ungraded farm-fresh eggs from store shelves. Close to a dozen businesses that Deconstructing Dinner is aware of have received such a…

Farming in the City XIII / Updates on ‘Norway, British Columbia’ & ‘A Dinner Date With the Olympics’

Farming in the City XIII (Backyard Chickens X) In November 2009, a panel discussion on urban agriculture was hosted by Backyard Bounty and the University of Guelph. The event was called Opportunities for Action: An Urban Agriculture Symposium and Deconstructing Dinner partner station CFRU recorded the panel. This episode hears from two of the panelists…

Dan Barber – A Perfect Expression of Nature (Conscientious Cooks VI) / Backyard Chickens IX

Dan Barber – A Perfect Expression of Nature (Conscientious Cooks VI) However we try to look at it, agriculture itself – as it’s existed for 10,000 years, will always be a departure from aquiring our food as nature intended. By extension, agricultural and food production methods will always be debated on their merits of balancing…

Farming in the City XI (Nelson Urban Acres / Massachusetts Avenue Project)

Nelson Urban Acres Nelson Urban Acres is bringing fresh produce closer to home. They are a multi-plot urban farm in Nelson, British Columbia that launched into operation in 2009 based on the SPIN farming model. Co-founders Paul Hoepfner-Homme and Christoph Martens are working backyard gardens within the city using low-impact, organic farming techniques to grow…

Genetically Engineered Sugar, Trees, Alfalfa and Wheat / Backyard Chickens VIII

As one of the clearest examples of the direction in which our food and agricultural systems are heading, Deconstructing Dinner has paid considerable attention to the evolution of genetically modified or “engineered” foods. These ever-present ingredients in our food supply represent one of the most controversial and debated shifts that have taken place among modern…

Deconstructing Dinner in our Schools III (Ryerson University) / Backyard Chickens VII (Farming in the City IX)

Deconstructing Dinner in our Schools III (Ryerson University) The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, in partnership with Ryerson’s School of Nutrition and the Centre for Studies in Food Security, offers a post-degree Certificate in Food Security. This unique program is offered nowhere else in the world, and can be completed entirely through the convenience…

Hosting a Community Dialogue on Local Food Systems II / Backyard Chickens VI

Hosting a Community Dialogue on Local Food Systems II Part II in a series featuring recordings from the 2009 Community Food Matters Gathering. Over the past few years, Deconstructing Dinner has involved itself with the Nelson, B.C. based networking group, Community Food Matters. Like many similar community food security groups operating throughout North America, Community…

Canadian Beef Consolidated Further / Backyard Chickens V (Farming in the City VII)

Canadian Beef Consolidated Further Deconstructing Dinner examines the recent takeover of Canada’s largest beef packing plant – Lakeside Packers, located in Brooks, Alberta. The plant maintains a capacity to process 4, 700 head of cattle each day (that translates to a whopping 43% of all beef processed in Canada… from one facility!). The takeover leaves…