Guelph Organic Conference 2009!

Two green thumbs way up for the Guelph Organic Conference!  This weekend, the University of Guelph played host to the largest gathering of persons interested in organics at it’s 28th Annual Organic Conference, attracting famers, academics, business people, politicians, and consumers alike. Urban Organic Roof Agriculture was represented as well by grass-roots activists and enthusiasts such as Rosalea Thompson of Green Gardeners Community Collaborative and seasoned professionals such as Dr. Lauren Baker, founder of Annex Organics – a Toronto-based urban agri-business, now an instructor at the University of Toronto. The interest in organic agriculture and food was so great that eager conference goers were unable to park in U of G parking lots and were forced to occupy the neighboring lot at the Ramada Inn, which coincidentally was holding their annual “Psychic Fair”. A quick glance into the Conference of Clairvoyants revealed a dearth of participants and visitors – perhaps all attracted by the exciting products and roof gardening concepts on display at the Organic Conference!  All in all, a remarkable display of popularity for a growing social movement!

Victory Gardens for Obama’s War on Climate-Change!

Question: Eating locally is a new phenomenon restricted primarily to tree-hugging, granola eating, birkenstock wearing, greenpeaceniks – True or False?

Answer: False! The word “Locavore” – voted in 2007 as Word of the Year by Oxford University press – describes an individual who eats only food grown within a 100 mile radius. Though enjoying a small resurgence, the locavore movement is nothing new.

During World War I and II food was in short supply and people planted “Victory Gardens” to furnish their family’s vegetable needs.  At the height of the Wars, nearly 40% vegetable produce grown nationally in Canada, USA,  England and Australia was done in the back yards of ordinary citizens!   Planting vegetables at home at a time when food was rationed in order keep our boys in uniform well-fed was seen as a great way for civilians to help fight the war.

In an age where governments appear to declare war on all sorts of bizarre abstractions like Drugs, (Nixon) Poverty (Johnson) and Terror (Bush), we celebrate the coronation of a leader that may be one breath away from declaring War on Climate-change!

Unlike previous wars declared on intangible societal ills, the enemy combatants in the War on Climate-change are clearly defined. An all-out grass-roots war effort will be needed to help achieve Victory.

Join the Urban Infantry and help support our troops – Grow a Victory Garden today!

Why Roof Garden Agriculture?

Sustainability is a popular buzzword these days. Like all other buzzwords in recent memory (think: tipping point, web 2.0, synergy, value-added etc), we are trained to have automatic, universally accepted emotional responses to these words, and the greater meaning or significance is often lost. If, however, the meaning of words pertaining to the ability of one civilization to feed itself is lost, the consequences will be dire.

At a recent lecture on Sustainability at the University of Toronto, Thorsten Klaus defined sustainability in terms of energy consumption and went on to show that innovative changes in how we consume energy may enable  us to keep energy consumption per capita on par with inevitable population growth.

Food is solar energy, biochemically stored in the form of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. Just like other types of energy used today, the rate of food consumption has begun to exceed the ability to produce it.  More than 100 countries now import staples such as wheat and countries such as Yemen and Israel import over 90% of their total grain supply .  Though the effect of food insecurity is less likely to affect Canadians at large because of large tracts of nearby arable land, increased urbanization has required regions such as Toronto to import an increasing amount of fruits and vegetables from beyond the immediate surrounding farm-land.

The conventional agricultural practice of shipping food thousands of miles to its ultimate destination brings a host of connected sustainability problems in that it:

• Requires large-scale and factory farms that contribute to significant environmental degradation through pollution and deforestation

• Requires the use of GM foods that reduce crop biodiversity and increase susceptibility of crops to diseases

• Requires the consumption of fossil fuels to transport food to distant markets

• Often uses wasteful flood irrigation systems that deplete local water supplies

• Relies on State farm subsidies to keep the system alive prevent farmers in developing countries from growing crops there because they cannot compete with these low prices, making them utterly dependent on an inherently wasteful agricultural system.

Though Urban Agriculture and most notably Roof Gardening is not without it’s limitations, the establishment of a viable Urban Agriculture system may limit some of the harmful effects of conventional agriculture and brings with it some significant benefits:

• Direct access to local food markets meaning less transportation and refridgeration – vastly decreased Carbon footprint

• Greater control over food security by local residents

• Job creation – stimulation of local economy

• Re-use of compost for local food growing projects and businesses

• Enhanced greenery on urban roof-tops enhances living environment

• More greenery in the city resulting in cleaner air to breathe

• Positive impact on urban ecology

Clearly this is not a black and white matter, and there are many factors that determine market viability and growth of an industry, but the stark fact of the matter is that continuation of conventional agricultural practices cannot continue. Beyond Roof Top Garden Agriculture, other innovative ideas have sparked the interest of engineers, urban planners, architects and legistlators alike including high rise urban farm facilities and Meat products that can be synthetically grown!

Food Miles

One of the strongest arguments for local food consumption is the concept of Food Miles – the distance food travels from farm to fork. A 2005 study commissioned by the Region of Waterloo ranked Tomatoes, Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, Lettuce and Peppers among the top-ten food items contributing to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from (mainly diesel) trucks required to transport the food from field to supermarket. These five items contribute to combined annual GHG emissions of 15,660 tonnes for the Waterloo Region.

As no precise data exists for Food Miles for produce consumed in Toronto the figures for Waterloo – a city 116 km away – have been used for the purpose of this article.  The Waterloo region has of a population of 478,121 according to 2006 census data, compared with Toronto’s 2.48M inhabitants. As Toronto’s population is slightly more than 5x that of Waterloo’s, and because the comparative consumption of any one type of food scales linearly in proportion to population, one can conclude that the consumption of the aforementioned vegetables in Toronto alone contributes to 78,300 tonnes per year. Therefore, even though Toronto’s capacity is 63% of it’s own vegetables, if even 5% of these vegetables were grown in city limits (within 20km of the mouths these vegetables will feed), the city of Toronto could prevent 391 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions EVERY YEAR.

A locovore movement in the GTA is, however, already taking root. Toronto non-profit group, Foodshare, offers relatively low cost locally grown organic produce delivered directly to the homes of customers. With the exception of Foodshare’s acquision of Annex Organics, a Toronto-based urban agriculture start-up specializing in growing sprouts and herbs, most produce sold by Foodshare products, though Ontario grown, are not grown within city limits.

The advantages of reducing Food Miles is not limited to carbon footprint reduction. Retail giant Wal-Mart has embraced Food Miles as a model for understanding inefficiency in the food-supply chain in order to maximize profits. “What has become so obvious is that a ‘green strategy’ provides better value for our customers”, said Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott in 2006. “The benefits of the strategy are undeniable, whether you look through the lens of greenhouse gas reduction or the lens of cost savings.”  Additional advantages beyond cost-savings and GHG emission reduction for Urban Agriculture include elimination of refrigeration for storage and reduced water usage, especially when hydroponic or drip irrigation methods are employed.

So if urban agriculture is such a good idea, then why has a non-sustainable agricultural model allowed to persist with no end in sight?  What are the biggest challenges and obstacles preventing urban agriculture and most notably large-scale roof gardening to flourish?

Urban Agriculture by the Numbers

Have you ever walked down Spadina Avenue and noticed the overwhelming number of flat roofs and remarked, “what a waste of space?”  Toronto has 538 Million square feet of ‘available’ horizontal flat roofs that have a surface area greater than 3,700 sq ft. This puts an upper threshold on the total amount of “arable land” inside Toronto.

The average Canadian consumes 2.76 lbs of fresh vegetables per week, which means that a city of 2.48M people like Toronto consumes 6.8M lbs of fresh fruits and vegetables per week.  Using conventional outdoor agricultural techniques, it takes 2.41 square feet to produce 1 lb of vegetables. Therefore, assuming that all things are equal – ie, that comparable yields for roof gardening compared to conventional growing practices can be achieved – the City of Toronto could produce 223,236,515 lbs of vegetables within it’s city limits!!  This amounts to 63% of Toronto’s annual dietary requirements.

Obviously this model is not without it’s limitations, but if greenhouse and hydroponic technology were added as part of the mix, this number could be substantially higher because it would also allow for year-round production.

So what now?  How many tonnes of CO2 emissions would be spared? what would be the Carbon Footprint offset if all we did was plant grass on these roofs instead of grow vegetables too? What kinds of challenges stand in the way of implementing large-scale urban vegetable farms? what kinds of synergies and partnerships could exist for urban agribusinesses? how would the world view Toronto if we grew EVERYTHING locally? Can a successful attempt in Toronto act as a model for individuals in developing countries to have more direct control over food security?

Welcome to Green Evolution

Welcome to Toronto Green Evolution – a site for urban dwellers interested in Food Sustainability Issues, Urban Agriculture,  and a desire to reduce our city’s Carbon Footprint.  With your input, we hope to develop a well developed network of like-minded individuals to share ideas and create plans to increase our city’s ability to produce food locally and cost effectively. Please post freely and constructively and recommend this site to people interested in developing alternatives to conventional agricultural practices.