City Votes To Tread Cautiously On Push For Backyard Gardens
December 2, 2009
Calgary Herald
Herald Staff
Calgary won't be painting the town romaine-lettuce green as quickly as advocates hoped, after council voted this week to move cautiously toward devising a local food policy.
Aldermen Joe Ceci and Bob Hawkesworth proposed that Calgary begin work toward a policy that promotes more affordable and locally grown food. It likely would include an aggressive expansion of the city's community and backyard gardens.
Other cities from San Francisco to Saskatoon have council "food charters" and related policies.
But many Calgary council members thought agricultural policy was best left to federal or provincial levels of government-- and larger-scale food growing to warmer climates.
"There's a good reason they don't grow bananas in Airdrie," Ald. Joe Connelly quipped.
Council didn't dismiss the idea entirely.
Aldermen instead asked city officials to study the municipal government's role in the local food system, with no action necessarily stemming from that.
Several communities and local associations are doing work to ramp up local food production, in the absence of a city-driven push.
So, what's your opinion?
Personally, I think that the City should play a role in enabling citizens to grow produce locally (i.e. in their back gardens and community gardens) and should also encourage it. I don't think they are getting involved in serious Agricultural policies and see them saying it is a Federal and Provincial matter as a cop out. If the city were to get involved I believe it would be an example of a city being proactive and embracing its new roles that cities are being asked to play in today's World, which our Council has a habit of shying away from. Once again, Connelly is being a proper and ignorant little cunt by not taking it seriously as I don't think anyone is planning on growing bananas.
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