Farming in the City by Sheila Pratt - article in The Edmonton Journal.
Last-minute warning against land-use policy concerns defenders of regional agriculture
By Hanneke Brooymans, The Edmonton Journal
February 20, 2009 8:13 AM
A group that represents farmers in the Edmonton region fears a land-use policy could be negatively influenced by late feedback from a developers' group.
The Capital Region Board discussed Thursday a first draft of the land-use plan at a meeting in Edmonton. It is supposed to approve a final version on March 5.
Future land decisions in the capital region will be based on the plan.
Farmers from neighbouring counties showed up at the meeting to show their support for the preservation of farmland.
But the Urban Development Institute gave a brief presentation that caught many off guard.
The institute's chairman, Shane Erickson, told the board that the current plan would not contribute to growth, but would create more roadblocks.
Erickson said he understood that the main concern with the current process was that it causes development delays. "This regulation as it's written will simply exacerbate that problem."
Strathcona County Mayor Cathy Olesen, who is on the land-use committee, said after the meeting that the board was concerned about the institute's comments.
Olesen said the committee wants a copy of the report outlining its concerns.
Michael Walters, of the Greater Edmonton Alliance, said he hopes this input will not reconfigure the plan too much to the development side. The alliance is a broad-based citizens' organization that works on community, economic and ecological problems.
Olesen said the committee will not align itself with one group over the other.
"The entire board understands the need to identify and protect agricultural land," she said. "It's to what extent, it's to how long, it's to how it's defined, it's the fine details that are causing some concern. But everyone respects the concept."
About 30 farmers attended the meeting. Rocky Bishop, 23, spoke to the board about his family's farm south of Vegreville, which is not large enough to be passed down to the potential five successors in his family.
He expects he will be one of the siblings who will have to venture further afield to find and purchase a new farm. He would like to stay in Alberta and would love to be close to an urban area, so he can sell locally what he produces. But without a supportive policy in place recognizing and preserving agricultural land, he worries there won't be any land available that he can afford. Expanding development will have driven land prices well beyond his means, he said.
Monique Nutter, from the Greater Edmonton Alliance, told the board that preserving prime agricultural land will diversify economies for all municipal jurisdictions, urban and rural, creating production, processing, distribution, retail and service jobs.
Norman Ohrn farms west of Calmar. Concerned farmers there have three times fought off a resort development proposed for prime agricultural land, he said outside the board meeting.
He would like the new-land use plan to specify that residential and recreational development should not be on prime farmland.
"We're not against development, but put it on proper areas," he said.
The Capital Region Board consists of mayors and reeves from 25 municipalities in the Edmonton region and an interim chair appointed by the minister of Municipal Affairs.
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
article online
Greater Edmonton Alliance part of community push to ensurearable lands are protected for our own survival
By Todd Babiak, The Edmonton Journal
February 3, 2009
Last year at this time, the evening television newscasts contained miserable images of food riots in the developed world. The theme of each of these stories was that we -- that is we, the humans -- were making enough food. Unfortunately, too much of it was being used to feed future hamburgers and fuel cars. Much too much of it was rotting in warehouses, unable to fit into the peculiarities of modern industrial agri-business. People were starving and, it seems, starving inspires riots.
At the time, we consoled ourselves with the certainty that all of this rancour and disorder was happening far, far away. The megamarts of Edmonton were blessedly full of meat and produce from California, Mexico, Chile and other places with plenty of water and arable land.
That said, this steady progress of food in refrigerated trucks northward depends on a lot: cheap fuel, plentiful irrigation and stable governments. None of these are certain. Of course, there is also the question of whether any of this is behaviour worthy of intelligent life forms. Here on the border between central and northern Alberta, we happen to have some of the best agricultural land on the continent.
"It takes thousands of years to develop topsoil," says Monique Nutter, a volunteer with the Greater Edmonton Alliance, one of the groups working hard to keep food security on local politicians' agendas. "Once it's industrially developed, you don't get it back."
The Greater Edmonton Alliance represents at least 150,000 individuals in not-for-profits, unions and faith groups. The alliance's organizer, Michael Walters, has been involved in the not-for-profit sector for several years and he sees this moment in the city's history as crucial. On Thursday, the 25 mayors and reeves of Capital Region Board will meet at the Chateau Louis Hotel to discuss the granddaddy of all regional development plans, the Capital Region Growth Plan -- which will be submitted to the Municipal Affairs minister on March 31.
"We need to think about agricultural land the way we think about natural areas," says Walters, "as protected. Permanently protected.
"Not protected until we decide it's a better idea to develop it. This is critical to our security, our health, the sustainability of this region."
Of course, the finest agricultural land in Alberta is also the land under the most pressure for development, within and outside of Edmonton.
Walters, Nutter and other members of the alliance aren't simply making demands; they envision a sophisticated win-win-win scenario in which the region's dwindling small farmers can make a decent living, in which municipalities are creatively rewarded for tax revenue they might have gained through industrial expansion, in which developers can make money.
"There must be a way to integrate these various solutions," says Walters. One possible way is through the trading of development credits, a scheme that municipalities like New York City have used to reward developers for preserving and maintaining heritage sites. Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton is looking at ways to reward owners of agricultural land for the environmental benefits they provide.
The market for local food, in Greater Edmonton, is growing exponentially as more and more consumers realize the health, social and economic benefits of buying food that hasn't travelled thousands of kilometres. The laissez-faire philosophy does have its limits, and food security seems to be one of those limits. Food is a commodity. But, like water, we sort of need it to survive. Public policy in the 21st century ought to recognize that the business case for developing high-quality agricultural land might not be the best case.
Walters and members of their alliance, so far, have had trouble presenting their views to the Capital Region Board. "There has been very little citizen participation," he says, motioning toward Nutter, "apart from, well, us. And the city's own Municipal Development Plan has to fall in line with this plan. I can't fully articulate how important this is."
Frances Moore Lappe, the renowned American food security expert, spoke to a huge crowd at the Myer Horowitz Theatre on Monday afternoon, as part of the U of A's International Week.
She has advocated for maintaining and protecting arable land all across North America, so I asked her if she had advice for the decision-makers, and for citizen organizers like Walters and Nutter.
The loss of agricultural land is one of the greatest symbols of the irrational economic time we live in," she said, on Monday morning.
"The one thing we are certain to need is food. It's astounding to me. Here I am, almost 40 years into this, and we're worse off now than ever before. And it's not because we don't have enough food or resources to grow it.
It's because of the counterintuitive, illogical and inefficient use of resources we need for our absolute survival.
There's so much that is unknown about our future, in terms of climate change and so many other factors. So take a step back: why would this smart species take away its own means of survival?
"The thought of pulling any more arable land out of production at this point, for industrial purposes: I can't imagine a more shortsighted decision."
Lappe characterizes the food crisis as a crisis of a democracy, and urges citizens in Greater Edmonton to get involved now, before it's too late. In this, she concurs with Walters, Nutter and the Greater Edmonton Alliance.
Fifty-five days remain before the Capital Region Plan is delivered to Municipal Affairs Minister Ray Danyluk. Our mayor, Stephen Mandel, has veto power.
There's still time.
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
Wed. November 12, 2008 - Hundreds of people attended City
Council's Public Hearing on planning for Edmonton's future.
12,000 acres of scarce prime agricultural land within city limits is being
slated for industrial and/or housing development. Edmonton can be a leader in
making choices away from environmental degradation. (see the article below)
CityTV news item Condos or Veggies? (video)
Read the recent editorial & articles in The Edmonton Journal including Scott McKeen, Gordon Kent, Hanneke Brooymans & Todd Babiak
This Land is our Land on facebook & the website of the Greater Edmonton Alliance (GEA)
Coalition of churches, community groups launch This Land is Our Land campaign to preserve fertile northeast area
Liane Faulder, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Sunday, September 21, 2008
More than 200 people packed Southminster Steinhauer United Church on Saturday to call for action to preserve local farmland.
"I am filled with hope as I look out over this gathering," organizer Monique Nutter said as she addressed the crowd, many of whom took home boxes of carrots, potatoes, onions and organic ground beef to feed their families and draw attention to the importance of supporting local agriculture.
Organized by a coalition of churches and community groups under the umbrella of the Greater Edmonton Alliance, the event marked the launch of a campaign called This Land is Our Land. The initiative aims to protect prime agricultural land in the Edmonton area, support local farmers and increase awareness of food issues.
Several speakers, including Doug Visser of Riverbend Gardens and restaurateur Jesse Radies, talked about the importance of preserving a fertile zone of northeastern Edmonton being considered for future industrial and housing development.
The land, roughly 4,000 hectares southeast of Manning Drive, is zoned for agriculture. But activists fear the rich, fertile soil, which Nutter says produces yields up to 10 times the provincial average, will eventually be sacrificed to development.
Organizers hope that by joining forces to lobby city hall, the land can be preserved. This would reduce the distance food must be shipped to the marketplace, helping to save energy and protect the environment, they said.
The Greater Edmonton Alliance is set to sponsor training and information sessions on the issue in various city wards between now and November, when public hearings are scheduled for a municipal development plan for the city's northeast.
Radies, owner of the Blue Pear restaurant and a member of the Edmonton restaurant organization Original Fare, said she tries to use local foods in her restaurant. That's because fresh foods taste better than fruits or vegetables picked long ago that must be shipped vast distances, she said.
But she said it's hard to get a reliable supply of local products, in part because the food distribution system is dominated by big grocery retailers.
"(People) need to understand the power they have as consumers," said Radies, who complains to grocery store managers when she can't get Canadian products in season.
Some at the campaign launch said they are already committed to shopping locally. Kirsten Goa, 34, who has five children, buys a quarter of a cow from a local farmer each year.
She also belongs to a community-shared agriculture program. In the spring, Goa gives $500 to a farmer in Opal, just north of Edmonton. In exchange, she receives a weekly order of seasonal produce -- onions, leeks, carrots, beets and tomatoes -- between the end of June and early October.
Goa's sister, Hannah, also buys local as often as possible. "It connects you with the cycles of food," Hannah said. "I only eat asparagus in asparagus season, so I eat a lot in the early summer."
In the fall and winter, she said she enjoys more soups and stews made with root vegetables, which are available from indoor farmers markets all year.
© The Edmonton Journal 2008