Harvest graveyard? Urban farmers are getting creative as more city dwellers shop locally
A sprawling greenhouse on the roof of a former Sears department store in Montreal, filled with cucumber and bean plants, doesn’t seem to have much in common with rows of radishes and red lettuce leaves sticking out of the dirt and hay in a Toronto backyard.
But Lufa Farms and Zawadi Farm are more alike than you might think. Both were founded by Canadian immigrants who previously worked in the tech industry. Both bypass the supermarket and sell the food they grow directly to customers. And both grow food in Canada’s largest cities.
Urban farms in cemeteries, on top of downtown buildings and in power line corridors contribute to food security in Toronto and Montreal.
They are not alone. More farmers and market gardeners are making room in cities to grow crops — along the Edmonton ring road, in a hydrocorridor in Toronto, in other people’s front yards in Vancouver, within a school in Moncton, NB, op a former tennis court in Calgary, in carports on a street in Montreal and in the city-owned right-of-way along a sidewalk in Ottawato name a few.
Urban farming advocates say growing food where people live can make fresh vegetables more accessible and affordable amid rising food prices and supply issues related to global issues such as drought, volatile energy prices and the pandemic. They say locally grown food can also have a lower climate impact while providing jobs and environmental benefits to local communities.
These tempos have been converted into greenhouses to grow leafy greens in the bitter cold. The urban farmers show us around.
Lufa Farms has built four rooftop greenhouses on industrial buildings in Montreal, covering more than 300,000 square meters and utilizing the heat generated by the buildings below.
“We’re not taking any new land,” says co-founder Mohamed Hage.
Zawadi Farm is located in Jessey Njau’s own backyard, as well as his neighbor’s and on a lot in Toronto’s Downsview Park. In his backyard greenhouse, he starts out in the spring with arugula, bok choy, kale, Swiss chard, beets, lettuce and cilantro, which are later exchanged for warm-weather crops like basil, tomatoes and cucumbers.
He grows microgreens such as sunflower and chickpea sprouts in his basement. And he sees many other potential growing locations around him.
As well as a school in another part of town, the grounds of the Church of Our Saviour, Don Mills have been converted into The Common Table Farm, run by the Flemingdon Park Ministry.
The non-profit community group grows produce such as radishes, bitter melons, and eggplant, and has also planted a few gooseberries, saskatoon berries, and currant bushes.
“The produce here is for food insecurity in the community, please do not harvest,” reads a sign on the gate.
Anélia Victor, urban farmer and educator of the group, says that many small areas of greenery around the city can be transformed into gardens or farms.
“If we are able to work the land and the soil,” they said, “we can feed a lot of people.”
Addressing food insecurity
Sarah Elton, director of the Food Health Ecosystems Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University, has noticed that more urban farms, many of them non-profits, are growing food to feed people in the local community.
A recent report from RBC found that food prices have increased by 18 percent in the past two years. She says this, combined with high housing costs and precarious jobs, is causing more people to turn to farming and gardening as a way to make food more affordable.
“We can grow it and we can choose a way to distribute it within our communities for free or at a lower cost,” Elton said.
Victor estimates that The Common Table’s produce feeds more than 100 families in the Flemingdon Park area, and it is also delivered to a retirement home.
They said that the recipients are so enthusiastic and grateful that it is difficult to keep up with the demand.
But despite its popularity, the farm may close at the end of the season. Flemingdon Park Ministry executive director Maria Reolin said the group’s donation-based programming has struggled since the pandemic.
Why do urban farms share their food?
Hage says Lufa has thrived during the pandemic, with subscriber numbers booming as people shy away from the supermarket.
“So by the end of the year, we really wanted to figure out a way to give back to the community,” Hage said. The company connected with local nonprofits to find families in need and asked subscribers to donate food credits that low-income families can use to buy food at discounted prices.
Currently, says Hage, the program supports 160 families.
Similarly, Njau asks customers to donate boxes to needy families when they are out of town. Zawadi Farm also partners with local charities to connect its food to those in need.
Colleen Stevens is an outreach worker at one of those charities, Neighbor Link North York. She said the food is much appreciated at a time when food banks have less to offer.
“They certainly don’t offer fresh vegetables,” she said.
Dealing with climate change
Many cities including Mississauga, Ont.And Montreal have made urban agriculture part of their lives strategy to combat and adapt to climate change. Generating food systems about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the City of Mississauga notes there are ways to reduce those emissions and make the food system more sustainable and resilient.
The Toronto Region Conservation Authority, which leases 279 acres of land to farmers, says growing food locally reduces CO2 emissions from food transport.
It adds that farms improve stormwater management by acting as a sink for excess water, reducing the risk of flooding – a risk that is increasing with climate change.
Agriculture also has the potential to mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon.
Another approach to agriculture, called regenerative agriculture, is gaining popularity as a way to simultaneously reduce carbon emissions and improve soils.
However, Canada has lost its farmland largely due to urbanization, especially in eastern Canadian provinces such as Ontario, PEIAnd Newfoundland.
One of the main sources of emissions from the food system is food loss and waste, as rotting food generates greenhouse gases. About 25 to 30 percent of food produced is lost or wasted, representing 8 to 10 percent of human-made greenhouse gas emissions between 2010 and 2016, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Both Njau and Hage say their close relationship with those who consume their products minimizes waste.
Hage says Lufa waits for product to sell before picking so it can pick the right amount.
Njau has a similar approach.
“We don’t grow without knowing where the food is going,” he said.
Everything that is not edible is composted.
Protection against problems from elsewhere
According to RBC, the price of raw food products has been impacted by the high wheat, fertilizer and natural gas prices associated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, along with severe drought in the prairies.
Victor said that with climate change it is becoming more expensive to access many vegetables grown elsewhere, just as it is becoming easier to grow more tropical crops like bitter melons locally.
Climate change is allowing urban gardeners to grow exotic plants, which could help cities prepare for some of the worst impacts of a warming world.
Hage noted that as shelves in many supermarkets emptied in the early months of the pandemic — and as prices rose for some products — he became convinced that growing food locally is essential.
“We realized how important it is to be self-sufficient,” he said.
Other benefits for customers and the community
Njau acknowledges that his products aren’t necessarily cheaper than what you’d buy at the supermarket, but says once customers taste it, they recognize the value.
“‘Wait a minute, it doesn’t taste like water. I taste flavor in this thing.’ That’s the kind of knowledge that we want people to understand,” he said.
Both Hage and Njau said it’s also valuable to know where your food comes from, how it’s grown and that buying it creates local jobs.
Elton said urban farms and gardens show us that the city is not separate from nature.
“In the garden, we are reminded of this intimate connection we have with plants,” she said.
