Grow Calgary urban farmers 'slammed by demand' from charities amid economic downturn
Ayesha Clough, Tricia Lo | CBC News | Posted: April 1, 2016 12:42 PM | Last Updated: April 1, 2016
Urban farming group asks government to donate 1% of unused land
A local agency that grows food for Calgary's less fortunate is asking the city and province to help it deal with a huge spike in demand.
"We are getting slammed by demand — and like a lot of social agencies right now — have never seen the numbers we are experiencing," says Grow Calgary spokesperson Paul Hughes.
Grow Calgary is a volunteer-run urban farm that has provided fresh produce to the Calgary Food Bank for the past three years.
But this year it's been approached by more than a dozen other non-profit agencies looking for help.
"The city and the province need to respond. This is a food access crisis," Hughes said.
The organization wants the government to donate one per cent of unused land and the corresponding budgets required to mow it.
"We need to actually drop everything and start providing more land and resources to organizations like ours who are trying to grow food to put into the food access system — of which some 45 per cent of the recipients are children," Hughes added.
Councillor Carra 'charmed' by idea
City councillor Gian-Carlo Carra called it "a really compelling argument," but said there are a ton of practical and "annoying" challenges surrounding its implementation.
Because the city is responsible for weed control under provincial law, it has "an entire armature" of mowing equipment that would be difficult to transition, Carra said.
"If we were to just let these things go wild, we'd have weeds exploding, and then the taxpayer would be footing the bills for fines paid to the provincial government."
He also said the city's legal department is worried about liability issues that could arise from growing edible plants on city-owned land, in case someone were to get sick.
"Those things make my blood boil," he said.
But Carra said council has in general been very supportive of urban food policy, and he welcomes the conversation.