Planning Pool

Inch by inch, row by row...urban agriculture challenges residential zoning in San Francisco. (Thanks to Little City Gardens for this great photo!)

Earlier this spring in San Francisco a team of experienced urban farmers signed a land use agreement for a plot of land to expand their growing market-garden business.  Unlike most productive urban landscape in cities, which are community gardens or NGOs, Little City Gardens is a for profit enterprise. Owners Brooke Budner and Caitlyn Galloway have set out to experiment with the economic viability of urban farming by designing a financially self-sustaining urban farm business.  The new plot is an expansion of a smaller garden that was started in the Mission District, where they have been providing specialty salad mixes and organic produce to local … Continue Reading

Portland Food Carts: Photo by Author

In Portland you might enjoy a steaming bowl of curry, while in Accra a spicy box of jollof.  Both purchased for a low cost and in a convenient location.  What is known as a cart in Portland or New York, a kiosk in Accra or Moscow, might also be a booth, pavilion or a stand.  Each is a different form of micro-enterprise that plays an increasingly important role in our cities today. A kiosk is an efficient way for an individual to start a business with low costs and short time, while providing an immediate service to an urban area.  Congruently, the vibrancy of a neighborhood can be accentuated through the articulation of these small forms.  But … Continue Reading

A mobile poultry processing unit slaughters hens on a farm in Massachusetts. Thanks to Chrisdat on Flickr for the great Creative Commons photo!

In tackling the subject of British Columbia’s meat inspection regulations, I must begin by admitting that I am not the likeliest author. For starters, I’m a vegetarian. Secondly, although someday I would love to keep urban chickens, my agricultural experience is pretty much limited to growing herbs and tomatoes on my apartment patio. However, the economic viability of BC farming affects everyone in the province who eats, including urbanites. Draconian provincial meat inspection regulations create a barrier to local economic development in BC’s small towns and rural places, and to food security throughout the province. Local food activists contend that … Continue Reading

Hundreds of Edmontonians came out to City Hall last Monday to support the second reading of the new draft growth plan, The Way We Grow. Thanks to Mastermaq on flickr for the wonderful Creative Commons photo!

Thanks largely to a local alliance of citizen advocates, the City of Edmonton, Canada, is moving forward with a draft Growth Plan that gets serious about food security. The Greater Edmonton Alliance, composed mostly of churches and unions, has played a key role in shaping the draft plan, entitled The Way We Grow. (A giant PDF file lurks behind the link, but is definitely worth a read.)

Edmonton is located at the northern edge of North America’s wheat belt and is surrounded by a wealth of productive farmland, especially … Continue Reading

Today’s post comes to you from Toronto Chickens, the blog of an underground hen-keeper in Canada’s largest city, where urban hens are not yet legal. As (s)he notes: “Living with chickens below the radar could be stressful at times. Sadly, despite the fact that I would like to share with you my identity, I have to be chicken about it and thus the name Toronto Chicken.”
This post, originally published at Toronto Chickens, addresses the important question of whether urban hens meaningfully contribute to food affordability. Toronto Chicken argues that they do!

Many people have asked me just how much it costs to produce a dozen organic backyard chicken eggs. Time to show off my … Continue Reading

Daniel Fontaine is a co-editor of CityCaucus.com and an active political commentator with a background in political science, writing and strategy. His great post about Vancouver’s proposed legislation legalizing urban chickens was published last October, but not much has changed on the policy front since then; Vancouver City Council still has yet to approve changes to the bylaws currently prohibiting backyard hens in the city. This post was originally published on CityCaucus.com, a blog that explores the ideas, the politics, and the people behind making Canadian cities. These days, the site is devoted to following Olympic activity around Vancouver.

Creative commons hen photo from Loungerie on Flickr.

We hope that will enjoy this upcoming week of posts about urban chickens in policy and practice! To kick off Chicken Week, we present a story about a very special urban chicken as told by Vancouver-based musician Craig McGregor. He begins disarmingly with “I don’t feel like playing a guitar solo; I feel like telling you a story!”

To my mind, his (true!) tale perfectly presents the disconnected, uncomfortable and absurd relationship that many urban North Americans have with our mainstream, industrial food system. It’s also very funny.

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Special thanks to Craig McGregor and to Celtic Traditions, the tiny and wonderful Vancouver folk music venue where this concert was recorded.