A lot of people have asked me what I’m up to since my departure from municipal politics. If you’re reading this, you know part of the answer: I’m back writing a weekly column in BIV.

I’ve also been working on some other projects that are now starting to take shape. On September 1, I was named a fellow at the SFU Centre for Dialogue. I’ll be teaching an undergraduate semester there starting in the spring, around the theme of “Finding Space, Understanding Place: Redesigning our Region for Resiliency.” On top of that, I’m putting together a series of conferences – and a book – on “Planning Cities as if Food Matters.” Kicking it off will be a panel discussion on Metro Vancouver’s food-security plans at the Gaining Ground Summit at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre (under the sails) on Wednesday afternoon, October 21 (www.gaininggroundsummit.com/shoulderprogram.htm).

Rising awareness of this crisis has triggered an explosion of interest in healthier eating, organic food, urban agriculture and the overrated 100-mile diet. Check out the lineup for plots in your local community garden. Look at the BIV story (issue 1037; September 8-14) about Yves Potvin’s growing company selling vegetarian products. Ask Arran Stephens to tell you about unfaltering sales growth of his Nature’s Path organic cereal products. Get Richmond rancher and councillor Harold Steves to tell you about selling out all his organic beef, not even being able to fill an order for organic steaks requested by the Emperor of Japan. Count the 675 people who paid to stand in a field at the UBC Farm and hear Michael Pollan talk in August. Listen to Galen Weston’s plans for highlighting local food in all his Loblaw-brand supermarkets. He has even talked publicly about using his thousands of acres of flat roofs across the country for rooftop vegetable gardens.

Building on a lifelong interest in growing food (if anyone wants some Concord grapes or prune plums, give me a call!), I became intrigued with the potential of Metro Vancouver to become a world leader in local food production. We have good soil, lots of water, a moderate climate, protected farmland and easy access to urban markets.

What we don’t have are land-use policies, zoning and local bylaws designed with the goal of producing more food. That is going to have to change. The good news is that a number of developers, policy-makers, politicians, academics, farmers, community groups and NGOs are working hard to come up with innovative solutions in places like the Southlands development in Tsawwassen, Fantasy Gardens and Terra Nova lands in Richmond, the UBC Farm and Colony Farm in Coquitlam.

The B.C. Innovation Council is getting on board with its September 21 Roundtable on Innovation in Agriculture, Food and Ag-bioproducts.
Put this on your list of topics that can no longer be ignored. If we haven’t got enough to eat, nothing else is important. •

Peter Ladner ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) is a founder of Business in Vancouver and a former Vancouver city councillor.

This article from Business in Vancouver Sept 22-28, 2009; issue 1039
Business in Vancouver (www.biv.com) has been publishing in-depth local business news, analysis and commentary since 1989. The newspaper also produces a weekly ranked list of the biggest companies and players in a wide range of B.C. industries and commercial sectors, monthly features and industry-focused sections that arm its subscribers with a complete package of local business intelligence each week.

Share it: