Urban Agriculture

• Introduction
• Canadian History
• Canadian Survey
• Riverview Gardens
• Conclusions

Canadian History

The history of Community gardens in Canada began with the development of the railways. Canadian Pacific railways designed and maintained Railway gardens in the 1890’s. These gardens were positioned strategically at railway stations in towns and cities that would support them, further elevating the significance of the station in the town’s growing number of civic and public archetypes. Eventually, these gardens were replaced with parking lots as populations dispersed and the use of the automobile increased. The next influences in the history of urban agriculture were the first and second world wars. These, ‘victory gardens’ were encouraged by the government to reduce the demands of local consumption and infrastructure to ease the war efforts of food production and shipping. In 1943 the Vancouver area reported over 52,000 gardens harvesting 31,000 tons of produce worth $4 million, about $20 million by 1980 prices. British allies initialized similar efforts in the ‘Dig for victory’ campaign. In 1944, Britain’s number of allotment gardens had almost doubled to 1.4 million. This equated to roughly 10% of all the produce grown in the country.

The current form of urban allotment gardens has evolved out of the counter culture movement of the 1970’s, where revival was based on concerns about the environment, energy conservation and urban decay. Many claim the energy crisis of 1973 to be the main influence at the time. Today, the urban gardens survive because of many factors: increased leisure time, a growing retired population, rising food costs, and continued efforts in community as a social outlet.