Growing vegetables can be easier than you think: Rooftop gardening as a path towards sustainability.

Growing vegetables can be easier than you think: Rooftop gardening as a path towards sustainability.

This past winter the rooftop garden of Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) went under some serious construction; the old wooden plant boxes were removed from the upstairs deck and permanent flower beds, made of cement were installed. The construction finished in time for spring planting and has meant that the Renfrew Collingwood Food Security Institute (RCFSI) has been able to grow and harvest large amounts of fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables on the CNH rooftop. Food grown in the garden goes towards programs such as the Community Kitchens workshops, the Families Branching Out program, The Kids Kitchen and the Saturday morning Breakfast Program. Throughout the spring and summer folks from all four of these programs have been benefitting from the garden ; at both the Community Kitchens skill building workshops for mothers and at the breakfast program, anyone who wants to is encouraged to take a small pre-packaged bag of vegetables and herbs from the Rooftop Garden home with them.

The food from the Rooftop garden is organic. Organic growing is important because chemical pesticides are harmful both to humans and to the environment. As it stands right now, organic food is often over-priced and only a realistic option for those with lots of money.

The cost of food is rising around the world, caused mostly by higher gas prices and the use of food, particularly corn, to make "biofuels". Large-scale, industrial farming is making the environmental crisis worse. We need a community response to these problems. The RCFSI and CNH have been helping to start this response through their different food-related programs. In particular, the Rooftop Garden is a space for people to come and learn how they can grow cheap, healthy food, too.

*Bigger than rooftop gardens, some people have started talking about what they call "vertical farming". This means growing food in cities in greenhouses with up to 30 floors (or more). These greenhouses would, in the imagination of the people suggesting them, make use of sustainable power sources like the wind or the sun so that they wouldn't be dependent on gasoline and its skyrocketing prices. There's lots of information at verticalfarm.com, if you're interested.

*This is one idea of how sustainable farming might look in the future. Whether the way we get our food in the future will look like this or not, it's obvious that they way we're doing things right now isn't working. Before big changes happen on a worldwide scale, smaller initiatives like rooftop, or other urban gardens can help to bridge the gap.

If you're interested in increasing you or your family's ability to get cheap, healthy, and delicious fruits and vegetables, consider a shift towards home and community grown food. Stop by the Rooftop Garden to learn and explore. Right now, the RCFSI Rooftop Garden is open to the public on Thursday from 12noon-3pm, and tours for groups are available upon request. Contact Heidi, the overseer of the RCFSI for more information: foodsecurity@cnh.bc.ca



-Tessa Vikander is the 2008 summer intern with the RCFSI and is an undergraduate sociology student. She spent July and August working at CNH in the office, kitchen and gardens. She supports the move towards a plant-based diet, urban agriculture and collective responses to community issues. Positive feedback and constructive criticism are strongly encouraged; email: tessa.cnh@gmail.com.