Author(s)

V. Bhatt, L. Farah, N. Luka, J. M. Wolfe, R. Ayalon, I. Hautecoeur, J. Rabinowicz & J. Lebedeva

Abstract

Under ideal circumstances, sustainability, food security, nutrition, public health and environmental quality would be interlinked, for they are vital for the wellbeing of cities. Yet, over the course of the 20th century, cheap fossil-fuel energy, the forces of globalisation, and broader socio-cultural patterns have delocalised food production. Cities are now where the majority of humanity lives, and if they are to be sustainable, it is important to bring productive planting back into urban and peri-urban areas through citizen participation. In addition to reaping the benefits of local food production and engagement with the everyday natural processes that sustain life, productive growing in cities will help reduce their global ‘ecological footprint’ – made especially large by importing food from faraway places. In the summer of 2007, with the help of volunteers, the authors of this paper created a containerized garden, or the Edible Campus project, on the grounds of McGill University in which sustainability, food security, and environmental quality were linked through innovative urban design to produce food in a challenging urban setting. Keywords: productive cities, local food production, design, urban environment, Montréal, edible landscapes. 1 Introduction Cities are pivotal in reducing global warming; according to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities [1], up to half of Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG)

Keywords

productive cities, local food production, design, urban environment, Montréal, edible landscapes.