Urban Farming
"Maybe they just don't like goats?"
This was our first impression following the last council meeting, it seems that some of the elected representatives of the City of Castlegar have a different perspective on food security and sustainability than many people in this City and region. When presented with an opportunity to review the current animal control and zoning bylaws to permit small-scale "urban agriculture", as is permitted in cities such as Seattle, it seems our Council, rather than having a rational discussion, opted instead to poke fun at the suggestion that urban hens and miniature goats may be a step closer to a sustainable Castlegar. read more »
This spring, we planted Wheat, Oats and Amaranth. Here’s where we are up to. This is some of our Amaranth… read more »
It’s been an interesting long weekend with lots of summer activities going on, but one common theme has been people talking about goats and chickens around town.
In response to the brief story and random question featured in the Castlegar Current, people about town are thinking about chickens and goats in a new light.
This is the vox pop section from the Castlegar Current (via Raymond Koehler), (click on the image to view full-sized)…
At a birthday party this morning, another two families agreed that allowing chickens and goats would be great, they even commented on previous neighbours that have had chickens in the past, with no problems.
I have to wonder if those on council who voted against further discussion of this matter actually talked to anyone regarding this proposal.
I’m sure this isn’t the end of this story. :-)
Follow the story here, from the original letter to Council and all correspondence forward.
We’ve put forward a letter to Council outlining a proposal for the City to amend it’s Animal Control and Zoning bylaws to permit hens and miniature goats within the City. read more »
We received our Crop Share Certificate from the Creston Grain CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) today. As you can see from the image above, we hold share number 79 (which was out of a possible 200 for the 2008 season). read more »
Having heard some of the friendlier ideas of how humans are going to respond to the changing world at conferences like the Future of Food in the Kootenays, I can relate to comments like this, directed at Tim Flannery in a conference in Australia…
In the din of all this brave green planning, a psychologist suddenly intervened: “You Australians are just playing around with the results of climate change”, she said, “you haven't mentioned guns or fences…” As a child raised in war wrecked East Germany, she recalled how city dwellers thronged to her rural town and stole anything portable, including vegetables, petrol, oil and bags of coal. “I admire the spirit of this lunch, she snorted, “but you are babies”. She has a point. Creating the resilient, self-sufficient off-the-grid communities we would need to survive if the oil runs out, itself remains a fantasy. Let alone dealing with the rampaging hordes. “You'd have to go a lot further out West than here”, someone said, “if you really wanted to feel safe”. The mood darkened.
The ideas of growing food in your backyard, and sharing of resources that represents the Utopian alternative opportunity for the coming energy descent and the related impacts of climate change seems to be a nice idea, but which of the options is closer to the reality that most people in your region are likely to fall towards?
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