Cultivating Montreal: A Brief History of Citizens and Institutions Integrating Urban Agriculture in the City

Urban Farm DB summary

This paper examines the development of urban agriculture in Montreal, Canada, through the lens of citizen action, community group involvement, and formal institutions. Urban agriculture activity in Montreal began in the early 1970s and gained momentum after the 1973 oil crisis. The paper is organized in three parts: the first traces the history of community gardens; the second presents Montreal-based pilot projects that the authors developed and implemented; the third discusses a 2012 citizens' action that used a municipal bylaw to hold a public consultation, leading to the formation of the city's Permanent Committee on Urban Agriculture (Comité de travail de la collectivité montréalaise en agriculture urbaine).