Growing in the City: Expanding Opportunities for Urban Food Production in Victoria, Canada

Urban Farm DB summary

This paper describes the background, policy and program changes, implementation, and early outcomes of "Growing in the City," a municipally led comprehensive strategy launched in 2016 by the City of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to expand food production within the city. It focuses on initiatives enabling small-scale commercial urban food production and public-realm community programs—including community gardens, boulevard gardening, an inventory of city-owned land with community gardening potential, and a pilot program to plant food trees on city land—and discusses the success factors, challenges, and areas for improvement in achieving the initiative's goals.