The Editor,
I was part of a community group which produced the 2006 Richmond Food System Assessment, along with the late Mary Gazetas, and Arzeena Hamir, who is now farming near Courtenay. Around the time the report was presented to the Richmond City Council, we met with the then Federal Minister of Agriculture, Chuck Stahl, to propose an innovative Sustainable Food System Centre for the Garden City Lands, which Mr. Stahl named "Granville Island with a Farm."
I am alarmed that the City's website on planning for Garden City Lands contains none of the recent history of the Lands and the long fight to keep it in the ALR. There is a wonderful opportunity to do something special and world-class on these lands. In collaboration with the local conservation group, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and other community partners, Richmond could showcase the unique natural features of the site and create a marvelous outdoor community space, as well as a showcase for emerging urban agriculture development, which will become increasingly important to Richmond with its ever-growing population.
Residents of all ages and incomes could learn how to grow, cook and consume more of their own food.
Let's dream of a future where food is rarely transported thousands of miles, and only when it cannot be produced locally. Let's dream of a future where there is no need for the charity model of food banks and community meals.
In an area of such wealth, both natural and monetary, as is Richmond, surely we can do something truly amazing with the Garden City Lands for the benefit of the whole community.
Mary Phillips Richmond
