Skip to main content

Video - Paul Hughes: Why cities need to put vacant land to work

Paul Hughes is the Urban Farm Manager for Grow Calgary. Grow Calgary operates an urban farm just west of Olympic Park in the City of Calgary, south of Highway #1.  It produces food for the Calgary Food Bank.

Grow Calgary's farm started in May, 2013 but the path to getting the farm was long and torturous. Paul Hughes describes the support of Alberta Transportation to provide the land. But he also asks the question "Why is access to vacant public land in cities for food production so difficult and time consuming?"

Paul Hughes was interviewed by the Alberta Land-use Knowledge Network for Growing Insights, their online course and discussion forum on Urban Agriculture and Local Food, launched in the autumn of 2013. The Growing Insights website can be reached at http://growinginsights.ca/