Mark Anielski is an economist and the author of the Economics of Happiness. He is involved in the slow food movement in Edmonton and made the economic argument for the conservation of agricultural land in the N.E. of Edmonton. He says we need to change the language about agricultural land inside city boundaries; he suggests calling it Foodland inside urban areas. You can generate $25,000 per acre from SPIN Farming. Edmonton could be vegetable self sufficient by protecting foodland in NE Edmonton. Yes, condos and single home subdivisions provide higher returns than even horticultural food production. But Mark Anielski's argument is that foodland deserves a special land disposition just like green spaces, natural areas and parks.
Mark Anielski was interviewed by the Alberta Land-use Knowledge Network as part of their online course and discussion of Urban Agriculture and Local Food in the autumn of 2013. The course, Growing Insights can be viewed at http://growinginsights.ca/
