During the Summer of 2019, PhD candidate and IRC recipient, Stuart Lang, spent a month in the city of Toronto, Canada. Funded by the ICUF (Ireland Canada University Foundation), Stuart flew to the city to speak with urban farmers/gardeners who work in and around the concrete jungle.
Stuart's PhD is focused on urban farming in Dublin, so seeing how people work in similar environments in another part of the world was an invaluable experience. While in Toronto, he met with a number of different groups, including those involved in farmer’s markets, urban CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), and urban renewal organisations. Each has their own sets of beliefs and values.
Whether spurred on by the environmental crisis, food sovereignty, economic independence or back to the land romanticism, those involved in urban farming all have their motivations. But, much like in Dublin, there is much overlap. Food is something we can’t live without, these are the people who are producing food in the increasing inhospitable world we have created.