What is Inner City Farms?

Inner City Farms is a small business that uses organic practices to grow vegetables in residential spaces in Vancouver. We revive neglected garden space and convert lawns into beautiful and productive urban farms, all within the limits of our beloved city.

Our land is provided by Vancouverites who support our efforts and commitment to social, ecological and financial sustainability. In return we offer what we can: a share of the harvest bounty.

Our vegetables are primarily available through a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) model. We also work with chefs and restaurants that strive to be local-sustainable.

What is a CSA?
Community Shared Agriculture is an alternative economic model that allows food producers (farmers!) and food consumers (eaters!) to work together for mutual benefit. A partnership is forged where a group, or membership, pools their resources and hires a farmer to grow food for them; the farmer and the CSA members share risk and reward. This protects the farmer from the uncertainty of the market and provides a personal connection between eaters, their food and the people growing it. The CSA model can offer small-scale growers a chance to survive outside the status quo of the industrial, highly mechanized, global food system. It offers eaters an alternative, safe, fresh, and community-minded option that is impossible to find at the supermarket.

Food is something everyone relates to and unites us all. Inner City Farms is working to bring real food back to the table through our vegetables and our conversations. It is time that we all recognize the vulnerable state of our global food system and see healthy food as part of healthy communities.

Best we can tell "sustainability" means living as though we plan to stay here for a while, and then acting accordingly. If that results in beautiful food, healthy, efficient and productive landscapes, biodiversity, friendship and a chance to earn a living wage, then it certainly seems worth the effort. We think so anyway.

For a further intro to Inner City Farms and a look into the gardens check out this short clip from the Suzuki Diaries

Photos also available here courtesy of BC Business magazine.