The federal agency best known for bringing a cosmopolitan flair to Canada’s capital has also been exploring the rural side of its personality this month, advertising rental properties in Ottawa’s Greenbelt to prospective farmers and hosting a panel on the emerging importance of sustainable urban agriculture.
The National Capital Commission’s “Capital Urbanism Lab” scheduled a Nov. 15 panel discussion on how farmers can feed urban and rural communities in a sustainable way, said NCC agricultural officer Patricia Talbot.
According to Phil Mount, associate director of Just Food Ottawa, sustainable agriculture is finding the balance in food supply that keeps urbanites well fed and the environment protected. Just Food is a non-profit group that promotes sustainable food and farming systems in the Ottawa region, including the Greenbelt that surrounds the city’s central area.
Controlled by the NCC, the Greenbelt has ecologically diverse lands that include sustainable farmland, heritage sites, hiking and ski trails and wetlands for various wildlife.
“Sustainable farming may also provide fair… viable incomes for farmers and foreign workers in the region,” said Mount.
Claude Sirois, one of the panel guest speakers, is the manager of Moore Farm in Gatineau. Moore Farm is a historical estate property owned by the NCC.
“Our objective is to help people, the government and encourage them to understand the beauty of nature,” said Sirois. “We offer our expertise to the public and show them what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
Sirois said there are 100 gardens at Moore Farm, which helps to promote ecological urban farming. “We show people the greens useful for mankind, production for textiles, collective growth of beehives. We’re producing food. Producing beauty.”
The NCC rents out 30 per cent of Ottawa’s Greenbelt to local farmers, said Talbot. The agency controls about 5,000 hectares, equivalent to 40 per cent of the rural lands in the City of Ottawa, which stretches from just outside of Arnprior in the west to nearly Rockland in the east, to almost Kemptville in the south.
“Since worldwide population is increasing, more people are moving to cities. Around two-thirds of the population will live in cities by 2050,” said Talbot. “We need to farm in a different and better way to feed people in urban and rural areas.”
Talbot said the NCC is proud to promote local fruits, herbs, vegetables and field crops like soybeans, corn, hay and wheat, as well as a healthy environment and a rural lifestyle in the capital.
“The main difference between farmers who rent NCC’s farms within the Greenbelt and farmers from other major cities is the affordability,” she said. “Our lands are affordable and close to the city. Compared to Toronto, Ottawa’s price is relatively cheaper.”
Currently, there are 80 NCC farms rented out to local farmers.
“It takes a long time to nurture, rebuild and improve the soil. It may take years. So most farms that we rent out are under long-term leases. Some may go up to 25 years,” said Talbot. “The farmlands may pass through generations.” For example, Just Food has been farming on a 100-acre farm on the Greenbelt since 2014, located on the west side of the Blackburn Hamlet community near Orleans.
“I think it’s encouraging that the NCC is pushing forward and promoting more for sustainable farming,” said Mount.
Sirois said they have no choice but to practise sustainable farming: “We may be too small to change the world, but we have the ability to practise sustainable farming to encourage more people to get their hands in the soil.”