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OM: Jars of active mycelium ona

kitchen counter during the weekend workshop.

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Workshop designer and facilitator Bo De Valle Garcia explains how to make a medium in which to grow mushrooms.

Feeding a need

Neighbourhood
house promotes
sharing, growing
food

T he popularity of urban ag-
riculture in Vancouver is
more related to gentrifica-
tion than food security, says food
security coordinator Mik Turje.

The term rings with equal
amounts of hipness and hope, and
local developers have a keen ear.

“At this point we're seeing a lot
of developers who are latching on
to the movement. They have these
temporary gardens while they spec-
ulate their land. The land value goes
up and they get rid of it and put a
condo there,” said Terje.

Terje was the urban agriculture
coordinator at The Stop commu-
nity food centre in Toronto and has

ss aX.

Mushrooms sprout on a Vancouver lawn. Wild mushroom season in coastal B.C. run

worked on several organic farms in
B.C. “T started to feel hollow selling
food to rich people,” Terjesaid.

Though admittedly jaded, Terje’s
grant work for the Renfrew Collin-
gwood Food Security Institute
funds events like the cultivation
workshop, which remain important
for community-building.

The institute is a member of the
Vancouver Neighbourhood Food
Network and offers programming
to reflect the food-based needs of
community members. They regu-
larly consult with an advisory com-
mittee of participants to guide
policy.

Terje said a problem with ad-
dressing food security is how the
issue is framed.

“(The solution to food insecu-
rity] is minimum wage increase, it’s
welfare rates increasing, it’s afford-
able housing, it’s healthcare — it’s
poverty. Fundamentally it’s about
poverty and youre not going to
solve those big systemic issues with
another garden,” Terje said.

en Y ‘ i Geen

HUMUNGOUS FUNGUS
BY THE NUMBERS

The world's largest organism is
the Armillaria ostoyae, in the Blue
Mountains of Oregon.

It sprawls over 2,384 hectares
of soil, which is about the size of
1,665 football fields.

8650

The mushroom is estimated to
be anywhere from 2,400 to 8,650
years old.

SOURCE: WWW.FS.FED.US/PNW/NEWS

s from late August to November.

Story and photos by Nick Laba