Urban Agriculture in Victoria (Survey)

[ebaydar]

Hello everybody

I am conducting a research to explore why urban agriculture is gaining importance in Victoria. As a part of research I prepared a survey. It includes only 10-agree-disagree questions. just take 2 minutes
I would appreciate your honesty and participation.

survey link here:
http://www.esurveycreator.com/live.php?code=acf34e2

Thank you for your time..

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by ebaydar

... urban agriculture is gaining importance in Victoria.

Is it? I don't see any evidence.

[ebaydar]

we produce only between 5-10% of our food on Vancouver
Island currently. therefore it is gaining importance.

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by ebaydar

we produce only between 5-10% of our food on Vancouver Island currently. therefore it is gaining importance.

We used to produce over 30%. So to me, it is losing importance, isn't it?

[Bernard]

There are a host of reasons why we produce a low percentage of the food we eat on the island.

1) Our population has grown
2) There is actually not that much great farm land on the island, certainly the CRD only has a few pockets of good land. We have too much clay and too many rocks in our soils to make them ideal for farming
3) Production of food is too expensive for what people are willing to pay - if you could make $100,000 a year raising potatoes, we would have more than enough here on the island.
4) Most of the potential farm land on the island is currently in private forest lands, we do not have that many acres of farm land available.
5) We do not have the infrastructure for farming, there is no longer any major wholesaler on the island and most people have no access to cold storage facilities.
6) The public objects to most farming practices. Note the propane cannons in the Blekinsop valley or reaction to the use of roundup or other standard farm herbicide.
7) Virtually no one wants to farm any longer because the hours are too long for work that is too hard for pay that is too low.

Economically it is very hard for someone to make a go of farming. If you wanted a net income of $20,000 a year you need to gross about $60,000 to $80,000 if you do not have to pay for the land. To get that amount of money you need to raise close to 100,000 pounds of produce. To raise 100,000 pounds of produce you need five acres. To manage five acres you need to work about 80-90 hours a week for 25 weeks of the year. This means you earn close to minimum wage.

If you have to pay for the land you can not make enough money off of five acres to pay for your own wages.

[aastra]

I think we need a definition of urban agriculture.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by VicHockeyFan

We used to produce over 30%. So to me, it is losing importance, isn't it?

We once produced large crops of potatoes until the Golden Nematode quarantine came along. The Saanich Peninsula land also produced so many berries that it was responsible for the Growers Winery on Quadra Street, where they had their own railway siding.

[Bernard]

Vantreights also used to grow a lot of potatoes at Panama Flats till the late 1980s, enough for 10 pounds per person in this city from that one site. Problem was that the money they could make from potatoes could not pay for the cost of growing them.

As shipping has become cheaper and better, it is now realistic to ship soft berries a long distance and taste good. California strawberries are now often decent in flavour. It means local growers have to compete with the world on price.

We consume almost all the food produced on the island, the problem is that there are not a lot of people willing to produce the food.

Urban agriculture - yes the term is quite meaningless at the moment. Does it mean personal growing in the backyard? Does it mean the small scale shared backyard farming like the Donald Street Market? Does it mean urban hens?

The amount of food produced in backyards for personal consumption is much smaller now than 30 or 60 years ago. Maybe one in 100 houses produces more than $500 worth of their own produce in a year.

My estimate is that there are 100 to 200 backyard chicken flocks in the urban parts of the city with about 5 chickens each, so about 500 to 1000 chickens in the city. These chickens would produce about 100,000 to 200,000 eggs a year. In the core of the city we consume about 600,000 to 800,000 eggs a day.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Bernard

My estimate is that there are 100 to 200 backyard chicken flocks in the urban parts of the city with about 5 chickens each, so about 500 to 1000 chickens in the city. These chickens would produce about 100,000 to 200,000 eggs a year. In the core of the city we consume about 600,000 to 800,000 eggs a day.

What does that work out to for the people who eat in the core of the city? Around 10 eggs per person per day?

[Bernard]

Originally Posted by Bingo

What does that work out to for the people who eat in the core of the city? Around 10 eggs per person per day?

at 250,000 people it is 2.5 to just over 3 per day.

Most eggs are consumed as an ingredient in baking.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Bernard

at 250,000 people it is 2.5 to just over 3 per day.

Most eggs are consumed as an ingredient in baking.

If a chicken averages one egg per day (on a good day) then that would require 750,000 cacklers just to feed the core of the city for one day.

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by Bingo

If a chicken averages one egg per day (on a good day) then that would require 750,000 cacklers just to feed the core of the city for one day.

You can Google up stats that say 9B chickens a year are born in NA, and we slaughter over 20M per day. Quite amazing.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by VicHockeyFan

You can Google up stats that say 9B chickens a year are born in NA, and we slaughter over 20M per day. Quite amazing.

Can you imagine if all those chickens decided to cross the road at the same time?

[Bernard]

Originally Posted by Bingo

If a chicken averages one egg per day (on a good day) then that would require 750,000 cacklers just to feed the core of the city for one day.

That is about right, in their prime a good layer hen will lay an egg or more per day.

There is a reason battery egg factories exist, there is a huge demand for eggs.

At six chickens at my best I was not fully self sufficient in eggs as I consumed them in other products, but at six eggs a day I had just enough for a family of six for fresh eating of which two do not eat eggs at all.

My chickens are down to about 1 egg every two days and one of the chickens died, i get just around 2 dozen eggs at the moment. Come the spring these five will be history and I will get new hens.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Bernard

My chickens are down to about 1 egg every two days and one of the chickens died, i get just around 2 dozen eggs at the moment. Come the spring these five will be history and I will get new hens.

So to compensate for lazy chickens, breakage, stress, cool weather, molting time, racoons and foxes; what percentage of eggs laid makes it to the consumer, and how many additional chickens would you need to make up the shortfall?

[Bernard]

Originally Posted by Bingo

So to compensate for lazy chickens, breakage, stress, cool weather, molting time, racoons and foxes; what percentage of eggs laid makes it to the consumer, and how many additional chickens would you need to make up the shortfall?

I do not know that answer, I do know the life of the battery layer is not long and they are being constantly replaced. Young hens do not slow down during molting, foxes etc are not an issue for the commercial business. Breakage, I do not know, but based on my own experience, it is less than 1%, I break an egg once a month and get about 150 eggs a month at peak production with 6 hens.

[Barra]

Bernard (and others) are right on the money when it comes to 'urban' - i.e. regional agriculture. In 1978 I worked with a local group that held hearings as part of the Peoples' Food Commission and learned that Vancouver Island was once self sufficient in agriculture, but with the advent of mega food chains, it was more cost-effective for them to ship produce up from California than to buy from local producers, so local agriculture went belly-up.

For your research paper you need to state your definition of urban agriculture, as noted. Your survey is also a bit flawed, as you seem to make assumptions that locally grown food would be organic, and that's not necessarily true.

The interest in locally produced food is because people have an interest in eating healthily and in supporting local producers. Its a consequence of distribution of information about the topic, and access to education (workshops) etc. on how to grow your own.