[All] Local Gardening - Interest? Critique?

Mon Apr 6 09:27:32 EDT 2020

Hi Kevin,
    With regards to closing community gardens the most important advocacy work for the future of community gardens would be for their restoration namely that the many & varied gardens would be restored to community use after the CoVid 19 restrictions be lifted. Getting free land usage with access to water for community gardens was always challenging. Preventing it to be repurposed will be the new challenge. In the meantime gardeners should stay home, stay safe & do their part to stop the spread of the virus without complaint. 
Sandra  - Founding member of Doon Pioneer Park Community Garden first planted in 2000 who also served there 10 year co-ordinator. Garden most recently closed during the construction of our very large addition of our community centre beside which the garden is located.

From: Kevin Thomason 
Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2020 10:16 PM
To: Mr. Gregorgy Michalenko 
Cc: Grand River Environmental Network (GREN) 
Subject: Re: [All] Local Gardening - Interest? Critique?

Hi Greg, 

Thanks for the follow-up and the good points that you raise.  I don’t think that anyone wants to circumvent social distancing rules or do anything to threaten to public health.  While golf for example is a social game, usually played in a foursome or group (seldom by oneself) with much of the focus also being socializing in the clubhouse as well bar/restaurant afterwards - all of which is not wise or permitted in these times, gardening is most frequently a solitary activity, where simple rules to keep people far apart could easily be implemented - particularly if it is taking advantage of unused backyards and other under-utilized spaces as Tony suggests.

I would love to think that this CoVid-19 is going to be over or well under control in three weeks as you suggest, however I sit on a global Advisory Board of Doctors Without Borders and have been heavily engaged in almost daily global videoconferences and meetings since mid-January with their top leadership and other international NGO’s on Sars-CoV-2.  I am frequently the only non-doctor or the only person who isn’t a global medical expert on these calls.  The data modelling has been astonishingly accurate so far (predicting in mid-February that Canada would have to be locked down by March 23rd - it ended up happening on March 24th).  These data models are not even showing CoVid-19 peaking in Canada until early June and taking until the end of August to taper down to reasonable levels with the strong likelihood of a second flare up again in October/November.

The situation for treatments is weak with 31 preclinical treatment (medication) candidates under evaluation, 17 in clinical trials, and three failed trials so far.  There are 41 vaccine candidates currently in early development with 3 advancing rapidly but not likely to be available for emergency use until winter and in broad production until next spring.  We all hope for miracles and astounding breakthroughs however, there is a good possibility that it could be as long as two years until science and solutions have caught up to Covid-19 as corona viruses can be extremely difficult as both SARS and MERS have shown.

Thus, food supply could be a serious issue and we are going to have to find rapid new ways to grow, harvest, distribute, and provide food for everyone for months and potentially years ahead in a safe and effective manner.

Surely, there can be systems and practices developed to allow for urban agriculture in the months ahead that both adhere’s to CoVid-19 safety requirements and also helps to augment our food supply (also taking advantage of a considerable amount of the population with unprecedented time available for gardening activities).  We need to be doing this planning now so that planting can be occurring in mid-May as you note but while we are still quite likely going to battling the pandemic at a furious rate.  

None of this is going to be easy, however we are in unprecedented times in a world that is already stretched beyond too many natural limits and in the midst climate change too.

Hopefully our communities will be innovative and as you state yourself we will work out the required protocols and practices for our urban/community gardens to thrive in the weeks and months ahead.

Stay safe and lets see how we can best plan for the future - whatever that may be,
Kevin.

-------------------------------------

  On Apr 5, 2020, at 2:12 PM, Greg Michalenko <gcmichalenko at uwaterloo.ca> wrote:

  Dear Kevin,

  I'm on the board of the Waterloo Region Community Garden council.   I am quite alarmed by the lack of thought community gardeners are displaying on this issue.  I've got some experience in epidemics and their control:  I submitted an account of my mother's family's survival in the 1918 flu to UBC researchers doing a retro study of community coping strategies; as an undergrad at the Univ. of Sask. i had a research assistant job for two summers in a study to unravel the life cycle of the mosquito-borne western equine encephalitis virus that periodically erupts and kills people and horses; and I worked out a protocol for UW field course management during the H1N1 swine flu outbreak.  (I was also supposed to be the keynote speaker of the first environmental education conference in Taiwan, but SARS happened and the Taiwanese put an embargo on visitors from the Toronto area.)

  Canada and Ontario lagged in addressing covid with the result that we have had to go into mass isolation quite late.  Germany intervened early with imported cases, did immediate interventions with all known contacts, and their death rate is only 5% of Italy's because they successfully shut down many of the developing  infection trees before there were many branches.

  The critical need is to dampen the exponential infection growth curve before it rockets so steeply that the surge of infections overwhelms the capacity the health system (already weakened by Ford's cut backs last year).  For that to happen, just as for "herd immunity" in vaccination, isolation needs to be as close to 100% as possible. Voluntary compliance probably got us most of the distance, but imposed restrictions have turned out to be necessary to go the final mile.  It has to be an overall  restriction.  Things would fall apart if exemptions started to be made.  Community gardeners are going wild with petitions and statements.  But so are golfers!

  We'll need  probably three weeks of rigid isolation to get the curve down.  Most garden planting occurs in mid May.  My own thinking is based on the following analytical statement on covid-19 by a respected public health expert: "Social distancing measures are not about individuals, they are about societies working in unison.  They also take a long time to show results.  And you can't cheat.  THIS VIRUS IS UNFORGIVING TO UNWISE CHOICES."  So, if community gardens were exempted, that would provide a pool of 1500 gardeners in Waterloo Region - high enough that there would be a strong likelihood that someone  would make "unwise choices".  Meanwhile, the golfers would start breaking ranks too.  And you are supporting "successfully working around the provincial ban on community gardens", and claim that  "closing the gardens is short-sighted".  From a life-saving public health perspective, it is opening up community gardens that is short-sighted, not closing them. 

  Almost all community groups and enterprises have complied. The gardeners need to compromise:  keep the gardens closed for now, establish a consultative contact with public health, and work out a protocol with them for eventual reopening - which can happen earlier if we don't let the barricades down by granting exemptions at this moment. We can't cheat on this one.

  - Greg Michalenko

  - Greg

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  From: All <all-bounces at gren.ca> on behalf of Kevin Thomason <kevinthomason at mac.com>
  Sent: Sunday, April 5, 2020 11:22 AM
  To: Tony Christie
  Cc: GREN
  Subject: Re: [All] Local Gardening - Interest? Critique? 

  Hi Tony, 

  Thanks for reaching out and proposing the fascinating idea of small scale urban/neighbourhood agriculture on private lands and yards throughout our region.  I think that it is a wonderful idea and there is a tremendous need/opportunity.

  I was contacted earlier this week by another GREN member/community activist, Alisa McClurg about concerns with the recent provincial ban on outdoor community gardens on public lands by the provincial government.  She is organizing a strong grassroots response back to the government that closing community gardens is shortsighted and needs to be reconsidered.  Attached below is her letter to Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife and information on the efforts they are undertaking to reverse this ban:

  There is also an online petition to sign with thousands of signatures so far:
  https://sustainontario.com/2020/03/31/community-gardens-essential-food-service/

  So, somehow Tony the challenge will be how best to get your ideas for neighbourhood agriculture underway while also successfully working around the provincial ban on community gardens.  I think that the government’s primary concern is the gathering of people and provided numbers of people stay modest with just one or two involved at a time it may be possible.  Also, the fact that you would be working on private lands could be helpful as well.

  I’m not a gardener nor have I much experience with community gardens however, hopefully other GREN members who are more experienced can speak up, share ideas, and get involved.

  Cheers,
  Kevin.

  -----------------------------------

    From: KW Urban Harvester <kwurbanharvester at gmail.com>

    Subject: Community Garden Ban

    Date: April 2, 2020 at 2:32:46 PM EDT

    To: cfife-co at ndp.on.ca

    Dear Honourable Catherine Fife, 

    We are writing with regard to the provincial government closing of outdoor community gardens in response to COVID-19. As a long-time community garden group, we are deeply concerned about this measure. Just like farms, community gardens are essential in allowing for the production of fresh healthy food for people in this area. Many individuals involved in these gardens fall into lower income brackets and are part of more vulnerable sectors in our community (e.g. new Canadians, elderly), making them less food secure. 

    While we understand the concern about transmitting the disease, steps can be taken to safeguard gardeners. These include:
      a.. spacing out gardening activities, through time schedules and limiting the number of people present at the community garden at one time; 
      b.. cleaning or eliminating the sharing of garden implements; and 
      c.. cleaning water taps.
    Furthermore, food from community gardens arguably receives less handling, and poses fewer risks, than food from longer supply chains like supermarkets. 

    With twenty community gardens in the City of Waterloo alone, this is a critical issue for your riding. During this time of crisis, we need to strengthen our local food system so that we have resiliency to face the challenges ahead. Knowing you are a long-time supporter of community gardens, we strongly request that you persuade your government to lift this ban. 

    Appreciate very much your consideration in this matter.

    Sincerely,

    Alisa McClurg
    KW Urban Harvester Coordinator
    http://kwurbanharvester.org 

  -------------------------------------

  Kevin Thomason

  1115 Cedar Grove Road
  Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2J 3Z4

  Phone: (519) 888-0519
  Mobile Phone/WhatsApp: (519) 240-1648
  Twitter: @kthomason
  mailto:kevinthomason at mac.com

  -----------------------------------------

    On Apr 5, 2020, at 9:22 AM, Tony Christie <TonyNancyMisha at hotmail.com> wrote:

    Dear Grenners, et al, especially Community Garden folk. Please take a minute to glance at this and send/post your thoughts.
    Thanks,
    Tony

    I've long been curious about co-operative social and economic relations. Done a little reading, taken a few courses, bought a couple of sleeping bags etc. at MEC... 

    With the pandemic upon us and the rapidly unraveling economic and social order, it seems like as good a time as any to get off the sidelines; to jump in and become an actual, no longer a mere armchair, co-operator. My idea is a Co-op devoted to promoting small scale urban and suburban agriculture; focused (at first) on urban and sub-urban private residential (and perhaps commercial) land. People's yards. There will, I predict, be an enormous surge in interest in family-scale subsistence and perhaps even market gardening, and I'd like to help organize it (before the wicked capitalists figure out how to exploit it).

    I'm floating the idea to a few curious if still un-committed people. Ideally I'd like to involve my 20 year old son and his friends; a group of somewhat disengaged youth; somewhat "at risk". (As if we're not all, suddenly, "at risk"!) I have a few acres, a bit of beat-up machinery, a bit of cash and credit. Not much free time yet, as my day job of driving trucks, regardless of what's being hauled, is deemed an Essential Service and trucking is still a surprisingly busy industry. (Activity will, no doubt, decline precipitously as the economy shudders to a halt in the coming days and weeks). 

    My sense is that small crews of two or three workers, each with with a pickup truck, a walk-behind tractor, hand tools, and necessary materials (seeds, manure, mulch, fencing, etc.) could very quickly and safely be deployed to help people establish and manage back-yard and front-yard gardens throughout the region. Payment could be in cash or perhaps in shares of produce as it's harvested. Relationships could be between the Co-op and individual landowners, community groups, municipalities, other co-ops... All sorts of arrangements could be imagined.

    Simple enough idea on its face, but I'd need guidance in (at least); business planning, governance, incorporation, financial, legal, and tax issues, etc... The whole enchilada from scratch, in other words. Much would have to be done remotely, while this infection rages, so help with all things digital and interweb also crucial. Care would have to be built in to all systems, such that physical distancing and other anti-infection strategies were excellent.

    Initially I'd need at least one other "adult" with some administrative and organizational talent to help me propel and steer until a critical mass of engaged and capable members was in place. Preferably someone with a passion for and experience in gardening. I have a few people (friends) in mind for this role, but suggestions would be welcome.

    And, crucially, a professional Co-op Consultant providing planning, guidance, general hand-holding, cheerleading, etc.

    Would you, or someone you know, possibly be that Consultant?

    Thanks for any help, ideas, suggestions... anything at all,

    Sincerely,

    Tony Christie
    321 Dodge Drive
    Kitchener, ON
    N2P 2N2

    tonynancymisha at hotmail.com
    604-845-8822

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