Concordia’s Home Grown Greens:
What are the legalities of growing and selling food in an urban environment?
Concordia’s Home Grown Greens:
What are the legalities of growing and selling food in an urban environment?
The Concordia Greenhouse Project is an initiative that uses the
Henry F. Hall building rooftop greenhouse as an all-organic space,
geared towards education and research, urban sustainability, food
security and community-building. As an educational space, the
greenhouse seeks to be an environment for workshops, projects and
events that address urban sustainability issues. The greenhouse strives
to implement projects in a sustainable manner, taking measures to
ensure that the consumption of resources such as water, energy, and
building materials are minimized in the planning and implementation of
projects.
The Concordia Greenhouse is a working group of Sustainable Concordia, a student organization on campus that is funded through a student fee levy. The Greenhouse project relies on fundraising from plant sales, plant rentals, and space rentals as well as, grants from internal funding sources such as the Sustainability Action Fund and the Concordia Campus Student Life fund. However the Greenhouse project does not have a stable or guaranteed budget.
Research description:
The Concordia Greenhouse project seeks to realize the value of urban agriculture and issues of food security through different initiatives and projects. To maintain and continue the Greenhouse project, funds must be raised to pay employees and buy supplies for projects. In accordance with our mission to exemplify urban agriculture the project would like to sell oyster mushrooms and mixed greens to raise money to continue and start new projects.
To date the Concordia Greenhouse has not sold food for consumption as a result of not being informed about the associated legalities of growing and selling food. However as urban agriculture grows and food security becomes a more pressing issue, these are questions that will continue to be asked and need to be answered. Before this fundraising initiative is put into action we must determine what are the legal parameters of growing and selling food.
This research request is urgent and will no longer be applicable after the winter semester, April 2010. The sooner we determine the legalities of selling food, the sooner we can start fundraising.
This research should be compiled into a report that clearly shows the methodology used and the results of the research. The research report should range from 8- 15 pages depending on the results found.
The research should be completed in about 30-40 hours, depending on what the results of the inquiry reveals. 1 or 2 students can complete this research initiative, simultaneously.
Education/language(s)/skills required from or preferable in student:
The language skills required are a proficiency in spoken and written English. This project requires skills in independent research and the ability to write a comprehensive report.
Left to right, Ruby Jean Van Vliet Hagman, Concordia Greenhouse Communications Coordinator and Arlene Thronesss, Concordia Greenhouse Coordinator