Wes Regan is a founding board member and current Treasurer of the Vancouver Urban Farming Society and partner at Urban Stream, a local food systems technology startup.

I asked him about the market size of urban farming in Vancouver. He said:

-about 30-40 “hands in the dirt” urban farmers (making a commercial business out of it)

-about 100 people in Vancouver involved in the Vancouver Urban Farming Society who are related to urban farming in other ways (like food systems and food security)

-make distinction between urban farmers (who are doing it as a business) vs gardeners (do it for recreation)

-Often these businesses are non-traditional. some do it for barter and other non-money transactions

What are the major challenges facing vancovuer urban farmers?

-access to land/space is a number one concern

-land quality is also a big concern (eg soil contamination, microbial ecosystem health)

-also land tenure (getting kicked off after a few years)

-many current urban farmers are farming other people’s yards, but there is not any predominant way that urban farmers currently connect with land-owners when they are looking for space. many simply go door-to-door

-many use the list-serve message boards of the Vancouver Urban Farming Society

-Another problem is burn-out of keen young urban farmers who don’t know how to manage a busness or a project. Don’t know how to manage inventory or other small business skills. -software could offer valuable business management support