We are gauging interest from academic institutions on partnering in a new research project called the "Living Lab." While the details have yet to be worked out, the Living Lab is a collaboration with the city of Vancouver, the Environmental Youth Alliance, educational institutions, and the community to utilize community food production land for teaching and research.
The site for the proposed Living Lab is the Copley Community Orchard, an urban orchard located on City of Vancouver property near the Nanaimo Skytrain Station. Originally established as an orchard in the early 1900’s some heritage apple trees remain. This was the inspiration behind creating the Copley Orchard three years ago.
Our unique position as a communally shared orchard positions us to contribute to both the horticultural side of urban agriculture research as well as the social research side of community land stewardship. The hope is that stakeholders would work with the city to create a brand new land designation, called a “Living Lab” that would allow unique uses and tenure on the land. Given the perennial nature of our project, a longer term tenure (10-15 years) would provide the security needed to ensure full scale production while allowing academics to implement longer term research activities.
If you'd like to discuss what participating in the Living Lab could look like for you or your institution contact juliat@eya.ca by Feb 7, 2014. After that time there may still be opportunities, so feel free to contact us. 
1 comment:
What a great initiative! Would the EYA ever consider partnering with a plastics recycling like Blue Planet Recycling? They specialize in things that are difficult to recycle and even pickup!
Post a Comment