Urban farming has taken on a new social spin. Based on Canada’s West Coast, the Sole Food project is leading the way with its innovative approach: the nonprofit Sole Food farms aim to support those with limited resources with agricultural training, employment, and a community. The roots of urban farming Mohamed Hage is credited with starting the first commercial urban rooftop farm. Based in Montreal, Lufa Farms now spans a 32,000 square-foot rooftop. Since the first greenhouse was erected in 2011, Hage has been spreading the word about the importance of sustainability and urban farming throughout North America. Now, almost six years later, urban farming has taken on a new social spin. The latest rooftop and parking lot farms are now of the nonprofit sort. One of the biggest nonprofit urban farms, called Sole Food, can be found smack in the middle of Vancouver’s busiest streets. Michael Ableman, a farmer, social activist, and author seeking to change the way that urban communities connect with rural farmers, is the voice behind the Sole Food movement. The Sole Food project teaches Vancouver’s disadvantaged inner-city residents a different kind of street smarts. Feeding more than mouths At first glance of the Sole Food website, it may be hard to imagine how a program of this scope could possibly work. Sole Food doesn’t employ salaried workers to harvest plants and learn complex urban farming methods. Instead, Ableman is teaching recovering addicts, people with mental illness, and those who call Vancouver’s streets home how to farm. Why? “Good food is a basic and fundamental human right,” says Ableman. He believes that Canadians are part of a system where “good food is only available to a small segment of society”—a segment that can afford organic grocery store prices. It’s hard to purchase quality food in Canada when you’re reliant on a monthly government cheque—harder still when you’re living on the streets. That’s why Ableman’s Sole Food project isn’t “ … just growing food … it’s growing people.” People who, in turn, can grow produce that is fresh and healthy and that can be sold to fellow urbanites at a reasonable cost. Read more..