A report to council Tuesday will recommend bylaw changes to make it easier to start and operate a farmers market in Vancouver, Robertson said Friday. The changes will increase access to local food and help expand markets around the city, he said in a news release.
"Farmers markets are increasingly popular in Vancouver, and supporting locally grown food is a key part of our goal to become the greenest city in the world," Robertson said.
"In recent years, we've seen farmers markets expand from Trout Lake into Gastown, the West End and Kitsilano. People want to eat locally and these changes will help make it easier."
The report provides a number of recommendations officials believe will make it easier for new farmers markets to open while supporting those already in existence. They include:
- Reducing permit fees for farmers markets.
- Expanding the zoning in which a market can operate.
- Increasing the permitted maximum market size.
- Establishing a streamlined process for setting up a market.
"Supporting farmers markets makes sense, both for our environment and our economy," Robertson said. "People get greater access to locally produced food, and in the process we create new gathering places for neighbours and local businesses to come together. It's also a good way to invest directly in our local economy.
"The changes recommended in this report are a response to the growing popularity of farmers markets in Vancouver."
'We want to serve more neighbourhoods and more members of the public and these policy changes are going to help us do that.'- Tara McDonald, executive director, Vancouver Farmers Markets
Tara McDonald, executive director of Vancouver Farmers Markets, says over the past five years, the number of people shopping at the markets has doubled to 10,000 shoppers a week, but space for the markets hasn't grown at the same rate.
"We want to serve more neighbourhoods and more members of the public and these policy changes are going to help us do that," McDonald told CBC News.
Coun. Andrea Reimer believes the proposed bylaw changes would offer greater stability for farmers.
"There is no real legal structure for farmers markets to exist in," Reimer said. "That makes it very difficult for them to get the kind of tenure and security they need to ... develop the kind of support for local food production."
