UBC farm brings city slickers back to earth

The rhubarb is ripe for the picking, the strawberries are about to turn a luscious red and the hens are clucking merrily in the breeze at Vancouver’s only urban farm.

On this day, the 24-hectare farm and research site for sustainable food production at the University of British Columbia is an oasis for over 700 fresh food devotees who have gathered for a fundraiser.

The Friends of UBC Farm hope to raise enough money to buy a tractor, pay for operating costs and run programs for children.

Chefs showcasing culinary creations with fresh ingredients including goat cheese and wild arugula have also joined the cause as part of what some are calling a food renaissance that focuses on eating what’s locally produced.

Writer Michael Pollan, who’s about to speak to the crowd as part of a book tour to promote the paperback edition of his “In Defence of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” (The Penguin Press), said there’s an increasing awareness about consuming food versus “edible food-like substances.”

“The food movement is popping up everywhere, and it’s not just limited to a few cities,” he told The Canadian Press.

“I go to cities where there’s a renaissance of farmers’ markets, where they’d had this industrial food even though they had the best soil in the world.”

Pollan said “a perfect storm” of events, including recent food safety issues, has meant that North Americans are rejecting food produced by a mammoth industry in favour of growing their own produce or buying locally.

“Every time we have a food safety problem, whether it’s E. coli in the spinach or salmonella in the nuts most recently, it kind of pulls back the curtain a little bit and people get a look at how their food is produced and they’re really shocked.”

He said books including “The 100-Mile Diet,” written by a Vancouver couple who tried to live for a year by only eating food produced within a 160-kilometre radius, have added to the awareness, as have documentaries including the just-released “Food Inc.,” in which he is featured.

While Pollan is a huge advocate of people growing their own food, he said getting involved in a community garden is one way to get in touch with the land.

“It helps with your understanding of where food comes from and that daily reminder that nature feeds you, not industry.”