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Rooftop Garden Project of Montreal The Rooftop Garden Project is built on the recognition that communities all over the world face many similar challenges including food security, climate change, and difficult inner-city living conditions. The Garden Project is committed to promoting food security – the availability of enough healthy, local food for everyone, regardless of economic circumstances. The Rooftop Garden Project has become a model of community-involved, sustainable urban agriculture, demonstrating urban sustainability practices like vermicomposting, vertical planting for small urban spaces and micro-green cultivation.〔http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Urban+gardening+greenhouse+effect/2784528/story.html〕 This Montreal initiative stands in a league all of its own; much of the produce grown in its urban gardens is donated to help local community groups offer services to the disenfranchised in Montreal. ==History== The Montreal based group Alternatives first introduced the concept of soil-less method planting in 2001. Peggy Bradley, an American developing soil-less techniques in an effort to offer low cost, ecologically sustainable and low-tech gardening solutions for poor, rural communities in places like Brazil, Morocco and India caught the attention of Alternative representatives while observing the work and efforts by the ''Institute for Simplified Hydroponics'' in Tehuacan, Mexico.〔http://www.ccednet-rcdec.ca/files/ccednet/Rooftop_Garden_Booklet.pdf〕 After studying the method used in Mexico, Alternatives saw the benefits and possibilities for the Montreal community. The attempts to use this system in an effort to tackle food security and hunger issues on a global scale and locally was not something Alternatives could turn away from.〔http://www.ccednet-rcdec.ca/files/ccednet/Rooftop_Garden_Booklet.pdf〕 In 2001, the Institute for Simplified Hydroponics brought their initiatives to Montreal. This non-profit NGO has committed themselves to long term sustainable development projects and have tasted international success. This success caught the attention of Santropol Roulant. The Montreal grown organization recognized the benefits of being able to grow its own produce for their meals-on-wheels clientele. Due to the lack of green space in the urban Montreal setting, they looked to their own rooftop. Roulant’s quest for home grown produce was rising at the same time Alternative’s techniques and experimentation was gaining attention. In 2001, Jane Rabinowicz of Santropol Roulant and Ishmael Hautecoeur of Alternatives joined forces; harvesting Roulant's local community ties and Alternative’s knowledge and resources, they created what is now known as the Rooftop Garden Project.〔http://www.santropolroulant.org/images/Recipes%20for%20Success.doc〕 These two young groups joined forces to create a demonstration garden of 500m2 on a rooftop located near Burnside Hall on McGill University campus and by 2006, Roulant managed to produce one third (or one tonne) of the food used for the program by growing their own produce.〔http://rooftopgardens.ca/?q=en/node/1759〕 Determined to get the entire Montreal area and beyond growing green,〔http://www.rooftopgardens.alternatives.ca/about/history〕 the Project has been relentless in creating community gardens in social-housing complexes,〔http://www.rooftopgardens.alternatives.ca/about/history〕 at schools and seniors' residences, and on rooftops, balconies and stairwells.〔http://www.rooftopgardens.alternatives.ca/sites/rooftopgardens.alternatives.ca/files/ready_to_grow.pdf.pdf#page=33〕 The Rooftop Gardens Project has dedicated countless efforts to grow produce but to also make it a community run and sustained project. By visiting schools and offering interactive programs for students from elementary to university, the Project wants to educate as many people as possible about how accessible and relatively simple it can be to grow produce. The Project encourages local businesses, building owners, educational institutions, government and borough run organizations and the Montreal citizens at large to get on board and start growing produce. The Project’s desire to make gardening accessible gave them the idea to offer ready-made home grow kits so anybody who wants to can grow produce.〔http://rooftopgardens.ca/?q=en/node/1759〕〔http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/print.aspx?postid=335039〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rooftop Garden Project」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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