This consultation is closed.

Thank you for providing your feedback on our Urban Agriculture Strategy 2019-2023.

About the project

We are committed to supporting our community to grow and share food locally.

In 2014, we adopted our first urban agriculture strategy. The strategy expanded on the work we’d been doing to help residents grow food at home and in shared spaces, like lane ways and nature strips.

Last year we asked you to share your feedback and ideas to help us write our updated Urban Agriculture Strategy for 2019-2023. Thank you to everyone who shared their feedback with us.

We have developed a draft of the new strategy from your ideas and we want to know if we got it right.

You can view the full draft strategy and action plan or read a summary of key points from the strategy below.

What you told us

The most popular ideas that emerged from the first round of consultation were:

  • Increase the number of community gardens in Yarra
  • Build skills and knowledge in the community
  • Increase the number of planter boxes in Yarra
  • Require new developments to include space for food growing
  • Find and incentivise underutilised land for food growing

About the new strategy

Key objectives outlined in the new strategy:

  • Facilitate access to space for people to grow food – Provide access to growing spaces for residents, as well as facilitating landshare, working with developers and supporting community groups to find long and short-term urban agriculture opportunities.
  • Increase food skills and knowledge through education and training – Develop and annual program of events to promote urban agriculture, engage with community to understand expectations and needs and promote urban agriculture through Yarra Council’s channels and by partnering with educational institutions.
  • Build partnerships with other organisations and groups – Work with community organisations to optimise funding opportunities, work with other local government organisations and facilitate relationships between organisations working in urban agriculture.
  • Advocate within and beyond council to work towards a sustainable local food systems approach – Gather evidence to better understand urban agriculture, develop methods to embed projects within council practices, create and protect opportunities for food growing and recycling and build understanding of food systems and their application in local government.

Highlights of the new strategy

The previous strategy was developed at a time when urban agriculture was a new concept to many and as a result had a strong focus on raising the profile of urban agriculture and removing barriers.

This strategy has a strong focus on increasing the knowledge base, building on the work of the previous strategy and moving towards a food systems approach.

What is a food system?

A food system is how our food is grown, processed, distributed, consumed and recycled. In practice, this means where we get our food from, how we use it and what we do with any waste.

Our vision

Yarra contributes to a sustainable city where our community grows, produces and shares food as part of a healthy and resilient food system.