Supporting Climate-Ready Food Gardens : Climate Resilient Campus Community Foodscapes
Creators: name: McLeod, Annie
name: Oganesyan, Sergo
name: Perry, Eden
name: Peters, Kassi
name: Truman, Addie
Publisher: name: The University of British Columbia
Year: 2023

description: The Intergovernmental PaneI on Climate Change (IPCC) has forecasted an increase in mean annual temperatures and in the frequency and severity of weather events including droughts, heat waves and heavy precipitation (Seneviratne et al., 2012). Future shifts in weather events will expose vulnerabilities in our food system, necessitating action to mitigate their harmful effects (AAFC, 2022). In response to the climate emergency, UBC has developed the Climate Action Plan 2030 that aims to reduce GHG emissions and expand research on climate-friendly food systems (CFFS) at UBC (UBC, 2021; UBC 2023). UBC SEEDS and Campus Planning have also identified the need for more information on CFFS to support UBC’s fifteen campus food gardens. Previous SEEDS research has recognized the roles that these gardens play in increasing food security and shaping the campus community (Ng et al. 2018; Zeng et al. 2019; Bharmal et al. 2007), highlighting the importance of safeguarding these spaces against future climatic changes. Under the guiding principles of Community-Based Action Research (CBAR), our team carried out primary and secondary research through a literature review, focus groups and interviews to understand how campus food gardens could become more climate resilient. In focus groups and interviews, key stakeholders including campus food growers, the UBC Climate Emergency Task Force, UBC Campus and Community Planning, and the UBC Food Hub, were consulted to identify community needs and develop collaborative and informed recommendations for future campus food gardens. Results from our literature review indicated general trends of increased temperatures and drier conditions throughout the summer months (Bush, E. and Lemmen, D.S., 2019) as well as increased frequency of extreme weather events (Metro Vancouver, 2016). This data informed the development of a food plant list suitable for future climate conditions. Focus groups conducted with campus food growers identified six main campus garden challenges, ten garden management practices, and twenty-two discrete criteria that campus food growers use when selecting plants for their campus food gardens. Interviews conducted with campus groups identified six potential roles of future campus food gardens, and nine challenges associated with establishing and maintaining them. From these findings, we identified four central themes that climate-ready campus gardens embody: Community Resilience, Ecological Resilience, Indigenous Knowledge and Values, and Reciprocity. Across these themes, our research participants identified a need for greater communication among campus food growers, including more opportunities for knowledge-sharing. These findings, along with our secondary research, helped to inform the development of two project deliverables: a ‘Climate-Ready Food Plant List’ and a ‘Climate-Ready Food Garden Management Plan’. Based on our findings, we recommend that UBC Campus and Community Planning implement our Climate-Ready Plant List and distribute our Garden Management Plan to campus food growers. We also propose the development of a campus food garden network and improved communication pathways between campus food growers to increase community and climate resilience. Recommendations for future SEEDS research include expanding our climate-ready plant list to include more planting information, updating food garden recommendations as climate projections change, and extending research on campus food gardens to foodscapes. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”