Ryerson Alumni - Winter 2019 [10]

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GOULD STREET

GRAPHIC DETAILS

Grazing the roof

Ryerson Urban Farm grows food and community

Vegetables growing on the rooftop farm Person carrying empty crates to collect produce

Person holding a bag full of green vegetables

$25 bags of vegetables are sold each week to Ryerson staff, students, and local residents through a Harvest Share.

GARDEN FEATURES

Bird Baths

Pollinator Gardens

Flower Farm

Bee Hives

Three women picking and separating various types of vegetables

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOEL CLIFTON

Person holding a handful of red and yellow peppers

DOWNTOWN TORONTO can feel as cold and sterile as any big city but venture up to the roof of the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre from May to October and step into a green oasis. Surrounded by concrete and glass highrises, the Ryerson Urban Farm (RUF) grows thousands of pounds of fresh, organic produce on the quarter-acre Andrew and Valerie Pringle Environmental Green Roof.

From kale to kohlrabi, more than 50 crops are distributed among Ryerson Eats, the Ryerson Market, the Good Food Centre and a Harvest Share/Community Supported Agriculture program.

Named for a gift from the Pringle family (Valerie is an RTA graduate), the green roof was built in 2004. It was converted to a rooftop farm in 2013 by RUF, which grew out of a student-led initiative to grow food on campus.

“What we’re doing is so innovative; we’re inventing systems as we go along,” said Arlene Throness, urban farm manager. “We’re now a department within University Business Services, and it’s exciting to see that a farm can become part of the institutional landscape, producing food on campus rooftops and creating opportunities for education and research.”

To that end, crop weight, yield, and other information is tracked to calculate costs, improve processes and create a replicable model for others. “We’re collecting data on the farm so anyone who wants to replicate what we’re doing will have a blueprint of what we’ve learned,” said Throness.

RUF’s success has led to the building of a second rooftop farm, atop the Daphne Cockwell Health Sciences Complex, scheduled to open in the spring of 2019. It will be the first purpose-built green roof designed specifically for growing edible plants under the City of Toronto’s green roof bylaw.

“Overall, I’m blown away by how much people enjoy spending time up there,” said Throness. “We’ve created a natural space in the heart of the city.”

—Deborah Smyth

10 Ryerson University Magazine / Winter 2019