Growing a just garden: environmental justice and the development of a community garden policy for Hamilton, Ontario

Abstract

The proliferation of community gardening, and the increasing recognition of its benefits, has led many municipalities to develop community garden policies. Using the process of drafting a community garden policy in the city of Hamilton, Canada, as a case study, this paper illustrates how an environmental justice framework could inform the creation of an effective, inclusive community gardening policy. At the same time, barriers within the policy process could mitigate against the meaningful incorporation of environmental justice concerns. The paper concludes with a discussion of how greater inter-departmental and community collaboration in policy development, as well as the more routine application of an environmental justice lens, could mitigate the ill effects of the inequitable distribution of environmental and other resources.

Keywords:

• community garden
• environmental justice
• municipal governance
• policy process

Notes

1. Changing this norm does not necessarily mean that institutions can no longer control their messages – by creating multi-stakeholder teams that work together on policy documents (e.g. policy drafting subcommittees) in secure, confidential environments (whether through password protected websites or confidential meetings), control over information could be maintained, while the ability of key stakeholders to participate in policy development would be dramatically increased.