Food to the Rescue

Toronto will host the first-ever Urban Agriculture Summit from Aug.15 to 18.

Ian Hepburn-Aley of FoodShare holds produce grown at Toronto's Bendale School Market Garden. Urban farming is gaining momentum in Canada as more people look towards ways urban centres can produce more food on rooftops or backyards now covered with grass. Toronto will host the first-ever Urban Agriculture Summit from Aug. 15 to 18. Courtesy of Laura Berman, GreenFuse Photography

TORONTO—There are dire threats in what we eat that a growing movement hopes to change by bringing people closer to their food.

Urban agriculture is seen as a solution to problems ranging from too many people eating processed foods produced cheaply in distant factories to vegetables denatured with genetic modifications aimed at increasing the amount of toxic pesticides they can withstand in the field.