Reimagining the Cultivation of Food

I was thinking about something—there’s this problem with expensive food prices right now. I was watching an interview with the NDP leader, and he was being pressed on what he could do about it. It was hilarious to watch his inability to answer. The lack of imagination and creativity in our politicians is mind-boggling.

Anyway, that got me thinking about my massage therapist—who, by the way, I haven’t visited since I’ve been back. Definitely time to book one! She’s been growing her own veggies and herbs in her backyard for years. Some herbs she stores or freezes so she has enough throughout the winter. That led me to a clip I saw on Instagram (I think) where someone talked about grass—not the kind you smoke—the grass around our houses and how useless it is aside from aesthetics. This is space, space that could be used to cultivate food.

This is my dear friend Majo's garden in Concordia, Colombia.

Imagine for a moment if half the population did what my massage therapist does. Or think about every old-school Italian and Portuguese gardener, or those community gardens in places like High Park. What if condos figured out how to create community gardens? For people without a green thumb, this could even become a business opportunity for garden lovers like my friend Phil from Smiling Gardner and others.

We could be producing our own food.

In a time when the economy is weak, a weak economy presents an opportunity to reimagine and recreate. In many ways, I think we’ve had it too easy, and ease diminishes human creativity and suppresses the imagination. I see this as a beautiful opportunity for our city and country to zoom out and recognize the possibilities in front of us.

Lastly, it’s not just about cultivating food—it’s about cultivating life, nourishment that feeds us on multiple levels. It’s time to build stronger communities, and nothing ties people together better than the cultivation and sharing of food. The question isn’t “Can this be done?” but “What would happen if this idea was scaled across the GTA?”

One last thing my RMT shared—last year, she started gardening barefoot, connecting directly with the earth. This deepened her relationship with the floating ball we all live on and made her even more grounded. Beautiful, right?