The Pulse: June 16, 2021

Kyra Cusveller decided to start growing vegetables at the beginning of the pandemic after driving by a big box store. The parking lot was full and so were the grocery carts of the people who were hurriedly making their way to their cars.

"That moment, seeing how people had so much fear around where they would get their food from, it really struck home for me that this is a basic necessity that no one should have to worry about," says Cusveller, who lives in Edmonton.

Cusveller is in good company. For the last two years, Denise O'Reilly of A'Bunadh Seeds has seen four times as many sales than in previous years. It's a phenomenon many local seed producers have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. As people spend more time at home, an interest in gardening, and growing food in particular, has blossomed.

Mary Beckie, a professor with the University of Alberta's School of Public Health, says the trend is multi-faceted: people are spending more time at home, and gardening is safe and relaxing. Growing food is also more meaningful given new knowledge about the fragility of food systems.

The interest shown by gardeners like Cusveller could lead to changes in how food is grown in the city as more people push for access for space to garden and the knowledge required to do it.

"People are starting to clue in that maybe it's time to start taking back the system to grow our own food," says Beckie.

It wouldn't be the first time that a major world event has collectively resulted in a desire for self-sufficiency. Kelly Mills of Lady Flower Gardens, a non-profit located on the northeast outskirts of the city, says that during the Second World War victory gardens were sprouting up in yards and public spaces. Gardening was considered a patriotic duty and it proved that food could be produced locally.

In the decades that followed, people shed their desire to garden as mass supermarkets became the norm.

"Our society has gotten itself into a vulnerable position because that knowledge has been lost, and that ability and access to resources and land has been lost," says Mills. "People are just revisiting something that's almost imprinted on the DNA that's been part of the human experience for thousands of years."

The thirst for that knowledge and resources is reflected in a proliferation of online gardening groups, including AMA's Good to Grow community, and events like the Edmonton Permaculture Guild's Resilience Festival. Yard Share YEG also offers workshops and opportunities to grow food.

• The Baitul Hadi Mosque in Ottewell was vandalized with a swastika on Tuesday. Police are investigating the crime, which comes days after an attack against a Black Muslim woman wearing a hijab.
• A man left a homophobic letter at the 127th Garden Gallery, an inclusive, open air art display that promotes support for Indigenous, Muslim, Black and LGBTQ2S+ communities. The incident was shared on social media, prompting others to come forward about receiving similar letters.
• A new report presented to the city's urban planning committee on Tuesday details the racism faced by ETS riders and employees. The report includes recommendations to make the transit system more BIPOC-friendly and inclusive.
• The city is planning to acquire and sell a vacant lot in Lago Lindo that was the site of a horrible tragedy. In 2010, a man killed his domestic partner and set off an explosion that caused the death of four neighbours. The lot has since sat vacant, a painful reminder for the community.
• The city's urban planning committee approved the new Downtown Vibrancy Strategy on Tuesday, earmarking an initial investment of $5 million.
• A national movement to cancel Canada Day has taken hold in Edmonton, reports CityNews. The push comes after the discovery of the bodies of 215 children at a residential school in Kamloops last month.
• A couple has won a dispute with the city over beautifying the park behind their home in Lewis Estates. After receiving a complaint, bylaw officers told the residents to remove flowers, bird feeders and other improvements or face a fine of thousands of dollars. The city has since backtracked, reports Global News.
• Grandin Fish 'n' Chips has officially rebranded — dropping the Grandin from its name amid discussions of renaming schools and city property in the area. The restaurant is now Prairie Fish 'n' Chips.
• Provincial budget cuts have led to the elimination of 800 staff positions at the University of Alberta. The number of professors has fallen roughly to what it was in 1995, writes Edmonton Journal columnist Elise Stolte.

The Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board (EMRB) is considering changes to the region's transportation network to address economic growth, climate change, and travel between municipalities.

On June 10, the EMRB voted unanimously to pass the Integrated Regional Transportation Master Plan (IRTMP), which will serve as its guiding document for transportation-related policies and investments. The plan has four desired outcomes: reducing environmental impacts, healthy communities, economic competitiveness, and to account for the different needs and challenges faced by the region's diverse municipalities.

"We've looked at this with a holistic approach," Gale Katchur, Fort Saskatchewan mayor and chair of the task force that designed the plan, told Taproot.

Although the exact policies that will stem from the IRTMP will be decided at later dates by each individual municipality, the document includes suggestions for how to achieve its goals. One of the biggest suggestions is encouraging a shift away from cars towards more sustainable forms of transportation.

"We don't just want to be building new roads. We want to get people out of private automobiles, and into transit or onto trails," Katchur said.

The plan suggests increasing investments into mass and active transportation infrastructure, incentives for using that infrastructure, and disincentives for using cars, such as parking fees and local gas taxes. It also includes an expansion of the regional trail network to encourage cycling and walking between municipalities.

University of Alberta researchers are investigating whether cannabis can be used as a potential treatment for arthritis. The two-year project aims to develop a decision tool to help arthritis patients and health providers decide if cannabis products would be an effective option for treatment.

"The tool has to be patient-centric and focused on (the patient's) needs, so that pharmacists and physicians and their patients can have an open discussion and make an educated decision about use," said co-principal investigator Elaine Yacyshyn, who's a rheumatologist at the University of Alberta Hospital.

The study has received $300,000 in funding from Alberta Innovates through its mCannabis.RealWorld program. It aims to address urgent clinical or policy knowledge gaps related to the "efficacy and safety of cannabis in a real-world setting."

"Both patients and health professionals need tools to make decisions about what is the safest, most appropriate and most affordable use," said U of A professor Cheryl Sadowski, who's co-leading the study.

In Canada, arthritis is a common disease that affects one in five people. The Canadian Medical Association said that although cannabis may offer patients relief, the lack of clinical research and regulatory oversight for cannabis as a medical treatment is still a concern.