What's the solution to Toronto's traffic problems? - University of ...

All About Alumni
As recently as the 1940s, North Americans grew almost half
of their own vegetables, according to Fresh City Farms
Urban Farmer
Ran Goel is leading an
agricultural revolution
IF RAN GOEL (JD 2007) HAS HIS WAY, every backyard
in Toronto will become an organic microfarm.“If
we can make farming ubiquitous here,
it would be a win-win-win situation for our
environment, our communities and our
health,” says Goel, co-founder of Fresh City
Farms, which focuses on commercial urban
agriculture.
Sound radical Consider Goel’s path to urban
farming activist – until recently, he was an
investment lawyer in New York. But Goel, 32,
has always had a green streak: he researched
corporate environmental issues at York University
and at the London School of Economics
and Political Science. His environmentalism
blossomed further at U of T’s Faculty of Law,
where, as a student rep on Governing Council,
he advocated for more ecologically and
socially responsible investments.
In 2011, Goel returned to Toronto and teamed
up with his brother and other urban farming
enthusiasts – including U of T alumni Abra
Snider (BA 2007 UC) and Damian Adjodha
(BSc 2000 UTSC) – to form Fresh City. Its goal is a more eco-friendly, healthy and
food-secure city through citizen-led farming. At their two-acre farm and 3,000-sq.-ft.
greenhouse at Downsview Park, the team teaches aspiring commercial and hobby
farmers about growing vegetables naturally. These “member farmers” then cultivate
the yards of willing homeowners. The result is mini-farms, which are large organic
vegetable gardens with longer growing seasons. So far, about a dozen have sprouted
up across the GTA.
Fresh City sells the harvested produce locally, delivering about 250 boxes a week.
Members get 50¢ on the retail food dollar – far more than the 20 cents a typical
farmer makes. “We’re trying to bring the makers and eaters of food together,” Goel
says. “The more people get involved in producing their own food, the better it is
for people and the planet.” – SHARON ASCHAIEK
OVERHEARD
I never thought I would
learn how to swim. I didn’t
think I would drive. I never
thought I would pursue
writing. But with each
challenge I gave myself,
I kept going. I’ll always
have a fear of failing.
But I tell myself that’s not
justification enough
for me to not give it a try.
Rupinder Gill
(BA 2001 TRIN),
talking about her
book, On the Outside
Looking Indian:
How My Second
Childhood Saved
My Life, from
a video interview
on Indigo’s
non-fiction
blog
standpoint – going on in the region. And I get to be
right in the heart of it.”
Born in Toronto to east African immigrant parents, Lila is
fluent in English and Gujarati, can get by in Urdu and is
learning Arabic. With his undergraduate degree in history
and philosophy from U of T and a master of science in journalism
from Columbia University, Lila quickly climbed the
ranks in Canadian broadcasting – from Citytv to CBC News,
where he became one of the youngest people ever to anchor
The National. (He was also a producer for CBC and CTV prior
to his on-air career.)
Lila has proved to be a versatile reporter, straddling print,
television and digital media – in 2010 he live-Tweeted the
annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Now, as a Muslim Canadian
working for an American company in South and Central
Asia, he feels he’s in a position to increase understanding
between an East and West that are often at odds. “If I can
stand in the middle and be part of the solution and get everyone
to understand each other, I have to try,” he says. “I’ve
lived my life on that bridge.”
The life of a foreign correspondent, however, isn’t nonstop
action. A surprising amount of his time is spent at
embassies trying to get travel visas – in countries not famous
for the co-operativeness of their bureaucrats. But it pays off
in frequent-flyer miles, he says with a laugh. “My goal is to
have gold-tier status by the end of the year.” – GRAHAM F. SCOTT
46 www.magazine.utoronto.ca
PHOTO: LEFT, COURTESY OF RAN GOEL; RIGHT, ANNA LISA SANG