Promoting sustainability, health and inclusion in the city

Community gardens play an important role in promoting urban health, social inclusion, active civic participation and practices of sustainable living in urban environments.

This 2-day conference to be held on October 7-8 2010 at the University of Canberra brings together representatives of different forms of community gardening practices in Australia to share knowledge, promote dialogue and assess best practice to enable policy makers and urban planners to engage more productively and sustainably with local food systems through community gardens and city farms.

High quality, informed planning policy and practice improves the sustainability and liveability of our cities. This conference will contribute to this by exploring community gardening practices, academic evaluations of local food systems and current policy initiatives.

Keynote speakers for the conference include:

• Myles Bremner from the United Kingdom - Trustee of Sustain (UK) and Chief Executive of Garden Organic
• Keith Colls – President of Canberra Organic Growers Society
• Costa Georgiadis - from SBS television’s ‘Costa’s Garden Odyssey’
• Phil Harris - Professor in Sustainable Agriculture and Head of International Development at the University of Coventry, UK
• Andre Leu - Chair of Organic Federation of Australia and Deputy Chair of International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements
• Senator Christine Milne (Greens) TBC
• Neil Savery - Chief Planning Executive, ACT Planning and Land Authority and an Adjunct Professor in Urban Design with the University of Canberra

Further information about the keynote speakers is available here.

Where and when

October 7-8, 2010

NATSEM Building (Building 24) (also called International Microsimulation Centre)

University of Canberra