Who We Are

Ron Berezan is the founder and proprietor of The Urban Farmer and is joined by colleagues from throughout Western Canada in this work. Ron has been an organic gardener for over 30 years and permaculture practioner for over ten years. He is trained in the “Grow Bio-intensive” organic gardening method at Ecology Action in Willits, California, and in Permaculture Design through the Kootenay Permaculture Institute and the Occidental Arts and Ecology Centre. He is a Master Gardener through the Devonian Botanic Gardens in Edmonton Alberta. Ron has taught hundreds of permaculture and organic gardening workshops in BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and the Yukon and has consulted on many permaculture and urban agriculture projects throughout the country. He has a close working relationship with the Antonio Nunez Jimenez Foundation and the Association of Cuban Agricultural Technicians and Foresters in Cuba and regularly takes groups of Canadians to Cuba for educational tours and permaculture internship opportunities.

Ron writes on a variety of permaculture, urban agriculture and organic gardening themes and has been a regular gardening commentator on CBC radio and in a range of newspapers and gardening magazines. (see In the Media). He is the author of the upcoming book,  “Down the Garden Path – Cultivating Hope for the Coming Ecological Age.”

Click here for a video tour of Ron in his permaculture garden in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Urban Farmer is currently based out of
Powell River, British Columbia and offers services
throughout Canada and internationally.

Contact The Urban Farmer by email at theurbanfarmer@shaw.ca or by telephone at 604 223 4800.

The Urban Farmer logo incorporates the well-known “3 sisters” plant guild of corn, squash and beans. Grown together for hundreds of years in Central America, these three plants form the perfect working partnership: corn provides a structure for the beans to climb on, beans fix nitrogen in the soil fertilizing the corn, and squash sprawls over the ground acting as a natural mulch to conserve moisture and inhibit weeds.

Productive, beautiful and sustainable!