There's so many factors unexplained in Hladik's opinion piece.
First of all, many of these so-called activists are people who work at food banks, and wish to see more fresh food available to their patrons.You try looking into the eyes of a child and tell them feeding them isn't worth the water used.
1) Where are you that wild turkeys are feeding on your garden? That certainly isn't what some consider to be "urban". The problem of animal pests increases in rural areas, it certainly isn't that much problem in the city - we don't get much deer or turkeys here. Use a bird net for birds.
2) Many of the buildings listed can in fact have edible gardens - Ryerson University has a large roof top garden which the students tend to and sell the veg to other students at a good price. This encourages healthy eating to students who need it at such a critical time when many are inclined to adopt junk food eating habits, ergo the "Freshman ten (lbs)". 3) We use container gardening, instead of "ripping up our lawns". Many people in Toronto do have backyards that are perfectly usable for raised beds or any type of garden, an example is the Backyard Urban Farm company (BUFCO). In Toronto there are thousands of "railway houses", built for the workers who built the railroads. They all look the same, and all have the same backyard space. BUFCO professionally operates in one of these backyards.
Another example is a garden I had in a small town nearby, which certainly could have fit in one of these backyards, and where I grew 40 large butternut squash, which alone could have well lasted me through the winter. Also I grew tomatoes and froze many for the winter, and many other vegetables. That yard had the potential to host a veg garden as big as the local community garden, that is maybe 10 times the size, so I could have grown 10 times the yield. That would be enough squash for 10 families for the entire winter. This yard I had was only a 10 minute walk from downtown, so I would consider it to be an urban garden.
4) We do not use top soil for our garden. We use compost. Which, by the way, nearly every city in Ontario makes using the green bins, which nearly all households contribute to and put theirs on the curb for pick up every week. This shows that cities can sustain their own compost. Who would use top soil for vegetable gardens when they can use nutrient-rich compost?
5) Toronto is literally on one the great lakes' shore - as a city we have an unlimited access to water. Yes we do treat the water, but I wouldn't call it that expensive - my water bill was always the cheapest one and only came every other month, which was as low as $25 even with my veg garden.
6) The cost of edible gardens is what you make it. With free compost and a rain barrel, I believe you could considerably lower that cost of "$270 per square foot". Where does that number even come from?

When you look at the sheer amount of food insecurity in a city like Toronto, having local edible gardens is a start to fighting this food insecurity. When you see this, would you rather sit and do nothing about it? Or pay the cost of trucking in vegetables from California and Mexico? Or the overhead fees of a grocery store?

Toronto is a relatively newly built city in comparison with Paris, and other European cities who have figured out that food is foremost - and healthy food doesn't necessarily come from a rural, industrial sized farm.

Wheat and corn, commonly grown on industrial farms, can output impressive amounts of so-called food, but at the cost of nationwide obesity, diabetes, unhealthy diets and chronic, lifetime disease.

It can be difficult gardening in Canada- we have a very short growing season. The more you know about growing in our climate, the easier it gets, and you learn to adapt what you grow to what actually grows here.

Another thing about having local edible gardens, is that it increases people's awareness of different vegetables, and can potentially improve diets to be more healthy. Having access to local food that is free or very cheap makes it easier for people to eat more vegetables.

The sheer number of food banks in Toronto show that there is a demand for food, and often the first thing they run out of is healthy greens, and veg. This is why our local food bank has introduced a edible garden. It also helps to rooftop garden as roofs often get a lot of sun.

It doesn't feel right to limit people's diets because it may be difficult at times, or cost a bit of money. Every belly fed counts. For some, they won't care if they only get greens once a week, at least they can get them. If we can spare this little bit of effort and space, why not use it?