city vs farm

In the battle to prevent urban development from continuing its relentless consumption of valuable farmland, planners often rely on establishing a legally defined urban edge and hoping like hell that developers don't jump the fence. Knowing that pressure for urban growth will need an outlet, some delve deeper into strategies to increase densities or allow growth to take place in a few discrete locations outside the main town, or along transport routes or in some other well-defined pattern.

Stellenbosch in South Africa and Cambridge in the UK have taken similar approaches to testing alternatives to see what might be the most sustainable approach in their respective circumstances. Their spatial planning studies are a step in the right direction, because they recognise first that there are a range of options for accommodating growth and second that by considering urban development, transportation and other municipal services together, they can explore the overall impact on sustainability of different growth patterns.

But a limitation of most exercises in limiting sprawl is that they treat urban and rural areas as completely separate, unrelated entities. New Ruralism takes the view that there is a functional relationship between the two, and that this relationship is growing stronger, thanks to a number of converging trends. Increasing demands for fresh, seasonal, organically grown food, as well as recognition of the need to reduce energy inputs for growing and transporting agricultural produce, have resulted in new opportunities for farms on the urban fringes.

It used to be that farmers sold all their produce via central wholesale markets, and their only interaction with consumers was at farm stalls catering to city dwellers on Sunday outings or at a few farmers' markets in the city. Now, with growing demand for food from trusted sources, farmers are increasingly selling direct to the public via weekly boxed deliveries or special retail outlets. (In South Africa, check out urban sprout's ubergreen organic eco directory, listing more than 50 organic farmers, growers and producers in the Western Cape.) This means that smaller, labour-intensive farms can remain viable in areas where they might previously have been forced to close shop in the face of development pressure.

The farm is coming to the city, and the opportunity for planners is that the relationship between town and country can be nurtured so that agriculture is supported. The urban boundary shouldn't be ignored, but rather than thinking of it as a dam wall to keep the flood of humanity off productive land, think of it as an interface: a place for economic and social exchange, for sharing knowledge and raising awareness of interdependencies. Cuba learnt some valuable lessons about this relationship when their oil supply dried up, and perhaps our chance is now.

Comments

[Glen]

Hi Rory. A very informative post and thanks for linking to our ubergreen directory. The farm is coming to the city (if you looked at my backyard, this would be another example of this ;-) As you point out there are a number of trends converging. With all the food scares recently (sudan red, anti-freeze pet food, chinese antibiotic honey, cadmium pineapples) this is accelerating the trend towards growing your own or at least knowing where your food comes from. In the UK some retailers (e.g. Sainsbury) have tracking codes on organic products with a website you can visit to see details of the farm of origin! But I think meeting the farmer face-to-face is so much better and with the border between city and farm blurring there should be more opportunities to do so.