urban agriculture

If Americans were able to grow 40% of their fresh produce in household gardens during World War II, then there must be hope for improving food security in present-day cities in developing countries.

With a steady process of urbanisation underway, it's getting harder by the day for municipal governments to provide for the needs of urban communities; what they need to do is focus on empowering communities to look after themselves by supporting NGOs and the range of initiatives that emerge to fill the gaps in service provision. Impoverished communities can be the most resourceful of all when it comes to living frugally, but growing veggies doesn't come easily, even for people who have resources, as the aspirant locavore is discovering.

Cape Town has long had the luxury of the Philippi Horticultural Area growing a significant quantity of the city's fresh vegetables within its urban boundaries, so more of our food is local than is the case for many cities. But Philippi is under threat from urban expansion, plans for a new highway, and theft from fields. And there is the concern that agriculture in Philippi is draining the aquifer under the Cape Flats, and polluting runoff with fertilizer and pesticides.

So maybe we need a combination of more small-scale homeowner gardens, new areas set aside for shared community gardens, and some high-tech vertical farming. What I like about the high-rise farm idea is that it must, by its very nature, be efficient in its use of water and other resources. Whether it would really be commercially feasible is another question, but many would argue that current agricultural practice is so inefficient and resource-intensive that something has to change. Either we must stop eating meat, or we'll have to find another way to reduce farming's consumption of land, oil and water.

Comments

[Roxanne Christensen]

What is helping to spur an urban farming industry in the developed world is a franchise-ready sub-acre farming system called SPIN-Farming. SPIN makes it possible to earn $50,000+ from a half-acre. SPIN's growing techniques are not, in themselves, breakthrough. What is novel is the way a SPIN farm business is run. SPIN provides everything you'd expect from a good franchise: a business plan, marketing advice, and a detailed day-to-day workflow. In standardizing the system and creating a reproducible process it really isn't any different from McDonalds. By offering a non-technical, easy-to-understand and inexpensive-to-implement farming system, it allows many more people to farm commercially, wherever they live, as long as there are nearby markets to support them. By using backyards and front lawns and neighborhood lots as their land base, SPIN farmers are recasting farming as a small business in a city or town and helping to accelerate the shift back to a more locally-based food system. SPIN is now being practiced throughout the U.S.,Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland and the Netherlands, and it can be implemented any where there are markets to support it. You can see some of these entrepreneurial farmers in action at www.spinfarming.com

[Seamas]

Steven Colbert interviewed the vertical urban farming advocate Dickson Despommier not long ago. Very cool old professorly type with a good sense of humour.

I'm not sure on the commercial viability either but hope they try to pilot it somewhere anyway. Could be the way of the future.

[Rory]

I wouldn't normally post a comment that is pure advertising, but if something like SPIN-Farming could really make micro-scale farming viable, then I suppose it could be a good thing (reference to McDonalds notwithstanding). Lack of access to support and resources is certainly one of the hindrances to getting this movement going, but there are plenty of nonprofit initiatives as well.

[Tracy]

We grew most of our own fruit and veg on our allotment in the UK for a number of years, and found this WW2 leaflet invaluable in planning year-round veggies and fruit.

http://www.earthlypursuits.com/allotguide/DigforVictory1/DigForVictory1_2-3.htm