getting serious about urban farming

There seems to be an explosion of interest in urban agriculture here in Cape Town and around the world, if the number of newspaper articles and blogs on the topic is anything to go by. While there is lots of information and services in support of vegetable growing, another side of micro-farming about which I have seen relatively little is raising animals for food in the city. I have always assumed that in most municipalities it would be illegal to establish chicken coops in the backyards of suburbia; but according to the blog Urban Chickens, there actually are a few places where it seems to be allowed.

Interest groups are pushing municipalities to allow chickens, but in some cases this strategy has backfired. Many cities simply have not addressed the issue in their by-laws, and some have taken this to mean they can keep small livestock. The city of Waterloo, Ontario, was one of these, but efforts to legalise chickens resulted in the city outlawing a practice that had previously been under the radar.

The obvious objections are smell and noise, but there is nothing stopping people from using smelly manure as compost on their urban gardens; and as far as noise goes, my family has to put up with neighbourhood dogs that cause far more sleepless nights than any flock of chickens could possibly do.

Urban farming goes beyond simply providing healthy food; it can be part of an educational strategy. Projects like the Wild Coast Day Care Facility in Transkei, or Camphill near Atlantis (north of Cape Town), are not in an urban setting, but they improve quality of life and develop skills that can increase resilience in times of stress (financial or otherwise). I am sure there are plenty of urban locations that could provide a similar function without impacting negatively on residential areas. And there are web sites like Hyperlocavore that support the formation of yardsharing groups to ease neighbourhoods into communal gardening efforts to share resources and ideas.

I have written a couple of times about the Riebeek Kasteel Community Garden, which doubles as a weekend soup kitchen for the local children. While it is located in a rural town, it's a great demonstration of how to teach residents about food production with limited resources. I visited the garden again this Saturday, when the children were making and erecting scarecrows. Trees that were planted a while ago have visibly grown, there is now a greenhouse tunnel acting as a nursery for the garden, and colourfully painted stones and tyres mark plants and a pathway. And, while the communal garden has grown, it's the activity beyond the shared space that is really exciting.

Project co-ordinator Bridget Doyle told me that an unemployed woman who lives in the local community has started her own bean garden on previously barren land near the children's communal garden. She is now making R600 a month selling beans to the local community of Esterhof.

 

This financial success has inspired a number of other residents to start their own gardening enterprises. This Sunday four of these new gardens were being tended with the aim of selling produce, but there are now 15 allotment gardeners in the project. It's this infectious activity that is particularly encouraging, as it shows clearly that this is a viable, sustainable activity for the individuals concerned. The community garden, officially called the Riebeek Kasteel Gemeenskapstuinprojek, was originally started for children; but seeing how the children's enthusiasm has caught the imagination of adults is particularly gratifying in a community that struggles with extreme poverty.

Unfortunately the project still does not have a major funding source, though enough small amounts have trickled in to keep the enterprise afloat. So if you know of any individuals or companies willing to donate to this worthy cause, please contact me and I will pass your details on to Bridget.

Update on 5 June 2009: Cape Town blogger Duncan Drennan has posted some further thoughts on the benefits of urban agriculture.

Update on 19 June 2009: BLDGBLOG has just put up a very comprehensive post about getting urban agriculture underway in London. This should be required reading for anyone who wants to consider the implications for urban design and policy, and includes feedback from a seminar last month (London Yields: Getting Urban Agriculture off the Ground) that brainstormed "ways in which urban agriculture could be moved from mere 'sustainable accessory' to become a standard practice of both everyday life and city design." And @bldgblog has also tweeted about growing vegetables indoors at the Urban Agricultural Curtain.

Comments

[Tracy]

We enjoyed keeping chickens in suburban Surrey in England for a number of years. Now that we're in Cape Town, I'm eager to know whether that's possible here. We will be implementing a permaculture design on our new home that we move into next week. Urban homesteading is the way to go.

[Liz McLellan]

Thank you for mentioning yard sharing and http://hyperlocavore.com. I am working very hard to get the yard sharing idea out into the world! I so appreciate your help!

Happy Digging!
Liz McLellan

[martin de wit]

Hi Rory

We have recently run a prioritisation exercise here in Cape Town with some City officials on the value of urban ecosystem services. Small-scale urban farming came out higher then we anticipated. We are still trying to get our heads around it, but your post certainly helps.

[Mark]

Hey, Capetonians are not the only ones in SA interested in Urban Agriculture. There are a few of us up here in Gauteng that are doing our bit too you know... ok, ok a very few of us then ;-)

I don't know so much about the chickens in an urban townhouse complex setup but it is possible to grow a good few harvests of veggies though. Can you imagine if every townhouse complex had a few Square Foot Gardens (http://www.sfgsa.co.za) providing fresh veggies for all the residents?

We're trying to do just that in our little complex and interest from the other residents has been incredible (some of whom we haven't even spoken to in years).

[Rory]

Mark, I really like the SFGSA site. Very helpful. My father uses the square foot gardening method in the very short Canadian growing season, and it is most productive. I can imagine it would be even more so here.

[RecycleBill]

I'm happy to say I was part of a group that fought for and won expansions of urban chickens, bees and other livestock here in Greensboro, NC. USA.