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URBAN AGRICULTURE – IS IT TIME TO TAKE ANOTHER LOOK?
While there is much emphasis and rightly so on risk in agriculture (see previous Weekly Alert: https://bit.ly/2VpnG3J), there is also incredible opportunity from the current pandemic.
Thank you to AIA members who have contacted me recently sharing their views on agriculture, consulting and advising, and the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of these have included insights into urban agriculture and asking what role should the AIA have in advocating this important aspect of agriculture. Others have shared their experience in working remotely. This is not uncommon for many professionals working in agriculture. In this column I am going to focus on urban farming, acknowledging that we will continue the discussion of remote working and the challenges and opportunities afforded by that mode of working. Of course, feel free to continue to send through your experience of remote working and advising in physical isolation.
From a broader sustainable development perspective, urban farming or more precisely perhaps, urban agriculture, is becoming a mainstream philosophy in the design and delivery of sustainable urban environments – that is, cities. Locally we see Costa from TV promoting urban agriculture. So, is urban agriculture a threat or a hyped-up side show?
Sustainable Development and Agriculture
Some of the recent work I have been involved with includes examining the integral role that agriculture plays in bringing the importance of farming and regional life to the city. This is more important than ever as city communities are more becoming more and more dislocated from their sources of food.
Rapid urbanisation all over the world poses a serious question about urban sustainability in relation to food – where it comes from, how it gets to people, and what happens to the waste. Urban agriculture can contribute to feeding city dwellers as well as improving metropolitan environments by providing more green space (https://bit.ly/2xreCDo).
Australia is recognised as one of the most urbanised countries in the world, and achieving urban sustainability should be high on the policy and planning agenda. A strong consensus exists among policymakers that urban agriculture could be a tenable way of enhancing urban sustainability, and therefore, it should be a vital part of planning processes and urban design as administered by local and state governments. However, in recent decades, planning has overlooked and failed to realise this opportunity.
In city region food systems, agriculture in peri-urban areas and rural areas is critical to the supply of food to urban centres, and contributes to employment, livelihoods, nutrition and environmental resilience. This is according to a study from five years ago released by the FAO on Latin America’s experience (https://bit.ly/34wsPLg). The “city region” scale is seen as a sustainable, manageable spatial unit for integrating food production with other ecosystem services and providing social protection for the rural and urban poor. In Latin America and the Caribbean, per-urban agriculture includes large farming areas that produce cereals, vegetables and root crops, grazing land for goats and sheep, dairy farms, and intensive livestock production units. The study refers to an area of 22 800 ha of farmland within the bounds of Mexico City producing annually 15 000 tonnes of vegetables. On the outskirts of Lima, short-cycle vegetables are grown on some 5 000 ha of irrigated land for sale in the city’s markets. Small-scale farming is a source of income for settlers from rural areas and many of Lima’s urban poor. In Argentina, the production of soybean for export has displaced peri-urban production of milk, fruit and vegetables. Despite its role in creating employment and feeding cities, peri-urban agriculture is under increasing pressure from urbanisation itself in Latin America.
As part of the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a general consensus that the SDGs should include; eradicating hunger and poverty, increasing agricultural production sustainably and improving food systems, and building sustainable cities that provide food security, economic opportunity and a healthy environment, and to build strong links to peri-urban and rural areas. The city region food system or urban agriculture offers a point of convergence for achieving all of those (SDG) goals. Empowering individuals and communities to grow more of their own food is a vital strategy to help address and mitigate the major challenges of 21st century urbanisation.
Vertical farming, a distinct type of urban agriculture, can potentially change the global food production landscape. This is the claim of recent winners of the Nuffield Scholarship (https://www.nuffieldinternational.org). While the advantages are clear, profitability is still difficult to achieve. Many new businesses suffer once their seed money dries up. One of the Nuffield Scholar argues that “Vertical farming is still farming; therefore, the produce must be sold at the same price levels as products grown in an open field where the light, air, soil and water are almost free. Controlling each and every variable comes at a cost. The high capital and operational costs (electricity and labour) force companies to scale up in order to achieve profitability or focus on higher margin crops”.
The possibility of being close to the point of consumption is another huge point in favour of urban agriculture and vertical farms. There is a clear market tendency towards foods with lower carbon miles, as well as organic produce. It is hard to predict whether urban farms will help feed the world, however, the necessity for fresh, safe, dependable food will always exist.
For those with concerns about the risks from urban farming, I read a recent article that shows that researchers are exploring this in a similar way to which contaminated site experts investigate land transactions and the risks from previous industrial activity (https://bit.ly/2XwA9VL). While important, it is not central to making urban agriculture mainstream.
I read a quote from a recent forum on urban agriculture and I think it encapsulates a very sound view on the topic:
“Much of our needed expertise is here, and [the questions are] just how to coordinate this better so as to ensure a more expansive focus by government; and how do we lift the profile of these actions into the public, media and government discourse?”
Questions for Professionals in Agriculture and Food Production and Policy Makers;
• What are the ramifications of moving selected agriculture production into urban and per-urban areas (over and above current planning guidelines)?
• Are there strategic advantages of an urban production system for particular sectors that enable greater competition in global markets? How is this decommoditised approach to production integrated with conventional commodity-focused agricultural production?
• Does an intensive approach to urban agriculture e.g. vertical farming, negate the social and community benefits of a more traditional, non-intensive approach?
• What policy changes should States and the Federal Government consider given the main stream adoption of sustainable development (and SDGs) in society?
What about you? What are your thoughts as a professional in agriculture?
Turlough Guerin CAg
chair@aginstitute.com.au
0439 011 434
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