Food for Thought

It's been ages since I've posted anything on urban agriculture, and it's long-overdue... I realize my neglect after spending a bit of time sifting through some research in finishing up the SDAT report text, as well as in preparation for a submittal for the first issue of [bracket] journal with the theme 'On Farming'... which is an open-ended exploration of it's fascinating the preponderance of visions and thinking on urban agriculture - just take a trip through the blogosphere in the past twelve months, and the overload of urban agriculture will quickly sink in.

Another ideas competition from 24-7sandwichshop.org offers some interesting juxtaposed scenery - in this case a feedlot with a family picnic - on their announcement for Food for Thought: "Idea competition inviting you to submit proposals for new ways of providing, presenting and eating food. A new recipe, a new type of restaurant, garden, farm, table, convenience store, city___anything is possible."

:: image via 24-7 Sandwich Shop

Back to the profligate nature of urban agriculture in todays thinking... it's interesting to see how much stuff there is out there from the ridiculous to the sublime, from the Haeg to the Despommier - whether research or books or programs or just random thoughts. It's hard to keep up with for sure - not that there is a preponderance of good info - just a lot more agro-noise floating around. Sifting through it and making sense of it is much more difficult. All in all thought - a positive trend.

As usual, there are a bunch of quality posts from the good folks at City Farmer, including this interesting link to a presentation from Dr. Thilak T. Ranasinghe: "...describing the concept of Family Business Garden (FBG) in the field of urban agriculture and the urban-rural continuum in Sri Lanka." A fascinating part is this image of Low/No Space Agriculture Techniques - using what is dubbed 'cultivation structures.'

:: image via City Farmer

There are definitely some vertical gardening inspiration here in these models - using the low-tech to inspire the high-tech. And speaking of 'high-tech', there's plenty of new models coming forth from the Vertical Farm Project, including these new ones called "VF - Type O" by Oliver Foster, from the University of Queensland, Australia.

:: images via Vertical Farm Project

Getting back to the idea of using low-tech to inform the high-tech (or just merely using the insane notion of going back to low-tech...) many countries throughout the world have strong urban agricultural precedents, including recent info from the Philippines, Zambia, the UK, and of course, one of the true models of sustainable urban agriculture - Cuba. A recent article from Havana, via Reuters, is looking into the Cuban resurgence of urban agriculture after successive waves of hurricanes decimated the almost a third of Cuba's plantings.

Via the article: "Around 15 percent of the world’s food is grown in urban areas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a figure experts expect to increase as food prices rise, urban populations grow and environmental concerns mount. ... Since they sell directly to their communities, city farms don’t depend on transportation and are relatively immune to the volatility of fuel prices, advantages that are only now gaining traction as “eat local” movements in rich countries."


:: image via City Farmer

The key is to utilize as much space as possible for productive uses. "In Cuba, urban gardens have bloomed in vacant lots, alongside parking lots, in the suburbs and even on city rooftops. They sprang from a military plan for Cuba to be self-sufficient in case of war. They were broadened to the general public in response to a food crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s biggest benefactor at the time."

This using of every spot of land allows Cuba to be flexible in adapting to natural disaster and economic downturns, such as when Soviet support diminished and large state-run agricultural programs were not viable due to the high fuel costs. Thus growing food in parking lots and rooftops starts to make financial sense as well. And speaking of rooftops, some new research on hydroponics is coming out of California Polytechnic University, as well as some interesting gardens coming from land-strapped Tokyo - which has been evolving rooftop agriculture to a new degree, for multiple benefits.


:: image via City Farmer

While farming is typically related to production of food - that is only one of the benefits that drives these new rooftop gardens in Japan. One is job production, the farms providing employment for young people that have lost other available means of making a living. Another is the reduction of heat island effect, which is a major driver in green roofs in Japan, so it makes sense that rooftop gardens would be a valuable addition as well. And compared to lower maintenance extensive ecoroof typologies, these urban food gardens may work better, due to a more appropriate type of vegetation. The rooftop shown above, for instance uses sweet potatoes, which are "...particularly good for roof- tops because their wide leaves can cover the whole surface and are efficient at transpiration — evaporating water — which has a cooling effect. The temperature of a roof area not covered by potato leaves was as much as 27 degrees Celsius hotter than an area covered by the leaves..."

These plants are then, yes, harvested and distributed locally, which eases concerns about food safety, uses less fuel, and allows for a true connection to local food, particularly important for a country that imports over 60% of it's food. The future of farming may just be looking up.

:: image via City Farmer

There are also some intriguing new resources out there as well, including some new books. First is called 'Agriculture in Urban Planning' and is edited by Mark Redwood, a senior: "This volume, by the world’s leading experts on urban agriculture, examines concrete strategies to integrate city farming into the urban landscape. Drawing on original field work in cities across the rapidly urbanizing global south, the book examines the contribution of urban agriculture and city farming to livelihoods and food security."


:: image via City Farmer

And an interesting research paper by Adam Brock, called "Room to Grow: Participatory Landscapes and Urban Agriculture at NYU" which has some vital parallels that can inform urban agriculture. Particularly, not a lack of land, but the need for a loosening of central control of property and land: "Techniques such as edible landscaping and distributed gardening further add to the physical potential for urban agriculture on campus. The greatest challenge to cultivation at NYU comes not from the landscape itself, but rather from social forces such as centralized ownership structures and historic preservation."


:: image via City Farmer

And finally, a research report called "Urban Agriculture in Naga City, Philippines - Cultivating Sustainable Livelihoods" prepared by a trio of academics at the University of British Columbia. The report investigates.


:: image via City Farmer

While some of us have probably over-indulged in a literal sense over the holidays, there is plenty of good information out there to feed your brain instead - have seconds... enjoy.

City Farmer News

City Farmer and it's 'Urban Agriculture Notes' has been around offering great urban agriculture links from Vancouver, BC for a number of years at their old, no-frills site and their demonstration garden. I was pleased to visit recently and see the link to the new blog-ish City Farmer News (added to the BlogCheck) site and tap into a number of those recent posts of some pretty tasty urban-ag happenings.


:: Demonstration Compost Garden - image via City Farmer News

A compelling profile of the CERES farm, located in Brunswick East, Victoria, Australia. CERES stands for Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies, and is also the name for the Roman goddess of agriculture. From CFN: "CERES farm demonstrates how an urban city farm can contribute to the local community by providing locally grown organic food, education in community food systems, a happening & ethical market place and employment for farmers, teachers and market workers."

:: image via City Farmer News

With a goal of encouraging urban agriculture, "City Farmer teaches people how to grow food in the city, compost their waste and take care of their home landscape in an environmentally responsible way." One notable example is the study for urban agriculture around the upcoming 2010 Olympic Games in the Southeast False Creek are of Vancouver. From the City of Vancouver: "SEFC will be a model of sustainable development. Unique features include: urban agriculture; a rainwater management system; green roofs; and a neighbourhood energy system."

:: image via City of Vancouver

There are links to a number of studies available by Holland Barrs Planning Group, which outline some of the urban agriculture goals. One such study centered around 'Designing Urban Agriculture Opportunities for Southeast False Creek, Vancouver, BC' and described a number of strategies for planning and desing urban ag into the fabric of the community.


:: image via Holland Barrs

A summary from the Holland Barrs site: "Develop design considerations and guidelines, technical considerations, and management strategies for effectively integrating urban agriculture (UA) into a high density neighbourhood. The report focuses on how UA is an innovative tool for urban design and can play a key role in building community around food. Topics covered in the report include: perspectives on food security, design principles for UA, a UA space typology, design ideas and considerations for UA in the public and private realms, technical considerations and support systems necessary for UA, and management strategies for endurance of the UA program over time."

From a more historical viewpoint is a short profile of the book by University of Western Australia prof Andrea Gaynor entitled 'Harvest of the Suburbs' which definitely piqued my interest in some historical precedent from Australia for urban agriculture.. From CFN: "Drawing upon sources ranging from gardening books and magazines to statistics and oral history, Gaynor presents an environmental history of non-commercial suburban food production in Australia. Her narrative traces animal, fruit, and vegetable production from the close of the 19th century to the present day. Particular attention is paid to the effects of economic conditions on home food production."

:: image via City Farmer News

And today we end with a related urban-ag link that was pretty funny came via Treehugger and the Wayback Machine to the not so-distant past of 1984 and a book entitled 'The Future World of Agriculture' offered by none other than Disney. And much the series title, Epcot (which I did visit with horror as a 9 year old in 1982) - this is a horribly dated and dystopia view of agriculture fits right in... where "Robots tend crops that grow on floating platforms around a sea city of the future. Water from the ocean would evaporate, rise to the base of the platforms (leaving the salt behind), and feed the crops." Yikes. I can't help but think of the machine-harvesting human pods in The Matrix, but I'm sure that would never happen... right?

:: image via Treehugger

Unlike the 'utopia' shown above, City Farmer News offers wide-ranging and practical solutions to encourage site- and city-scale urban agriculture. And you will find that robots are seldom necessary. Check it out.

Urban Ag: The Pulse

It's been a while since I've done a significant post on urban agriculture. This is somewhat purposeful - for one everywhere you look the topic has caught fire. A quick summary shows recent articles in the LA Times, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, American City, CNN, San Francisco Chronicle, Globe & Mail, Granville, Dwell, Slate - and on, and on...


:: image via Treehugger

For a variety of current and upcoming projects - and a more expansive paper I'm writing - I've been compiling a number of case-studies and other assorted research around the concept of urban agriculture. Here's a quick update on some of the recent findings. Anyone interested in Urban Agriculture would be remiss to not check with City Farmer - which always has links to a number of papers worth checking out, including these:

:: Urban Agriculture Resource and Education Centre - Concept Paper
:: Edible Backyards: Residential land use for food production in Toronto
:: Urbanization and class-produced natures: Vegetable gardens in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (MRB)


One worth some further elaboration, Edible Cities featured a group from the UK did a study of US-based urban agriculture projects entitled (the report is available here) which "...shows edible cities are the future - Edible Cities, looks at examples of urban agriculture projects in cities and identifies a series of opportunities that other cities could be adopting."


:: image via City Farmer

The report summarized a number of topics and opportunities, from SustainWeb: "A commercial element to many of the US projects, which is much less common in the UK; A more liberal situation in the US than in the UK to encourage composting, but less willingness than in the UK to include animals in some urban agriculture projects; Different approaches to fencing and public access to projects, which varied within the US, depending on context; Imaginative and productive ways of growing without access to subsoil, either in raised beds on hard surfaces or, in one case, in hydroponics on a barge; Inspiring use of an holistic and sustainable approach to fish farming in an urban area which produces marketable quantities of tilapia."

Also included were ideas on promoting food production in cities, again from SustainWeb: "Using the many possibilities of urban tree planting to promote traditional varieties of fruit and nuts; Untapping the potential of both Royal Parks and other parks to accommodate some food growing in their grounds; Exploring under-utilised spaces such as derelict council property, private gardens and social housing to grow food; Making use of the abundant buildings in urban areas to grow food on rooftops, up walls and in window boxes; Building on the food growing expertise that already exists in a multicultural community, as well as providing education and training for new growers."

The materials are available for download, with a suggested donation. I have yet to delve into the report in any detail, but it definitely sounds promising. A cross-post from the concept thrown out by _urb_ on Agro-urbanism... as well as the original post - which has some comprehensive thoughts to check out. One quote worth repeating: "Luckily, architects, landscape architects, and urbanists have been planning for this type of situation. There have been many proposals in the last couple of years for different types of agricultural based infrastructures that can be integrated into nurban areas, what I am calling AGRO-URBANISM. The impetus for these proposals are manifold and include the concerns previously mentioned as well as issues of sustainability and sustainable development, a re-positioning of the landscape architecture discipline and the rise of the hybrid discipline “landscape urbanism”, and recent trends in architecture focusing on performance-based design which derive inspiration from ecological and biological systems."

A local project worth checking out is the Rocket Restaurant here in Portland, of which City Farmer had a long post from rooftop gardener Marc Boucher-Colbert. I mentioned this previously, but this article talks in detail about the trials and tribulations of rooftop ag on this innovative project, along with some more photos.

:: images via City Farmer

Some interesting background on the concept of rooftop agriculture, via Marc: "The Austrian architect and painter Hundertwasser, who seemed like he was one not to mince words, said something to the effect that by building a structure, one murders the biotic community there (pretty much true, as far as I can tell), and that, therefore, one has a moral obligation to plant the roof and restore what one has killed."

The main thrust of a number of theorists is the idea of reclaiming land within the urban core for agricultural purposes. An article from March in the Guardian on Middlesbrough posits this as well, saying: "All over the town, disused urban spaces were turned into fertile corners bursting with freshly grown fruit and vegetables as more than 1,000 residents." I've mentioned the project before, as well as directed people to the work of David Barrie (and his wide-ranging blog) but it becomes the crux of urban agriculture.

Definitely more to come... as it's still a hot topic.

On Agrarian Urbanism

An opportunity for point-counterpoint on the topic of Agrarian Urbanism - one that, with the recent explosion of discussion and interest in urban agriculture - is vital to discussing the place of food in the city, and what impact this will have on the form and function of our urban agglomerations.  The topic is poignant here in Portland, as it is both a hotbed of urban agriculture, as well striving for density through urban growth boundaries (UGBs) to protect adjacent farmland.  The question becomes one of spatial configuration - as space within cities can be allocated in whatever configuration we choose - but this does have implications on the overall spread.  I'm amazed with the ability to drive 10 minutes and find working farms - (while also looking around my neighborhood and finding working produce, poultry and other small-scale productive urban gardens).  Both of these will contribute to a final spatial arrangement of the city.

:: image via OregonLive

More on this urban/rural - inside/outside dichotomy, but for now a few bits of related reading.  Charles Waldheim has a recent post on Design Observer: Places, 'Notes Toward a History of Agrarian Urbanism', which is excerpted from the recent issue of Bracket: On Farming' and takes a mentioning Wright's Broadacre City, Ludwig Hilberseimers 'New Regional Pattern' and Branzi's Agronica  (a great article, once you translate from Italian here) which is great as a social critique, if not in its formal design qualities.  Looking backwards to see the future, the idea is to think about these not in terms of individual interventions, but with an eye on holistic urbanism.  From the article.

"To date the enthusiasm for slow and local food has been based, on the one hand, on the assumption that abandoned or underused brownfield sites could be remediated for their productive potential; and on the other it has been based on the trend toward conserving greenfield sites on city peripheries — on dedicating valuable ecological zones to food production and to limiting suburban sprawl. But these laudable goals are not much concerned with how urban farming might affect urban form."

:: image via Places

As a historical overview, Waldheim's thesis (the point) is to understand some of this utopian precedents, 

Broadacre City as a vision is appalling, but as a futurist prediction of auto-dominated sprawl, it may not be that far off.  To augment the examples mentioned, I would add Le Corbusiers' Radiant City - perhaps with a less modernist blank green space but as dense spires amidst farmland... Both this and Broadacre City are equally dispiriting, but in polar opposite ways.  In the abstract - both could be vehicles for agricultural urbanism that will appeal to a particular urban/suburban demographic of the population.

:: image via Brian's Culture Blog

The Howard-esque Garden City/Greenbelt City  is another integrated agro-urban example, focused more on concentration of uses (focused urban density) than full integration.  Similar to the drivers of Portland's UGB, there is clear compartmentalization of agriculture from city - keeping it in proximity but also at arms length... to connect the urban dweller to the rural worker in physical and cultural ways - at least in the abstract.

 :: image via Cornell Library

All the examples are not urban per se (as in densely agglomerated), but rather suburban (dependent on continued decentralization) in their contexts (or at least in their location of agricultural uses) - but do tell us much about the cooperative potential of the urban and the agricultural... perhaps the connection between the desire for land and space (our roots) and the historical suburban dispersion.  It was less about a 19th century model of  fleeing the ills of the city, as it was about recapturing some of our agrarian ideals.  The problem therein, lies in really tackling this in a truly urban form not the quasi-middle ground of suburbia (although a ripe ground for re-purposing to include agricultural uses, for sure). 

:: image via Places

The point is that it is fundamentally about what we want in cities (the actual urban parts, not the sprawling metropolitan statistical areas) - monocentric agglomeration and density or polycentric dispersion and space?  The point being, when looking at the 'landscape' of cities - the spaces for non-building, road, etc. there is opportunity (Mason White's 'Productive Surface'?) available at a variety of scales, where 'agriculture' amongst other uses (programmed and other) can exist within cities.  This may be the simplistic, Thus the continuum of spaces is not specifically relegated to the dispersed - large tracts of agricultural land in cities (reducing density, likely leading to sprawl) or the hyper-dense (and I say neo-utopian) vertical farms (technological solutions at exorbitant cost - although I hear they may save the world).

:: image via Treehugger

It's obvious that industrial agriculture is undergoing a necessary shift, and that some space is necessary for food production in the city, but the extent and shape of this (both spatially and culturally) is yet to be determined.  This differs (and influences) urbanism in many ways, depending on what you believe, where you live, and what you grow - amongst myriad other variable.  But is on the minds of many.  These are leading to both inventive proposals, the provocative, the cute and ephemeral, the strange, or the already tried and true - yet somehow new ideas, in the name of agriculture made urban.

The historical account of Waldheim may be compared to (the counterpoint), a similar crop of recent writings by Andres Duany on the same topic, particularly the New Urbanist recent interest in Agricultural Urbanism - which spawned a very NU-centric book (but mostly referenced by Duany as the same 'Agrarian' moniker).   As mentioned on Planetizen, this is to become an emphasis:

"At the 18th Annual Congress for New Urbanists, Andres Duany announced 'Agrarian Urbanism' as his new planning emphasis. He believes that the success of New Urbanism has stultified its progress and reduced its potential...  Agrarian urbanism is a society involved with the growing of food," explains Duany. He now aims to create a locavorous community where the resident is responsible for designing his "own utopia." Greg Lindsay believes the ideas could be attractive to the Whole Foods demographic but is unsure if they are ready for the hard work involved with growing food. Duany concedes that his agrarian communities would still "end up hiring Hispanic laborers to do the dirty work," but that these laborers would have a closer relationship with their employers."

For some of Duany's view on this topic (echoing the above quote) you can turn to Fast Company,  New Urbanism for the Apocalypse, a snapshot of the CNU annoucement, particularly how this viewpoint fits into the NU paradigm.  From the article:

"Agrarian urbanism, he explained, is different from both "urban agriculture" ("cities that are retrofitted to grow food") and "agricultural urbanism" ("when an intentional community is built that is associated with a farm)." He was thinking bigger: "Agrarian urbanism is a society involved with the growing of food." America abounds with intentional communities, he pointed out -- golf course communities, equestrian ones, even the fly-in kind. So why not build one for locavores? And they can have as much land as they like -- it's just that they would have gardens instead of yards, or community gardens and window boxes if they choose to live in an apartment. Their commitment to "hand-tended agriculture" would be part of their legally binding agreement with the homeowners' association. "You design your own utopia," he said. Instead of a strip mall in the town square, there's a "market square" comprised of green markets, restaurants, cooking schools, an agricultural university, and so on. "This thing pushes buttons like mad," he said. "The excitement this triggers -- they get as excited about this as they did in the old days about the porch and the walkable community."

:: Agricultural Transect - image via Fast Company

I particularly enjoy the idea of writing this into the CC+R's of a community (above underlined passage) a sort of 'thou shall farm' edict that allows you to design your own utopia, as long as it fits within certain cultural and community expectations as defined and dictated those in power.  Is this the small-scale version of hobby-farming to the suburban masses - because it isn't really a model of truly 'urban' development?


Another, from Houston Tomorrow, sums up a recent presentation on 'Agricultural Urbanism: Transects & Food Production' with a focus on the recent NU-inspired Southlands project in BC .  Picking up the thread of CNU18, Kunstler shows he may be on board, quoted  on Clusterfuck Nation echoing the need for this return to the farm as also a response to impeding climate change related disruption. (underlined quote mine)

"Among other things, the most forward-looking leaders in the New Urbanist movement now recognize that we have to reorganize the landscape for local food production, because industrial agriculture will be one of the prime victims of our oil predicament. The successful places in the future will be places that have a meaningful relationship with growing food close to home. The crisis in agriculture is looming right now -- with world grain reserves at their lowest level ever recorded in modern times -- and when it really does hit, the harvestmen of famine and death will be in the front ranks of it."

The Houston article links to the long presentation by Duany about the topic, via YouTube - although I haven't had a spare two hours to check it out yet... anyone will to summarize, let me know.

For some related content, one must delve into the interesting concept of CPULs.  Also check out the project 'Garden Block' project by Daniel Nairn, which has garnered praise for it's plausibility from Smart Growth advocates like Kaid Benfield ('Agricultural Urbanism that actually is urban') who have been critical of some urban agriculture proposals.  As an object of defined spatial arrangement incorporating density and agriculture - it seems to work for this block (one that would attract some, but not all urban agrarians).  I expect and desire more models, both the practical to the sublime, from NU/LU/EU and other 'U's - investigating codified solutions and abstract indeterministic ones - giving plenty of fodder for discussion on the future of food in the city.

:: image via Grist

The question of this not just as a site or district image, but as it relates to the overall structure of how we plan and shape cities - is a much larger question indeed.  Looking at utopian precedents, and site specific examples, we have opportunities for not just the physical integration of agriculture into cities, but a clear picture, good and bad, of what some of the consequences may be. 

Branches: Urban Agriculture

I found an interesting and complex graphic on the many facets and interrelations of urban agriculture via the site Urban Agriculture Worldwide, which is published by David Mason and tracks his journeys investigating UA examples around the globe from 2006-2009. The site has immense amounts of information (and is frankly frustrating to navigate) so I've barely scratched the surface of what it contains.

One aspect, that, although in desperate need of some Infographic assistance for legibility, offers a complex web of interrelationships within UA within a post 'What is Urban Agriculture?' Click the graphic below to expand the image into a more legible version.


:: image via David Mason, Urban Agriculture Worldwide

Each of the subsequent branches spin off into a series of subgroups investigating ideas such as Sustainability, Planning, and Economics. I've isolated a couple of the images below to give an indication of what it contains - add flash and some hyperlinks, and this could keep someone occupied for weeks.




:: images via David Mason, Urban Agriculture Worldwide

Elements of Urban Agriculture

I had the opportunity today to see a presentation by local urban agriculture guru Marc Boucher-Colbert (the man behind the Rocket Restaurant rooftop garden here in Portland). Instead of focusing directly on rooftops, he outlined a broad version of urban agriculture through an investigation of a range of possible strategies for our cities. This is all information investigated at length at times here on L+U and Veg.itecture, but I thought it apt to summarize the ideas from the lecture, as they provide a great overview and were a really inspiring collection of ideas woven together into a strategy.

1. Guerilla Gardening
The starting point of the discussion took a look at the thriving guerrilla gardening movement worldwide as a quick response to the bland and life-less environment we exist within in our urban areas. Both safe anarchy and also, via Wikipedia... "political gardening, a form of direct action, primarily practiced by environmentalists. It is related to land rights, land reform, and permaculture. Activists take over ("squat") an abandoned piece of land which they do not own to grow crops or plants. Guerrilla gardeners believe in re-considering land ownership in order to reclaim land from perceived neglect or misuse and assign a new purpose to it."


:: image via Wikipedia


:: seed bombs - image via itwasme

A side-note of the discussion dealt with the production of seed bombs (or the less provocative 'seed balls') as a way of simply and efficiently distributing plant life to our streets, vacant lots, and other left-over spaces. Again via Wikipedia: "A seed bomb is a compressed clod of soil containing live vegetation that may be thrown or dropped onto a terrain to be modified. The term "seed grenade" was first used by Liz Christy in 1973 when she started the "Green Guerillas". The first seed grenades were made from condoms filled with local wildflower seeds, water and fertilizer." As a fledgling guerrilla gardener myself, it's pretty damn cool and quite liberating. Give it a try.

2. Front & Backyard Gardening
The idea of front and backyard gardens isn't a new idea (don't tell Fritz Haeg) but have become a cause celebre for re-occupation of our urban and suburban spaces. Call them Victory Gardens, or Edible Estates, or hell, call them 'this is the only place I can find good sun in my yard' - this isn't a new idea come back, but rather something that has always existed and has now re-emerged as a vibrant movement. Growing vegetables at your home is the ultimate in local food, and also engages people in exercise, meditation, and a range of other benefits - making it both a productive activity and a hobby worthy of your time.


:: image via The Blue Marble

Marc explained that while the idea of taking back the lawn is laudable, there is a grim reality to the concept of agri-buisiness, summed up in the following fact: of 'food' grown in the US, 1.5% is fruits and vegetables, while the other 98.5% consists of grain and oilseed, which any reader of Michael Pollan will know goes to meat production, biofuels, various corn products and other detached food we consume in many ways. This led to another new figure in the story - of Stan Cox, who works with one of my heroes, Wes Jackson at The Land Institute, reinventing corporate agriculture through a new model of perennial production based on the tallgrass prairie ecosystems.


:: Perennial Agriculture - image via The Land Institute

The other models beyond reoccupying the land you have is the sub-economy that include yard sharing or other means that leverage open land with the energy and desire of those to garden. By taking the land of folks that have surplus, or don't have the time to garden places like Your Backyard Farmer or Hyperlocavore offer a range of options to use land in cities for productive uses. Again this trend can also go beyond just gardening to include other trends such as backyard chickens, pygmy goats (great for blackberries) or other trends suitable for urban locales.


:: Backyard Chickens - image via Flicker (zbar)

3. Community Gardens
Another vital aspect of both food production and urban life is the community garden, where the interactions between people are just as important as the growing of vegetables. The idea of a range of programs, including those run by the city (such as in Portland), cooperatives, and other models. While a large part of the eventual urban agriculture puzzle, many communities are currently dealing with huge demand and a lack of funding to provide more supply. While the need to fund these programs will continue, there is also a need to look beyond the plots to a larger picture of gardening in cities.


:: image via The Daily Green

The overall conceptual framework of community gardening can be found at the resource-rich site for the American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) which provides information on starting and maintaining community gardens throughout the country. As Marc pointed out, much of the training and education for the ACGA is focuses on engaging community resources and partnerships - taking the tack that is you build community, this is lead to a thriving garden - and you can figure out the training of food production and other added services later.


:: food preservation - image via Eat. Drink. Better

Finally, the idea of subsistence and market farms, or a combination of the two, offers a range of opportunities to offer gardening, community, and the ability to make money through the use of these sites in cities - offering for green job creation. Also, included in the idea of community gardening and education is the value-added ideas of food preservation, chickens raising, small animals, beekeeping, and other more agriculturally related ideas to round out the potential for urban ag.

4. School Gardens
While encompassing a range of institutional gardens such as hospitals, prisons, and other urban uses, school gardens provide a unique opportunity to provide food and education, as well as utilizing large amounts of available land. Modeled after the ground-breaking Edible Schoolyards" program in Berkeley started by chef Alice Waters "...to create and sustain an organic garden and landscape that is wholly integrated into the school’s curriculum, culture, and food program." which has been copied around the country in many locations.


:: image via Edible Schoolyard

A local project that provides a bridge for schools and food in Portland has been taken on by the fantastic local non-profit Ecotrust called the Farm to School program, which: "...enable schools to feature healthy, locally sourced products in their cafeterias, incorporate nutrition-based curriculum in all academic disciplines, and provide students with experiential agriculture and food-based learning opportunities, from farm visits to gardening, cooking, composting, and recycling." These connections between food and school continue to offer many possibilities in cities throughout the world.

5. Rooftop Gardens
Covered in detail on the web, the idea of rooftop gardens is definitely a love of Boucher-Colbert, who installed the project on the Rocket (now the Noble Rot) which has become a model project that gets a lot of comments for the kiddie-pool planters, (an inspiration from Joe Ebenezer from Chicago - read about him here) as a low-cost planter alternative and using it as a test for production techniques which are used in the restaurant one floor below.


:: Boucher-Colbert atop the Noble Rot - image via City Farmer

Obviously there are some limitations to rooftops, and difficulties with gardening due to wind, temperatures and other issues. As we provide incentives for more eco- and green roofs atop buildings, growing vegetables will become a continually growing trend as urban land costs make terrestrial farming a less financially viable proposition.

6. Vacant Lands
The use of vacant lands for farming is definitely a hot topic in areas like Detroit, but even in a number of locations like Oakland, which recently identified 1200 sites available for farming - or Montreal, which has implemented permanent agricultural zones that are protected from development - consisting of almost 4% of the Cities total land.

The focus in Portland is on the much discussed and somewhat disappointing implementation of the Diggable City project in 2004-05 which looked at city-owned lands as possible opportunities for establishing: "... an inventory of vacant, publicly-owned land in the Portland area, and to start a conversation about how that land might be used to support urban agricultural activities." The large number of sites have over time been whittled down to a few - and little has been done on any of this pilot projects - even though hundreds of brownfields, vacant lands, and other opportunities still exist.


:: Portland Vacant Land - image via Diggable City

7. Green Building
The integration of agriculture in green building is definitely making strides, as certain points for LEED ND, and potentially other systems can be achieved through the addition of garden plots of agricultural land. This allows for more multi-functional landscaping that includes productivity and use, which was difficult at times to reconcile with green buildings due to added water use and lack of totally native and adapted plantings. Our next task is to develop more year-round, lower maintenance permaculture-based planting that meet aesthetic and functional goals long-term.

Another aspect which spans this category and the next is the concept of Building Integrated Sustainable Agriculture (BISA), which begins to work with walls, rooftops, and other spaces to integrate food production in buildings. This also begins to expand beyond this to using waste heat and water from buildings to heat greenhouses and extend growing seasons to increase productivity. Examples abound, including Mithun's concept urban agriculture project (using the Living Building principles) as well as older examples like Eli Zabar's rooftop garden in Manhattan, to name a few.


:: Mithun's Vertical Farm - image via Treehugger


:: Zabars Vinegar Factory - image via Vison for our Cities

The concept also begins to looks at other agriculture products like chickens, bees, aqua- and hydroponics to maximize space and maintenance as well as blend systems together into closed-loop systems that treat waste as food for other phases of the system.

8. Vertical Farming
Picking up on the threads popularized by Dickson Despommier et.al, the idea of the BISA mentioned in green building is now blown up into the full-fledged phenomenon of vertical farming, which is exciting but needs some serious thought as to the viability of how this actually works and what the economic and social implications are. Boucher-Colbert was interested but skeptical, as there seem much more obvious low-hanging fruit (pardon the pun) to look at first - but as density and food security become more important, all the options must be on the table.


:: Vertical Farming - image via Vertical Farm

In closing, the eight concepts here span a wide range of possible agricultural interventions in our urban environment for getting to the root of food in our cities. It goes beyond production to include community, interaction, and a range of benefits such as habitat, beauty, and cooling - making the mix as important as the individual ideas. Peak Oil will warrant a close look at cities and a re-thinking of what we eat, where it comes from, and how much transportation is used to get it from farm to fork. So, as we transform from city-dwellers that keep nature and farming outside of the city to those that integrating food production into our spaces and daily lives - these tools provide a valuable arsenal for making the 21st century city a vibrant, healthy, and productive environment for all.

Vertical Agriculture (Modest Proposals)

While the flights of fancy that drive many of the concepts of vertical farming are quite breathtaking, there's a subset of these projects that, while not quite ready for the pages of design magazines, have much more applicability for building-integrated agriculture in new construction and retrofits. A simple and much discussed example that has been around for years is the rooftop greenhouses on Eli Zabar's Vinegar Factory in Manhattan (dare I say one place where vertical solutions may be appropriate due to density).




:: images via The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Picking up on this trend is are a range of greenhouses for growing veggies in soil as well as expanded concepts including hydroponics aquaculture. A post in City Farmer mentions the work of Cityscape Farms, which offers solutions for urban farming using integrated food as waste from these combined systems.


:: image via City Farmer

Another project that is tying the ground-based agriculture with rooftop solutions comes from the Badger School for Urban Agriculture and Community in Madison, Wisconsin, with the Center for Resilient Cities and Milwaukee-based Will Allen's Growing Power as leaders of the effort.


:: image via City Farmer

While I'm always a bit dubious of 'first of' claims - this South Bronx affordable housing complex aimed a combating food insecurity with rooftop farms and greenhouses (from Brightfarm Systems): "...will be able to supply enough produce to meet the annual fresh vegetable needs of up to 450 people. Like many inner city, low income communities, the South Bronx suffers from food deserts, where residents lack access to fresh vegetables at affordable prices."




:: images via City Farmer

Still more modest interventions include creating space atop - which tend towards the augmentation of rooftop gardens by implementation of cold-frames or vertical elements. These range from the modest fire-escape planters and balcony growing to rooftop structures to provide additional growing season (at a much smaller cost than greenhouses). An example from the Bastille Restaurant in shows this hybrid.


:: image via City Farmer

The concept of mobility is always an issue - so another small-scale garden greenhouse starts to attach to vehicles - such as this mobile greenhouse spotted in Brooklyn. A bit silly and obviously not a solution, but a visible example to create awareness of food production in urban areas - and more accessible than rooftops and distant farms.


:: image via Urban Greenery

One of the most enlightened proposals I've seen is the modular system from Casa HuertaTreehugger: featuring a series of vertical greening components for maximizing food production in high density slums. Via "A group of architects from Argentina have come up with a project called Orchard House, which proposes the implementation of vertical gardens in shanty towns to provide local people with food and improve the visuals of these villages."




:: images via Treehugger

The social component of this is just as important as the scale. As Despommier mentions in this Discovery News video - the optimum size to feed 50,000 people with a vertical farm is 30 stories of a 5 acre lot. While potentially viable, how transferrable is this to common use and how many people will be employed in these endeavors? Also, will this be another elitist addition to cities for the haves - while paying lip service to less fortunate people and areas much more significant food insecurity. Would we be better served with a more decentralized and multi-pronged (even if still vertical) approach using walls and other elements woven within the fabric of our urban areas.

The scale is a big issue - and is at the heart of any agricultural endeavor. Our evolution from home gardens and shared community gardens to feed ourselves to more large-scale methods of agribusiness increased our ability to produce food manifold. It also made our agriculture more polluting, significantly increased transportation costs, and depleted the workforce for farm-based areas through the use of mechanization. This is what we subsidize on an annual basis - not the most productive form of food production.

This begs the question - are we interested in feeding ourselves (or the world) or are we also creating jobs and skills for folks to feed themselves and doing so in a way that is equitable and socially responsible? While nay-sayers may disregard the role of urban farming as impractical to feed urban areas, I say the role is of vital importance. As more people move to cities it will become more and more important to offer productive green jobs to city-dwellers. Agriculture used to be a major employment driver that slowly gave way to industry, manufacturing, commercial, service and white-collar economies - an economic heritage in which we are all suffering and 'waiting' for things to get better. If we could find ways to increase the skills and direct the energy of 10% plus unemployment on feeding ourselves - we would have better food and a more robust and healthy economy and workforce.


:: image via Treehugger

This is why I like the proposal from Argentina so much - as it's simple, modest, and imminently scalable (but also innovative) to any area of any size. More from Treehugger: "The idea is to build some of these houses inside shanty towns in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the help of organizations and private companies, and then teach the system to local people for them to be able to put together structures on their own. By doing that, the project seeks to generate cooperative work that creates jobs and production in shanty towns."