Urban farming yields small climate gains
Roelof Kleis, PhysOrg.com
Farming in and around cities is sustainable, but the gains in terms of climate are limited. To really make a difference we must change our eating habits. This conclusion was reached by Wageningen University researchers (The Netherlands) from PPO, who calculated for Almere council the likely climate gains from large-scale urban farming in the planned Oosterwold. This 4,000 hectare development with housing, offices and farms is intended to become the vegetable garden of Almere. The study calculates what this urban farming would mean in terms of fossil fuel usage, greenhouse gas emissions and food kilometers.
The starting point for the calculations is Almere’s ambition to make sure that by 2030, one euro in five spent on food in the town goes on local produce. This will largely consist of fresh or lightly processed items such as potatoes, vegetables and fruit, which can be grown on relatively small areas…
(11 October 2010)
The report goes on to state that “Local production alone will not solve the problem of the transportation of food, says Jansma. To achieve a real change here we will have to change our eating habits drastically. That means: less meat, fewer exotic products and fewer highly processed ones.” Ummmh, increasing the amount of locally grown fruit and veg: not meat, not exotic, and not highly processed? Eating more of the former possibly means eating less of the latter? -KS
Case study: The Year of Urban Agriculture in Seattle
Jane Bird, Financial Times
More than a century since cattle were banned from grazing in downtown Seattle, the city council has permitted households to keep pigmy goats and up to eight chickens.
The new rules are part of Seattle’s 2010: The Year of Urban Agriculture campaign, and are designed to encourage food production in areas previously designated residential, industrial and commercial zones.
Land use zoning was introduced to keep rural things out of town, says Richard Conlin, president of Seattle City Council, “but now we’re changing the zoning codes to develop a more integrated ecological approach to the city…
…One objective is to shorten the food chain and encourage local farmers to supply the city. To this end, planning permission has been granted for food processing plants, warehouses and farmers markets, which previously required weekly permits with inspection and charges…
(1 October 2010)
How to grow food in strange places – by the experts
Helen Babbs, The ecologist
You don’t need a garden to grow your own fruit and veg. If you’re a budding horticulturalist with no space to swing a trowel, here are some creative – and sometimes bizarre – ideas from around the world
Mushrooms in disused railway tunnels and strawberries in drainpipes… perhaps it’s silly but I find food growing in strange places both bizarre and romantic. Horticulture can be so creative. It can involve melons growing on net curtains and rice growing on pavements. Introduce an against-the-odds element – like doing it in Tokyo, that seething, steely metropolis – and it’s somehow all the more exciting.
My love of the bizarre and the romantic – and of vegetables – has led me on a journey, albeit it an armchair one. I’ve found people growing food in some unlikely places, for fun and from necessity, and on a personal and a commercial scale…
(29 September 2010)
