Cities cover only 2% of the Earth’s surface, but consume 75% of its resources. Cities are black holes, they’re swallowing our planet. But, more and more, they’re turning green.
Jac Smit, President of the Urban Agriculture Network and co-author of “Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs, and Sustainable Cities”, paints a vision of what the world would be like if cities were nutritionally self-reliant: “As we consider a dominantly urban Earth early in the next century, in a world with less land and water per-capita, the return of agriculture to where we live presents us with a new paradigm.
“What if ‘waste is food’ and sewage and garbage were prime inputs to food production? What if the urban landscape were edible? What if vacant, waste land in cities were productive and enhancing the environment for living? What if urban areas were increasing biodiversity rather than diminishing it?”
It’s happening. Growing your own food in cities has long been the way in Asia, and it’s expanding enormously in Africa, Latin America, and all over the world.
Much more, including information on composting, square-foot gardening, container gardening, and chickens! at the link, which I’ve also added to our blogroll.
8 Comments
I’m excited about the possibility of an in-town home. I’ll have this place for my berries and more intensive crops (including my thyme, which is going on 5 years old now), and my in-town home for more delicate fare, like lemon grass and tomatoes.
Thanks for the link, Kate!
Asians have no problems raising chickens in cities and making use of every available inch of space to grow vegs. This is a good topic, and one worth spreading. I was talking to my partner this morning about foraging and what a good habit it was as a youth to go out in the surrounding forests with our elders, and gather foodstuffs and learn how to live off the fat of the land! It’s a lost art that will have to be revisited.
I have some pretty stiff opposition to chickens here, both from my husband and from the backward-looking city council, which has outlawed animals other than specified domestic pets (dogs, cats, certain birds, certain fish).
We have two Great Pyrenees/Labs, which are often used as herd dogs for goats or sheep. The other day I was trying to get them out the door into the back yard and having difficulty because they did not want to be left alone. I told my husband I needed to get some goats to herd the dogs!
I really want chickens. Pout.
Sneak some in and raise them in the attic!
Fantastic article and resource link, Kate! I have bookmarked for referral.
I notice it doesn’t mention eco-roofs, but roofs are becoming gardens in Portland (proud to say that when you google “ecoroof”, the City of Portland’s page comes up first), and an accessible roof could provide some food as well as the benefits of an untended ecoroof.
On a similar theme…
When I first heard about the 30-story urban tower-farm concept, I thought it was dumb. With the amount of vacant land available, why bother growing food in skyscrapers? But there may be something to it.
I’m particularly sympathetic to the idea of being able to isolate your crops to keep out GMOs and insect pests, having spent enough time in my life picking bugs off spinach, zucchinis and apple trees. Of course, if you ever got an infestation in the kinds of monocultures they would have in these buildings, it would be game over…
Beautifully illustrated article about a fascinating topic–thanks for the link.
I like bold ideas that address more fundamental problems than what we’re currently (officially) looking at: in this case, the fact that we’ve cut down too many trees.
It’s the future, and it should be embraced asap. JG Ballard wrote Highrise in the early seventies, though it has little in common with vertical farming in urban areas, its message is crystal clear: if we insist in dwelling in cities then we must build suitable highrises to encompass all aspects of social life within each one.
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