World Future Council’s Policies to Change the World – Urban Agriculture

The World Future Council brings the interests of future generations to the centre of policy making. Its 50 eminent members from around the globe have already successfully promoted change. The Council addresses challenges to our common future and provides decision-makers with effective policy solutions.

Policies to Change the World, prepared by Miguel Mendonça in 2006 and discussed and approved at the World Future Council’s Annual General Meeting in 2008.

Excerpt from the report. Page 29

Urban Agriculture

Introduction

Urban agriculture, as the literature will often make clear, has an extremely long history. This is understandable, in that transportation was limited in the past, and the hinterland of an urban area may not have been entirely safe from enemies. Agriculture within the walls or close to the city was safer, and its produce took less time and energy to distribute.

Passing rapidly through time to the modern day, urban agriculture is once again finding favour for a great many reasons. Increasing pressure is being applied to governments to also favour the practice through legislation. Policy can significantly support and enhance the production of food in urban areas.

The lack of a tax on aviation fuel provides another opportunity for commerce to engage in the patently absurd list of practices which have become notorious in recent years. The concept of ‘food miles’ has certainly swum into public focus, yet the alternatives to engaging in the existing system remain limited. In the US food system in particular, sustainability does not feature significantly. Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy, too, as an emphasis on technology-intensive production, which is yet to be effectively reshaped, despite the ongoing CAP reforms.

Nevertheless, organic and fair trade foods have broken into mainstream consciousness in the north, and farmer’s markets are becoming increasingly popular. The EU’s four freedoms have allowed tastes to change and develop, and a long list of food scares have brought about a mistrust of food that has resulted in traceability systems and labelling schemes being implemented.

All of this and more could set the stage for a popular return to local food production, contributing to social capital and food security, and putting money into the hands of the urban poor. Urban agriculture means different things in different places, and this paper suggests that its benefits can be huge, not least to the creation of sustainable cities.

Conclusion

Cuba is a leading example of UA practice, although perhaps an exceptional case. Its well-educated population is not only quick to adopt new techniques, but accepts a level of socialist regulation and control that would be difficult to impose in a less authoritarian regime. Nevertheless, from an almost standing start, its achievements in small-scale urban agriculture are remarkable. How can city authorities working in a less regulated situation achieve better policy-making for land use management? The first necessity is likely to be the setting up a municipal committee that includes representatives from all departments that have an interest in urban agriculture, including health, water supply and economic development. A policy must be developed and offered for public consultation. Plans must be developed to see what spaces may be available for urban agriculture and what type of farming activity would be most appropriate and where. Laws and regulations, especially relating to land tenure, must be drafted, and land taxation – and tax exemption if appropriate – defined. Tariffs must be set for the use of treated wastewater. For the continuing good management of urban agriculture, committees should be established to provide a link between the municipal authorities and users.

UA has different benefits in the developed world, compared to the developing world, although some are shared. For the former, aside from those positive attributes already listed, it can provide a level of preparedness for any interruption to food supply, caused most likely by future oil shortages. The skills of self-reliance that wartime and baby boomer generations in the west took for granted are dwindling in younger generations as the separation from the land extends in time and space. Gardening, while still culturally embedded in some countries,
is less popular in others, and gardens compete for space with roads and housing.

Agricultural policy in the EU is veering away from industrial-scale production, and toward land stewardship, further affecting our capacity to feed ourselves. Britain and Portugal are not food secure at this time, a matter that will require serious consideration from both governments in the future. UA, in the face of increasing urbanisation across the continent and the rest of the world, should be examined by governments for a variety of reasons. As carbon emissions targets begin to bite and many governments face failure to achieve them, food miles are increasingly seen as a major contributor to the problem.

The 2005 DEFRA report on the validity of food miles as an indicator of sustainability, found the following for the UK: Food transport accounts for 25% of all HGV vehicle kilometres in the UK; food transport produced 19 million tonnes of CO2 in 2002, of which 10 million tonnes were emitted in the UK (almost all from road transport), representing 1.8% of the total annual UK CO2 emissions, and 8.7% of the total emissions of the UK road sector. Transport of food by air has the highest CO2 emissions per tonne, and is the fastest growing mode. Although air freight of food accounts for only 1% of food tonne kilometres and 0.1% of vehicle kilometres, it produces 11% of the food transport CO2 equivalent emissions. The direct environmental, social and economic costs of food transport are over £9 billion each year, and are dominated by congestion.

The same forces that make UA such an attractive option for sustainable cities may also compel consumers to save energy by moving down the food chain. Meat production is very energy-intensive, and as with high-food-mile vegetables, the energy content is a fraction of that which it took to produce. In any part of the world, local food, produced without chemical inputs, can be a win-win-win proposition when supported by local government, and urban agriculture is one of the best examples of this.

See the complete report here. Urban agriculture begins on page 29.